[archiver]

Posted by ChrisH at 03/21/2001 12:22 PM EST


Engineer on team #330, Beach 'Bots, from Hope Chapel Academy and NASA JPL, J & F Machine, Raytheon, et al.


In Reply to: Aggravating things about the competition itself..
Posted by Gui Cavalcanti on 03/17/2001 1:28 PM EST:



After the LA regional I was talking to Dave Lavery from NASA. He told me about the team you were mentioning and some of the difficulties they had overcome. At least I assume it's the same team because he didn't give names or numbers.

This team is from inner-city Washington DC. A location not exactly overflowing with engineers, or machine shops for that matter. They built their robot with hand tools borrowed from a teacher. They probably didn't use the drill motors for the drive because they needed the drill motors for a more important purpose, building the robot.

Their program was written the friday before shipping, they had to call other teams for help because nobody on the team knew how to program.

Then after they finally got it crated and shipped, they arrived in Richmond to find that the crate had been turned over and the robot destroyed. That's why all they had was a piece of plywood with motors on it.

Mr Lavery then went on to say how proud he was of the other teams. How they banded together to help them get SOMETHING up and running.

FIRST and NASA Langley have been trying for years to get a team started in that area. You who helped have probably ensured that there will BE a next year for that team. And as we all know, where there is one team others are soon to follow.

While your team and others may not have done as well in the competition as they might have due to the distraction of such a needy team, I think you went far to achieve the goals of FIRST. ( I seem to remember a thread last week about "what went wrong at Langley?" )

Looking long term, your help for a weekend may do more to change their neighborhood for the better than millions of dollars of "social programs". If ONE of those kids, one of the ones who wasn't in their pit, looks at you and says to himself (or herself for that matter I was speaking generically), "That kid isn't any smarter than me, they just have a little more experience, I could do that if I wanted" Then you have just changed a life for the better. I think that's something to feel good about.

And on the matter of awards you might want to check out the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6 verses 1 through 4 and think about who you would rather be rewarded by.

Just my humble opinion,

Christopher H Husmann, PE
Team 330 the Beach'Bots