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I think that this is a very interesting subject to discuss. First of all, I am one of the Engineers on our team 470/Alpha Omega Robotics and I am a huge supporter of having the students do as much of the robot as possible. This includes design and build. For our team, conceptualization is done relativly equally across the team of adults and students. As for the actual design, this is probably right now 75% adult (with hopes to decrease this with student experience). Part fabrication right now is about 75% student on easy to medium difficulty parts and vise-versa for difficult parts. Actual assembaly and wiring is over 80% student, and programming was 99% student. The students may use slighty different numbers, but they are pretty close. There are some adjustments that we hope to make in these numbers as adults and students learn to use more advanced fabrication equipment and become more familiar with the engineering design process (we're kinda young - we recently completed our second year). I am very dissapointed to see teams that have robots that are almost totally built by adults. You don't need to be a genius to figure out which robots these are! It is great to say that the students are learning and are knowing their robot top to bottom. But to actually create the part and know what it takes to get to that finished part is worth so much more. I know too many adult engineers in the "real world" that design things without having knowledge of what it truely takes to make it beyond - mold it, machine it, stamp it, etc. and this is a huge downfall on their part. This is the perfect opportunity for students to know exactly what it takes, because they made it! Well, I'll get off my soapbox now, but I am a strong supporter of keeping this as much for the students as possible - we are merely facilitators for their creativity!
Scott
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