Another Culture Change

[Chris86]

Though my team (86) only competes in the Florida Regional every year, I pay attention to the powerhouse teams because they are just awesome to watch. Seeing these teams at the championship or even by looking at some of the teams at our regional, it is so amazing to see the technology that gets put into their robot. It is truly inspiring to see some of the things that are put into a robot (my favorite is 148 this year) and it drives me to try and beat them. I'm that kind of competitive person that likes being the underdog, and I love that they bring out amazing competition every year to fight against. That being said, I am also jealous of these teams and there are a few things in FIRST culture that do need to be changed.

1 - This is a specific example that I will generalize later - I wish my team had a CNC machine... you lucky few...your robots are just beautiful. WOW /jealousy to the extreme. People that saw our robot this year at Florida regional up close may have noticed our lime-green duct tape used to "powdercoat" our claw and minibot deployment mechanism. The technological gap between some teams is a big portion of why some don't think that some robots are "student-built." When my team would spend 6 weeks on our 1960's era (I think thats the year...REALLY old is all I can say about it as a student) mill to cut out a piece that takes a laser CNC a day, the difference in manual labor is blatant.

A few years ago, some other team's mentor came and pointed to our robot and noted that some our welds looked sloppy. My mentor Dave looked over and commented that their robot's welds looked pretty nice and also asked who did the welds. It turned out that a student's parents owned a welding company that did their welds for them, which is nice, but our robot is student welded and we have never broken a weld.

The major point of this is that there is not a laser-cut (get it? hahaha) definition of "student-built" or "mentor-built."

2. The role of a mentor on a team is not something that can nor should be standardized. Our head mentor is there to teach the mechanical equipment, not to mention letting 40-50 kids use his house and personal backyard workshop to build robots. Our mentors are there to teach during the fall and watch over for safety during the build season. This year, a mentor came up to our team before alliance selection and began asking our drive coach about our robot and strategy. Our mentor said, "You're talking to the wrong person, I'm the drive coach because its a nice place to watch a match from" and directed the questions to me.

3. Finally, I'm a little confused by the student intelligence discussion. Seems besides the point when the discussion is about "mentor-built" not "you students cant do that." With CNC machines, nothing looks even mentor built, much less student built (if you have a kid with laser-eyes milling out your robot, then I'd be REALLY jealous).

Last year's codriver is going to Caltech right now, this year's is accepted into Stanford and is waiting on MIT to decide, and our dictator (elections are too much of a hassle) has the best scholarship to Georgia Tech waiting for him, but is also waiting for MIT. Previously, we've had two students go to Princeton, one is at Yale, and one went to MIT (in his junior year in high school). These are all members that I know personally (I'm sure there are others that I'm unaware of) so I would beg to differ if any argument is made that a team is a powerhouse because of overly intelligent kids.

The point of all this is: to the people that don't like the powerhouse teams - be inspired by them and the technology that gets put into their robot. If nothing else, make a goal of bringing a stronger robot to competition. The U.S. was built on innovation and that's the point of FIRST, innovate and surprise them.

To all you powerhouses: If you have an extra CNC machine that our head mentor can afford the power costs for, let me know! To the point: this post shows almost no attempt to understand the teams involved. You should understand how privileged your team is resources compared to others and you may understand their feelings a little bit more.

Finally, to all the people at pit that booed and acted childishly at pit, you should know better as a part of FIRST.