Does collaboration do good and evil?

[Alex Cormier]

I was recently at GTR and noticed how well a great collaboration can work out and i tell ya it was a sight to see!

On another hand, does it hinder the ability to win awards? Think about it, if one of the collaborated teams won an award, how does the judges go by and talk to the other collaborated teams? Do they just win the Judges awards? It was a thought i had while watching the awards ceremony on Friday night.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Alex Cormier

I was recently at GTR and noticed how well a great collaboration can work out and i tell ya it was a sight to see!

On another hand, does it hinder the ability to win awards? Think about it, if one of the collaborated teams won an award, how does the judges go by and talk to the other collaborated teams? Do they just win the Judges awards? It was a thought i had while watching the awards ceremony on Friday night.

I do think that 1114 has an advantage of winning judged awards over 1503 and 1680 who really have little or no chance of getting any judged awards since 1114 is at the lead of the Triplets. But if it is an issue for them then they can make the choice to break up the allaince. So far I don't hear those two complaining about the arrangement.

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

Even in an award situation, there are more awards than technical awards. Even if teams collaborate, each team can have its own niche in the collaboration.

They don't all make the same animation. They don't all make the exact same inventor files. They could, but they don't have to. Spirit, Sportsmanship, Safety, Entrepreneuership - though these could be affected by the collaboration, they don't have to be.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Eugenia Gabrielov

Even in an award situation, there are more awards than technical awards. Even if teams collaborate, each team can have its own niche in the collaboration.

They don't all make the same animation. They don't all make the exact same inventor files. They could, but they don't have to. Spirit, Sportsmanship, Safety, Entrepreneuership - though these could be affected by the collaboration, they don't have to be.

I actually do wonder if anyone has ever collaberated on any other aspect of their robotics team?
Collaberating on fundraising actually might make even more sense than collaberating on building a robot. Maybe even a Chairman's award. Team spirit is more a spontaneous thing where teams just decide to have fun with other teams. We witnessed a sportmanship collaberation at GTR when a whole bunch of teams helped team 4 build a spanking new robot in 6 hours from scratch.

[Steve Howland]

Even if they have the same machine features, they still have to "sell" them to the judges. One award (I believe it is GM Industrial Design) revolves around the ability to pick a certain advantageous design aspect and describe it in concise terms. In such situations, each of the three teams would probably have a equal shot.

[Cory]

Even if one of the three wins it, the other two should be able to take pride in knowing that the award applies to their robot also.

Obviously it isn't as good as winning it for your own team, but when you take part in a collaboration you have to be able to accept things like that.

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

The spirit of fundraising collaboration is a good one. Teams 461, 1646, and 1747 have a modified situation. We are under the umbrella of Purdue FIRST Programs, who has many of our big-name sponsors and thus splits up those funds. However, that makes a few financial affairs a lot easier to work out. Instead of community industries (such as Purdue Schools of Science, Engineering) being fought over for sponsorship by multiple teams, all of the teams benefit from big sponsors.

At the same time, each of the three teams has individual sponsors whose efforts help take care of other things the team needs. It's a win-win situation. If NiagraFIRST has a similar situation, I am not surprised.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Eugenia Gabrielov

The spirit of fundraising collaboration is a good one. Teams 461, 1646, and 1747 have a modified situation. We are under the umbrella of Purdue FIRST Programs, who has many of our big-name sponsors and thus splits up those funds. However, that makes a few financial affairs a lot easier to work out. Instead of community industries (such as Purdue Schools of Science, Engineering) being fought over for sponsorship by multiple teams, all of the teams benefit from big sponsors.

At the same time, each of the three teams has individual sponsors whose efforts help take care of other things the team needs. It's a win-win situation. If NiagraFIRST has a similar situation, I am not surprised.

1114 has won the Entrepreneurship award numerous time and I would not be surprised it is because of the way they handle the Triplets finances. I bet they are a model for financial handling of a FIRST institution.

[Michael Corsetto]

All of this collaboration with awards got me thinking.

How long will it be before teams start collaborating in their animations? Do you think we will see two identical animations in the future?

We've already seen identical robots, so whats keeping teams from making identical animations? I can see how it would be tough to judge one animation over another,(well mabye not tough, more like impossible) but if teams from different areas collaborated, they could at least win their local regional.

Personally, I wouldn't like to see a collaborated animation, just because I like to see the creativity and innovation each team has. But thats just me.

Mike C.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Rex114

All of this collaboration with awards got me thinking.

How long will it be before teams start collaborating in their animations? Do you think we will see two identical animations in the future?

We've already seen identical robots, so whats keeping teams from making identical animations? I can see how it would be tough to judge one animation over another,(well mabye not tough, more like impossible) but if teams from different areas collaborated, they could at least win their local regional.

Personally, I wouldn't like to see a collaborated animation, just because I like to see the creativity and innovation each team has. But thats just me.

Mike C.

Not identical animation but perhaps a part one and a part two or even a whole series!
NOW THAT WOULD BE SOOOO COOL!

[Beth Sweet]

Well, I know for a fact that judges will give awards to both teams. At Wisconsin, both Martians teams won an award (I apologize, I don't remember who won what).

As to the Triplets, those kids seem to celebrate the accomplishment of one team as a group accomplishment from what I've seen.

Geez, the three teams have been the subject of the public eye this year more than any team I can remember in any year!

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Beth Sweet

Well, I know for a fact that judges will give awards to both teams. At Wisconsin, both Martians teams won an award (I apologize, I don't remember who won what).

As to the Triplets, those kids seem to celebrate the accomplishment of one team as a group accomplishment from what I've seen.

Geez, the three teams have been the subject of the public eye this year more than any team I can remember in any year!

That's because their robots have been so dominant this year.
When you're at the top everybody see you.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I actually do wonder if anyone has ever collaberated on any other aspect of their robotics team?
Collaberating on fundraising actually might make even more sense than collaberating on building a robot. Maybe even a Chairman's award. Team spirit is more a spontaneous thing where teams just decide to have fun with other teams. We witnessed a sportmanship collaberation at GTR when a whole bunch of teams helped team 4 build a spanking new robot in 6 hours from scratch.

Team 648 and 107 both "collaborated" this year on our hotel situation in Chicago... we stayed with them last year and had a pizza party and whatnot. This year we decided to stay together in Chicago. We also had a party in Holland, MI at Holland Christian HS for the West Michigan Regional.

There's a special bond between us and 107. Lav is like my favorite person ever from another team!

[kaszeta]

Originally Posted by Budda648

Team 648 and 107 both "collaborated" this year on our hotel situation in Chicago...

Indeed, this sort of collaboration is something I'd like to see our team do. Especially since we always go to one close regional (usually BAE, where we still have to hotel it, but can take virtually anything with us, since it's only 1.5 hours away) and one far regional (usually Palmetto, since we have good luck there) or nationals, I've always thought that pairing up with a team from another region would be a good idea. We could easily help out each other with logistics and pit equipment.

If any South Carolina teams interested in attending BAE would be interested in such an arrangment, let me know.

As far as doing twins or anything like that... to get enough students to do a bot at all has us tapping into 3 locals schools and the homeschooling community, so we won't be splitting our team anytime soon. And both of the currently active teams nearby are both 30 minutes drive away, so we probably won't do any of that.

[KenWittlief]

Pit collaboration - now thats a great idea!

if you could arrange to be side by side with another team, and plan ahead on what to bring, one 20 by 10' pit with two robots would be much better than two separate 10 by 10 pits with 100% duplication of everything!