Recruiting Programmers

[AlexD744]

I had a similar experience as tori as well, except in my case, a week before build season I found out that the programming mentor from out team was not going to be there during build season (family issue). However, most students are not as driven as those that are one these forums.

Therefore, it is one of my goals next year to find and teach a student programming. Is it the most glamorous job? No, in fact you are typically the first person blamed when a mystery problem arises. Sometimes for good reason, sometimes not. However, that is a fact of life and whoever you find needs to be ready to deal with a heavy work load if something goes wrong. You need to find and inspire someone to be able to put in time and then persevere through the stress of those "mystery problems" that we all face.

[mwtidd]

What I've found is many of the best programmers are simply good problem or puzzle solvers. May I suggest having some kind of placement tests when people come to check out the team. This doesn't have to be an exam in the traditional sense, but just try to identify a certain skill sets. I think many people don't become programmers simply because they are #1 intimidated by it and #2 don't find code immediately interesting. One simple way to do this is everyone who joins is given a mindstorms kit and told to program something simple. I think what you'll find will surprise both you and the student. Many students have just never tried coding. Its an incredibly rewarding experience for problem and puzzle solvers to get a robot running by itself. Its all in how you sell it, you sell it as programming and people may be immediately deterred, maybe rephrasing it as automation would be more attractive

[Joseph Bisch]

My team uses LabVIEW to program.

I joined as a senior this year, so it is my first and last year involved with my school's team (as a student...). I actually joined with the intent of being involved with the website and programming.

I was nominated programming captain and ended up being the person who wrote the program. The person who programmed last year came back to teach us, and I learned a lot during build season as I went along. Similar events occurred with the website, except there was no teaching session and I already had web design and development experience, whereas I was unfamiliar with LabVIEW.

I have been told that my team has always had issues with programming. My school does not offer AP Computer Science, so we are not able to recruit out of that class, which makes finding people interested in programming difficult. I love lineskier's idea involving the mindstorms kit. Anything hands on where people can see what programming actually is about is great.

In conclusion, I think that programming a robot is an amazing experience, even more amazing than programming a computer, because the robot moves and is able to analyze its environment using sensors. With a computer, the things you make it do are virtual; with a robot, the things you make it do are real and physical. If we make programming real to students through physical demonstrations they might find they actually enjoy programming and lose the image of the weirdo furiously typing white text into a black terminal. When they stop seeing themselves limited by syntax rules and realize that they can make a machine do what they tell it to do, that is when they really understand what programming is about.

PS @James Critchley - I'll be looking out for VIRSYS. I'm interested in seeing what it is.

[Mark Sheridan]

As a mechanical engineer, I use labVIEW. I am not a very good programmer, but knowing labVIEW can be a valuable skill set for anyone to learn. You don't have to use dedicated programmers. This year, and a lot this up coming summer, we are getting more students who have not learned labVIEW exposure to it. It helps prevent potential shortages with programmers but it also eliminates some of the apparent "smoke and mirrors" around programming.

[Swong]

For the most part what scares people away from programming (at least in my experience) is the notion that programming is "hard". Staring at long lines of text or giant convoluted labview diagrams is intimidating to someone who's never done compsci before. The myth of programming somehow being some mythical impossible to do task needs to be dispelled first.

Also make sure it is clear that no prior experience with coding whatsoever is required to learn how to program, the skills of programming can be learnt somewhat painlessly if a person has enough motivation and dedication.

I noticed this year that you guys were using C to program your robot. (I could be mistaken) If your volunteers happen to show up late in the year or they don't feel they can learn text based code then Labview is always a good alternative. In the 2010 season I taught myself how to program in Labview during the build season without any prior experience with compsci in general. Labview in general is rather intuitive and learning it was not too challenging. Good luck with your search!
-Sebastian

[torihoelscher]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

I had a similar experience as tori as well, except in my case, a week before build season I found out that the programming mentor from out team was not going to be there during build season (family issue). However, most students are not as driven as those that are one these forums.

Therefore, it is one of my goals next year to find and teach a student programming. Is it the most glamorous job? No, in fact you are typically the first person blamed when a mystery problem arises. Sometimes for good reason, sometimes not. However, that is a fact of life and whoever you find needs to be ready to deal with a heavy work load if something goes wrong. You need to find and inspire someone to be able to put in time and then persevere through the stress of those "mystery problems" that we all face.

Oh my. Our lead programming mentor had a heart attack during the build season and ended up having heart surgery so he was out for a few weeks. Thank goodness for Ken our other software mentor for helping us out or we wouldve been in trouble. Ken we owe you one!!

Yea being blamed for a mystery problem is something programmers have to deal with. I had to learn that early in the build season a couple of years ago. Also for new programmers believe in yourself and dont be afraid to voice your opinion about certain things when it comes to the robot. Remember you are going to be the one programming it and you dont want too elaborate code for debugging.

Stay positive because negative energy transfers quickly!