Another Culture Change

[Dave Scheck]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

Walking back to the pit after Saturday's award ceremony this weekend a student from a team I respect and 'gets it', said something like Wildstang should feel ashamed and didn't deserve to win because no students touched their robot. I said something like, "nah, I'm not sure I agree with that, I'm sure their students put a ton of effort in."[/quote After reading this thread, I wish I would have taken a stronger stance and encouraged him to talk to their students about their robot. I do agree its up to the experienced teams, mentors and students to squash any of these negative thoughts and actions.

Thanks for sticking up for us in whatever capacity you did. It's good to know that members of teams that we respect have our backs.

It's unfortunate that the student you referred to has those feelings. I wish that he/she would have stopped by our pit after match 56. In that match, there was a screw in the supershifter that started to work its way out. This caused the robot to get stuck in low gear for most of the match. After the match, we ran a few tests and Raul assessed the problem based on what he saw and told the students to fix it. Within 20-30 minutes, the students on their own had the drive module off, had the gearbox disassembled, fixed, put back together, and reinstalled on the robot.

I should be over it after 10 years in this program, but it really bothers me when people think that our students aren't involved. It's extremely disrespectful and dangerous to jump to conclusions about what students do on the team as well as what they get out of it.

If anyone reading this has this view or knows somebody that does, send them to our pits at Midwest or Championship. I'd love for them to spend some time with our students to see what they know.