Life of a FIRST Robotics Member

[Zoneri]

Currently we are switch from the excitement of the season to the anticipation of the off-season. For one of my off-season projects I must get help from all of you. You can help me by answering one simple question:

What have been the most exciting/most annoying things you have done or experienced in robotics?

No answer is incorrect (unless it doesn't follow Chief Delphi regulations) and any input can really help me out.

Thank You From
Team 701 Student Ian Workman

[Jorge Ayala]

The most exiciting: Winning the Engineering Inspiration award after three years of very very hard work. Three years of my life paid off in that moment and it would be very hard to express that feeling.

The most annoying: Having new mentors every year, luckily for us the lead business mentor is a college student. The problem is with our engineering mentors. This year, GM sent us mentors with no previous knowledge of the competition and very questionable engineering expertice. The worst part of it is thar when somebody tried to make a suggetion or question the way mentors wanted the robot to be build they would kick us out from the workshop. I as the most experienced member of the mechanics team had very deep problems with the mentors (I even think that the lead mentor took it personal). When I tried to suggest an improvement or a better way to design the robot I was accused by the lead mentor of trying to "overthrow" him... and I swear I never was disrespectful to him. This ended in our robot having a very lame performance. (Our robot had very serious common sense issues this years due to the sturborness and lack of knowledge by our mentors)

Sometimes things go right, sometimes things go wrong, but the most important thing is being inspired. I was inspired by the performance of our mentors to become a mechatronic engineer (It's a career in which you learn mechanics, programming and electronics, a very demanding career but totally worth it).

[samanthaa]

The most exciting: I'd say my most exciting part of robotics is the competitions. I know that a lot of people would say that but through FIRST I've gained so many friends that I look forward to seeing at competition every year. The energy is insane and no matter what's going on in my personal life, I can put it all on hold and help run my team. It's the best feeling ever.

The most annoying thing: Probably the changing of mentorship and leadership. We ran into a lot of change-ups in our mentors and everything this year. 2 out of the 3 mentors we had, really had very little experience with FIRST so it made things a little rough.

Overall an awesome experience, just like last year.

[OrangeCataclysm]

Most exciting:
Being down there on the field on Einstein to watch my team compete. 862 has NEVER won any districts or regionals before this year, let alone a whole CMP division. Winning that division alongside 148 and 1678 was one of my most memorable and exciting memories. Not just of robotics, but in my whole life.

Most Annoying:
Always being the first one done during build season, but never being able to test code because fabrication, CAD, and electrical lag behind programming.

[Koko Ed]

Traveling to over a dozen regional and off season events is pretty exciting.
Getting stuck waiting in line for planes or at borders crossings not so much.

[Boe]

exciting
tieing the record for farthest a minnesota team has ever made it (division finalists)

annoying
So about a week and a half into build season we added one of our rookie members to our CAD and Code dropbox. He was and still is running some weird Linux setup on his computer. When we got to the shop the next morning all of the files in the dropbox were reading as zero kb. All the last edits were made at the exact same time in the night, about the time when he was added to the dropbox. Thank god for dropboxes restore previous version, it still took about two hours to fix everything, but its better then starting over, needless to say he is not allowed on the dropbox with his computer until we track down the source of the problem. Thankfully though we had gotten a team labtop in the offseason.

[Karibou]

Most exciting:
I've seriously spent 15 minutes sitting here staring at my screen trying to pinpoint the most exciting memory I've had with FIRST. It's hard, because everything has been exciting. One of my favorites is getting to travel as a volunteer. Going to IRI in 2009 I got to meet a ton of people that had previously only been usernames and pictures online. I went to St. Louis for the Championship in 2011 and met even more people. Plus, my CAD leader was pretty thrilled when I was able to bring him a new copy of Inventor from the CD webhug

Most annoying:
I'll second this

Originally Posted by Jorge Ayala

The most annoying: Having new mentors every year,

After my first year on the team, our founding teacher decided to retire. During my time as a student we had four teachers in four years (they left for different reasons - retirement, family, not enough time), and the teacher from my senior year has finally stuck around. We also gained and lost mentors every year such that only two of the mentors from my freshman year were still around by the time I graduated...our contact with GM and her husband. All very frustrating, but it seems like the team is thankfully stabilizing now.

And only getting to volunteer once a year. That's annoying too. I need more robots in my life!

[kiasam111]

Most Exciting - I've got 2.
1. Winning RCA in Hawaii. It was my first time as a Chairman's presenter, and it was an incredible feeling having all of my work for that season being recognised.
2. Watching our robot, which was at least twice the robot we had last year, lose our Semi-Final by 1 disc which was jammed in our robot. DUDE. WE MADE SEMIS!

Most Annoying - Not getting any feedback as to how we did at Championships for Chairman's. Don't get me wrong, I left that room totally satisfied with everything we'd done, it would have been nice to have received a feedback form or something from the judges.

[audietron]

Most exciting: Getting picked by 2056 at championship is pretty much the best thing that has happened this year, nearly as much as winning North Star. It was unfortunate we only made it to the semifinals but is still really amazing getting to work with one of the best, if not the best team this year.

