[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Chris Marra

I have to back Tom on this one, mostly because I think he just has another take on the same issue. Teams sometimes need to make a decision about where they aim to provide the most inspiration to kids - in the workshop through innovation, or at the competitions through empowerment when they see their creation. Sure a complex design is an amazing feat to accomplish and everyone can take pride in it, but how much fun is it if you don't finish it or you don't get a chance to utilize it because your focus was on making it happen at all. If you can finish your design early you get to show kids another very important aspect of engineering - testing and training. If you took any talented driver and told them they would be driving a Wildstang robot for the first time at a competition right after the coders finish testing, they would flip out. Not everyone can take a positive message out of a complex design if they don't pull it off in time or they don't get to use it to its fullest. I don't want to come off saying that winning is the inspirational experience, but sometimes competing needs to take a little more precedence over designing and learning how to tackle a complex project like any robot within the constraints of the competition is something teams ought to consider too. So there is nothing wrong with attempting a complex design, because there is no reason it shouldn't succeed, but teams ought not lose sight of their final goal: to have a competitive, fully operational robot completed within six weeks (without forgetting about their drivers or coders!)

Chris/Tom

I agree with you guys, but I think your missing my point. I am not saying to go out and build some ridiculous design...but as a rookie team I feel it is good to set a precedent that you are going to do your best to make a robot that is to your ability every year. Some teams simply cannot machine an entire drivetrain, that is understood...but if a team has the means to make a part of their drivetrain, a little complicated, or innovative, why not?

I think it is important to balance the idea of "being competitive" with learning science and technology too.

I guess what I fear is a team saying, well yeah we could do that, but why don't we just buy this and call it done...