973 Remote Assistance and Mentorship Program (RAMP)

[AdamHeard]

Over the years, 973 has helped a great number of teams informally through direct communication (private messages, instant message, email, etc…) providing everything from basic design advice to design review to fabrication of key parts in a pinch. This was never advertised, so we believe we could reach more teams by doing so.

For the 2014 Season, 973 is pleased to announce the Remote Assistance and Mentorship Program (RAMP). By emailing 973Ramp@gmail.com with your team number in the subject line teams can apply for help by answering some brief questions:

• What kind of help you are looking for.
• how many mentors you have.
• what events you are going to.
• what machines/resources you have in house and at sponsors.
• what communication methods works best for you.

From there, we will do our best to respond and help as many as possible. We are unsure how many people will ask for help, so we will do our best to help everybody, but we will focus our help where we feel it is appropriate. Some rough guidelines explaining our selection process are below

• Teams without mentors will be given #1 priority.

• Teams with simple problems with quick answers will likely get their answers due to the low cost involved on our end.

• We are interested in helping teams that need it, but we also have to balance our own needs. Requests for parts manufacture need to demonstrate a GREAT need, and our own schedule needs to be free enough to allow it. We may reply with recommendations of COTS parts that can solve your problem. It’s very likely we will fabricate parts for teams this year, but it may not be your team. So please do not be upset if this is the case.

• We will not design your robot for you, or give out designs. We will gladly review and recommend changes to your design though.

In the interest of maximizing the amount of people we can help for our efforts, we may respond not with a direct answer, but instead with links or information that pushes you pretty nicely into the direction of your answer. Of course, if further clarification is needed feel free to contact us again.

We are focused on giving quality and actionable advice rather than quantity of advice, so all mentorship provided will be from our Top mentors. If the demand far outpaces our ability to reply, we will unfortunately be unavailable to those that ask. If this is the case, we will put efforts into recruiting other capable teams/mentors to assist for the 2015 season.

We will also be posting a series of videos to help teams with the design process, so if you have any questions or ideas that you’d like covered, please submit them to 973Ramp@gmail.com.

[MichaelBick]

I'm glad to hear this is being made officially available. 973's(indirect or direct) help has been a key part of the development of Team 1836 these past couple years. In just these two years we have advanced so much: we went from rank 38 at the LA regional in 2011, to 8th alliance captain at Israel 2013, culminating in alliance captaining the finalist alliance at The 2013 Madtown Throwdown. We know that they're always open to help and we're glad to call them good friends. I highly recommend that everybody takes advantage of this resource. It's an amazing opportunity to get advice and help from a powerhouse team.

[rsisk]

We to have been helped by 973 in the past and very much welcome the RAMP program. It's good to know you have a resource like this in a pinch.

[Akash Rastogi]

Adam was one of the first people in FRC I reached out to when I wanted to learn more about FRC and design work, especially after I saw Raptor in 2009. 973's robot inspired me a ton that year. He also used to help me and RC when we were learning things. Even past that, his public CAD files and presence on CD always teaches me new things. Adam is also always willing to help if you message him asking questions.

I guess this is just my long overdue thank you to him, as well as a little testimonial

-Akash

.

[AdamHeard]

Thanks for the kind words everybody, rereading what I posted I realize I missed a little bit of what I wanted to say.

We really just want to help teams be better in any way they can. No question is too big or too small (from design issues to simply where do you buy XYZ), so please don't hesitate to ask.

[sanddrag]

Can we pay extra for direct phone support?

[DampRobot]

So, just to be clear, this is basically just a way to advertise your "services" and build a contact list for teams that want help?

[AdamHeard]

First video is out, I'm going to try to do a bunch before kickoff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCjBx3TXB6Y

Youtube capped my video to 360, anyone know how to fix that?

Also the recording program caused some artifacts and weirdness. I'm using Camstudio, any recommendations on a better program?

Originally Posted by DampRobot

So, just to be clear, this is basically just a way to advertise your "services" and build a contact list for teams that want help?

Not exactly how I'd phrase it, but more or less that's the case.

I've helped a lot of teams in the past both where I've initiated the communication and where they have. I'd like to think now that we're encouraging teams to contact us, more will and therefore we can help more people. There isn't some secondary motive here, I just have a soft spot for teams without mentors (or teams that just haven't figured it all out yet). A little bit of advice or a push in the right direction can really make a big difference to a team, and the improved experience the kids get out of that is just awesome.

[yash101]

That's quite neat! I can help spread the word, if you'd like

[Brandon_L]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

First video is out, I'm going to try to do a bunch before kickoff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCjBx3TXB6Y

Youtube capped my video to 360, anyone know how to fix that?

Also the recording program caused some artifacts and weirdness. I'm using Camstudio, any recommendations on a better program?

Open Broadcasting Software. You can live stream, or stream to a file (aka record). Records audio inputs as well.

http://obsproject.com/

In action with solidworks

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

First video is out, I'm going to try to do a bunch before kickoff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCjBx3TXB6Y

Youtube capped my video to 360, anyone know how to fix that?

Also the recording program caused some artifacts and weirdness. I'm using Camstudio, any recommendations on a better program?

Great great video, my only problem with it is that the audio is VERY quiet. Other than that, awesome video, and I can't wait to see the rest of what you guys have to offer.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by DevenStonow

Great great video, my only problem with it is that the audio is VERY quiet. Other than that, awesome video, and I can't wait to see the rest of what you guys have to offer.

I'm using a mic off my headphones, and I know it's quiet. I ordered a better mic for future videos, but it's not here yet obviously. Thanks for the heads up though!

[AlecMataloni]

Just watched most of the video, and I can already say that I've learned enough tips and tricks to be a more efficient designer than I was 10 minutes ago. Thanks for this!

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Youtube capped my video to 360, anyone know how to fix that?

I assume you mean 360p resolution? Youtube processes lower resolutions first, and over the course of a few hours, all resolutions will be available (assuming the source video was HD). I see 1080p available now.

[TheMadCADer]

Seconding Open Broadcaster Software. It's made for live streaming, but recording to a file works excellently. I've used it for a bunch of things with no trouble.