The most annoying: having to wait 7 months for the 2014 season to start (at least we have off season projects, camps, & fundraisers to pass the time)

[Kyle A]

Most exciting:
Student:
Winning the 2006 Philadelphia Regional with our sister team 291, and going to Atlanta for championships!
Also the look on our mentor, Mr. Ken Morrison's face, when we won him the Pittsburgh Regional Woodie Flowers Award.

Mentor:
Having all of the build and drive team graduate last year, and teaching the kids everything I could before the season started. Most didn't even know what a screw driver was, now almost every single one can explain how every function of the robot works. It is an amazing feeling, seeing how much they have grown and learned in such a small amount of time, I was very proud of the machine, they call JARVIS, that they built.


Most Annoying:
Student:
That we were such a small team, and couldn't do as much as other teams. Most everyone put all effort into the robot and known of the other parts of FIRST. (which I was proven wrong by the team now)

Also that my Senior year we did not train the younger kids very well, we wanted to have the best machine we had ever built, we did it but the team payed for it for years to come, they followed the ways we were and year after year not much was taught and pasted down.

Mentor:
poor communication and efforts between mentors, we need to work together as one team of mentors. (working on it)
Also losing the schools interest in FIRST, after our lead mentor retired, the school started focusing on Robobots, battle bots, and slowly pushed us aside. ( also working on)

[CLandrum3081]

Most exciting:
Winning MN 10K Lakes in 2012. That was also the first year we were ever picked during alliance selections. It was a pretty big season for us. CMP was absolutely insane and was an experience I'll never forget.

Most annoying:
As a leader, dealing with the situation that happens when half your team wants to work on the robot but is distracted by the other half that wants to use computers for video games and Robotics as an excuse to not do homework. And the policy that says we have to include everyone, even if they aren't willing to participate.

Most saddening
When someone leaves - not because they don't enjoy the program, but because of team dynamics such as cliques. I've almost done this before due to the annoying situation above. It really is sad when certain circumstances seem to block what the program is really trying to get across.

[ttldomination]

What have been the most exciting thing you have done or experienced in robotics?

The most exciting thing is perhaps working during crunch time.

You're watching a match, and all of a sudden, the robot trips. Not literally, of course, but there's a slight hiccup. The robot operator flinches, and while no one knows yet, I know that there's a problem. We finish the match with the usual end game, but as the drive team frantically pulls the robot off the field, I stare at the match schedule. My heart drops as I realize that there's only 15-20 minutes left to apply whatever fix is required to fix the random problem. The race is on.

What have been the most annoying thing you have done or experienced in robotics?

Students who don't try, or better yet, students who are resume-pushers.

I'll take the previous question and rephrase it slightly for another answer:
What has been the most saddening thing you have done or experienced in robotics?

When students crack under the pressure. As a mentor, I'm not here just to build the machine or boss around students. When the world (or robotics) is caving in on them, it's my job to come in and brace the walls.

It saddens me beyond belief when students let something get to them, and then they crack (if only slightly). I feel like that speaks to me as a competitor, teammate, and a mentor.

- Sunny G.

[Kevin Leonard]

The most exciting thing has to be the dawning that what my team did, what I helped do- went 15-0 and won the Connecticut Regional.

The rush of realizing that we built an amazing robot that can compete with the big dogs. That's when I knew that I really wanted to pursue engineering for a career.

The most annoying, frustrating thing is when students (and mentors for that matter) feel like it's hopeless. When I was expressing my optimism to a friend that next year could be our year to finally make Einstein- being that we have the right group of students and knowledge, I had a 1st year mentor tell em that we couldn't because we don't have a big sponsor like NASA or Chrysler that we build with. He told me, that we couldn't compete with them because of that.
That was the most frustrating thing, because with all the work we put in, with the kind of robot we built, he was telling me that we couldn't possibly contend with the likes of 33 or 254.

I'm still hopeful, but I can't lie, he really disappointed me.

[cadandcookies]

The most exciting thing: Winning Regional Chairman's at North Star Regional, after having put in so much time into the presentation, essays and other materials. It was a culmination of six full years of aiming for the award on the part of my team, and it was a joy to see all that finally pay off.

The most annoying thing: Watching my team erode away our robot's effectiveness over the course of two regionals and Championships. The less I say about that the better.

[KrazyCarl92]

Originally Posted by Thunder910

I'm still hopeful, but I can't lie, he really disappointed me.

Don't worry Kevin, it just shows that we still have some inspiring to do!

My most exciting experience in FIRST has to be taking the field with three of my best friends my senior year in 2011. Going out there with the drive and commitment we all had for the team was really fun. Despite having a less than competitive robot that year, we went out there and did our best with what we had. Had a few things gone a little differently, we may have found ourselves playing on Saturday afternoon at Champs. I've also never worked harder for second place in my life...learned a lot that year.

The most annoying thing I have experienced in FIRST is people being afraid to set goals or any lack of aspiration to be better. Any organization can benefit from setting its sights high and pushing to reach its goals.

Originally Posted by Theodore Roosevelt

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.