Student Exchange Program?

[LeelandS]

Hello CD Community,

This is an idea I've been toying with for almost a year now, and it's just now I've thought to take it to the forums for some feedback and thoughts on it.

The idea, and I'm sure I'm not the first to have it, is a "Student Exchange Program." The premise is that teams in a local area pick a representitive and swap students for a week of build season. That student would attend meeting with their transfer team, work with them and learn from them.

This would accomplish several things:

1. It would be great learning experience for the student in question
2. Allow a better form of sharing ideas between team. The student will bring his/her team's ideas to the exchange team, as well as bring that team's ideas back to their team
3. Build a greater sence of unity and friendship within the FIRST community, especially between students, who may not be as familiar with members of other teams who have known them for years.

Obviously, this is the just the premise for something I believe could be a great part of the FIRST community. I don't know if this kind of thing has been discussed else where, but right now, this is just for me to see what other people think of trying something like this.

Let me know what you think!

[Cyberphil]

I was actually talking to a rep from 365 about something very close to this. I believe they came up with the idea. When the season came around it was just too busy and too many things were happening to actually do something. I will probably contact them again and we might do something in the off season.

We were planning ours as a weekend, leaving Friday night, driving the 3 hours down, meeting up with them quick Friday evening, then starting to work the next day. then leaving in the afternoon on Sunday.

If you have any questions, please feel free to pm me.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Cyberphil

driving the 3 hours down

Ay, there's the rub: How do you GET to the other team? Unless the student drives, a parent (two parents, actually. one for each team) needs to drive two round-trips, every day.

Possible for teams a few minutes apart, but somewhat impractical for, say, 103 and 365.

Now, if you want to talk about videoconferencing using something like Skype...

[demosthenes2k8]

This is an awesome idea, despite the little distance flaw. With two teams that are relatively close, it could work out really well!
Another suggestion is to do the same thing, but for mentors. If done right, it could really help teams by providing a mentor who has experience in something that the team doesn't really focus on or understand.

(Sorry, I don't have much to add)

[Cyberphil]

Well, thats why we planned ours for a weekend, so we wouldn't have to drive the three hours two times a day. We are hopefully going to do something in the off-season, and if we do, we will probably share our experiences with everyone on here who would like to know.

This sounds great! The only problem I see would be some teams not wanting others look at their ideas. Though this isn't the FIRST way, I know a lot of teams who wouldn't allow any outside people to see their ideas.

IF ANYBODY IS IN SAN JOSE, COME ON OVER AND SEE TEAM 256! WE'LL BE GLAD TO HAVE YOU!

[Matt Krass]

Originally Posted by demosthenes2k8

Another suggestion is to do the same thing, but for mentors. If done right, it could really help teams by providing a mentor who has experience in something that the team doesn't really focus on or understand.

(Sorry, I don't have much to add)

Now that sounds like a cool idea!

I can think of a couple mentors around Long Island I'd like to 'borrow' for my team, and I am willing to trade myself around for it too.

(You added plenty, a new great idea starts as a seed)

Matt

[Grim Tuesday]

I know that lots of teams with a common sponser have a "design review" where they all meet and finalize their respective designs. It would be interesting to do this, say in the Fingerlakes area.

[LeelandS]

That's quite an idea, Grim...

Instead of having students just jump around for some set period of time, why not have a group of local teams actually meet up with each other. It could easily achieve the same effect, would be easier to facilitate transporting teams to a common distance, and perhaps even turn into a regional team building activity.

I'm almost 100% positive that there would be a number of teams in the Finger Lakes Region who would love to meet and discuss things like this. This definately has potential to be a great thing.

I don't know about you guys, but I think something to that effect would be worth looking in to.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by demosthenes2k8

Another suggestion is to do the same thing, but for mentors. If done right, it could really help teams by providing a mentor who has experience in something that the team doesn't really focus on or understand.

(Sorry, I don't have much to add)

This is exactly what 3450 and 2337 have done this year. It started out last year with myself heading down there to help with any software issues they had and they let us borrow some of their mechanical mentors. It works surprisingly well and has led to a lot of idea exchange. But you have to realize that 3450 and 2337 are 20 minutes apart and many of the mentors live either in between or past the other shop. This arrangement wouldn't work out well for teams much farther away.

[LeelandS]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

This is exactly what 3450 and 2337 have done this year. It started out last year with myself heading down there to help with any software issues they had and they let us borrow some of their mechanical mentors. It works surprisingly well and has led to a lot of idea exchange. But you have to realize that 3450 and 2337 are 20 minutes apart and many of the mentors live either in between or past the other shop. This arrangement wouldn't work out well for teams much farther away.

Unfortunately, this is part of the problem. I know, personally, there are 3-4 teams withing easy driving distance of us (Sub-1hr). Obviously, neighboring teams won't have this issue...

For teams that are further apart, then maybe we should literally hold a summit: A location and event where teams of a region could find it worth the 1-2+ hour drive out there. Where, it's not just 1-on-1, but it's actually multiple teams from a region that can share there ideas with each other in a workshop format. That would still be a great learning experience, could turn into a something a lot of fun, and would give teams a chance to become familiar with other teams in the area.

Again, I think this is something that merits further looking in to.

[Andrew Schreiber]

You could also do what Chris Picone and I have been doing all season (year really). We just bounce ideas off each other over the internet and share CAD drawings. Not quite the same effect but new ideas can't hurt.