Driver Selection: A Discussion

[Mark Sheridan]

I personally think its not so much how much skill a drivers has but can the driver develop skills. Our team is really dead set to try to do some form of a practice robot next year, even if its just 50 percent of the competition robot. We had hardly any practice time this year, even the most skillful drivers need practice time to get used to the robot.

With that train of thought, I am more inclined to pick a driver as a reward. A dedicated student will be willing take the extra time to practice, with a practice or past year's robot. Plus a dedicated student usually is well versed in the strategy and the construction of the robot (very helpful for pin pointing problems).

Other things I look for is ability to work well with others, follow instructions, handles criticism gracefully, is cool under pressure and competitive drive.

I tell my students, that being the driver is not glamorous. It a stressful job that requires a lot of extra hours. One can't casually want to be a driver, nor can one want it for the title. One has to put in the extra effort and show me that I can count on them to help the team no matter what (well within reason).