Quote:
Originally Posted by kylelanman
"It is a lot like pine wood derby, you can tell which ones the kids built"
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I tend to disagree on this point. Just last year, a team I have competed with and against for 6 years told me that they always like competition because the kids finally get to work on the machine. I was floored as by looking at it, I had assumed all of those years that the kids built that one. This mentor assumed that our machine was "pro-built", so I had him come up close and see what's under the vinyl. There are a ton of teams that I thought were professionally built that it turns out, just use a lot of CNC and automation. Kids do the CAD and design, a machine shop runs the Waterjet/CNC... cut out the parts, and the kids bolt it together.
We have been a team that the kids do 90+% of the fabrication, but I am begining to question what is more important: Teaching a kid how to wink a hole so that the bolts go through, or using automated fabrication and teaching them better design skills?
So can you tell by looking "which ones the kids built"? After 6 years, 2 teams, and helping dozens of other team at competitions, I learned that I can't tell which ones the kids built vs. Adults. Ironically I thought I could my first 2 years in the program. Differentiating facts from assumptions is one of the most important things anyone can learn.
P.S. For what it is worth, I swung by a 217 practice and was thoroughly impressed the kids were working on and practicing with their practice robot essentially on their own. Yes they were supervised, but it was the kids making repairs, running the drills (actual plays like a real sport), and were really functioning on their own. It sure didn't look like it was the first time either.