Why choose FRC instead of FTC?

[linuxboy]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

I believe that the biggest difference in FRC and FTC is the mentor participation.
I am only speaking in generalities here but FRC teams need more support from mentors than FTC teams. It is relatively easy to put together an FTC robot and little fabrication is generally done. It can and is done by student teams without much support from mentors.

There are FRC teams that have only students putting together robots but the real magic of FIRST is in putting together a team of Mentors AND Students working together...

This increases excitement and in the end produces the result that FIRST was founded on. That is to Inspire students....

FIRST has never been about teaching students to build robots. It is really about Students learning that they are capable of extraordinary things when working on a team. It inspires them by putting them in contact with active professional engineers that help them.

There are many great FTC teams that do similar things but it is nearly impossible to operate an FRC team without mentor support. This is by design.

I'm really intrigued about your point about mentors. This past year I was relatively mentor independent (in my opinion) with programming and electrical. I viewed my mentors more as people to consult when something goes wrong or I can't figure something out after working on it for a while myself. That is not to say they didn't inspire me, I just only asked them questions when I had exhausted my knowledge.

How do you think the use of mentors should work and how many a team should have? I ask because one of the concerns over next year is the number of mentors.

- Oliver