Pre-season workshops

[Klamath Mom]

So, if you could go back to your rookie season and have three pre-season workshops what would these workshops be and why these particular workshops? I am thinking Saturday workshops, 3 hours or so. Thanks

[rsisk]

1. A kit bot build day
2. What to expect at the competition
3. Who to ask, what to ask, where to ask

[Alan Anderson]

The TechnoKats' rookie season was 1992. I don't think any workshops could have prepared teams adequately for the first-ever FRC competition.

My personal rookie year was 2004. I got exactly the "workshop" I needed as a novice software mentor, direct from the experts at Wildstang.

[Grim Tuesday]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...__m2ieN70/edit

This was an outline of our plan this year; it was over 5 days, but has been condensed into 4.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Mom,
Everyone should look to Minnesota for what they cover at workshops. They are almost mandatory up north. No team should start designing without a good look at strategy and the need for strategy to drive design. You can easily spend half a day on drive trains, a half on pneumatic systems and a half on electrical. Software has it's own needs depending on OS used, Labview, C++, Java, etc. You could spend another half day talking about devices for picking up or manipulating game pieces and the pitfalls teams fall into on design for these systems. Each workshop should cover a little design background, a little technique and a little hands on.

[davidthefat]

What to expect from competition and how it differs from build. If anyone remembers, I was rather appalled by competition my rookie year due to false expectations.

Programming; on how to think. I had to change how I thought regarding programming robots after programming on a computer for years. There is a delay in the actuation of the robot parts after doing on the software side. That was a little hard to adjust to.

Electronics rundown. I really had no idea what servos were or anything was my rookie year. I believe things would have went much much smoothly if I was taught that before.

[rsisk]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Mom,
Everyone should look to Minnesota for what they cover at workshops. <snip>

Is this the workshops you are referring to?

http://www.mnfirstregional.org/splash

[waialua359]

Our team hosts a 3 hour program management and sustainability workshop annually since the inaugural HI regional season.
This will be our 5th year doing this, usually in the Fall a couple of months before build season.
Ideally, we'd like to do it earlier, however, rookie teams are usually not setup prior to the beginning of the school year.

This is especially important for HI teams as we are all faced with the equivalent of mainland teams coming to HI several times/year.

[yara92]

I suppose that one of the important things also is the OLD part and design which we made them for subsystem for the last games.
I mean how to use the old design for new members.
I have problem to find the size of the screw when I need it.
In Metric system or Inches

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Richard,
Yes, that is the one. I can tell you from experience that rookie MN teams come to competition prepared. The majority of them are not your typical rookies. However, their first event is still a first event. When I was LRI for their rookie regional I met with the rookies, en masse (all 38 teams), each day to explain how the day would progress. I would remind them of the need for inspection, practice rounds, the need to check the progress of competition so as to not miss a match, clue them into strategy, watch for the judges, get food and water into their students, and discuss the alliance picking. We now train LRIs to meet with rookies each day. If there is a large number at an event we can meet as a group otherwise meet each team in their pit.

Originally Posted by davidthefat

If anyone remembers, I was rather appalled by competition my rookie year due to false expectations.

David, can you explain this better?

[Bob Steele]

With the huge growth in Washington State teams we (our team) decided about 4 years ago to put on a workshop specifically for Rookies (and second year teams) It has been pretty successful with 200 students and mentors attending it this year. We ask other teams to help put on 1 hour talks on topics specifically designed to help new teams.

Our team also hosts about 6 rookie teams on the Sunday after kickoff and we help them build their kitbots so they have something to work with almost immediately. Last year 2 of the kitbot builders won Rookie All Star. We also have the rest of their teams that aren't working in the shop sit in and participate in our initial strategy sessions about the new game.

We also participate in veteran workshops (2 this year) where members from teams all over the state talk about different topics which appeal to all teams from rookies to veterans.

The workshops are all successful in a number of ways. Of course it is tough to impart a huge amount of information or get hands on experience in the limited time but the biggest benefit is for teams to meet each other and know that there are plenty of places out there to get help.

I would encourage any state or region to put these on. It really does build friendships and gracious professionalism for your area.

[RoboMom]

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2585
has some of the workshops held last year with links.

These were collected from this thread: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ight=workshops

[Jon Stratis]

This year the MN Splash is taking on a new format... Instead of a 1-day event at the University of Minnesota, there are going to be weekly webcasts throughout November and December. While part of the fun of the Splash was to get together with other teams, I'm hopeful the new format can allow it to reach more teams and provide better archiving of presentations. I have to imagine that there are MN teams who can't make the trip down to the U for the Splash, and this way they won't have to. There's always something to be gained from looking at the power point presentations that have already been linked here, but an archive of the video feed will hopefully also allow for some of the comments, demonstrations, and Q&A to be captured as well.

[roystur44]

We always start our new members off with safety and the use of the hand and power tools. It's a combination of lecture, tests and hands on.

We have ongoing Solidworks CAD classes throughout the year to encourage the kids to learn design through CAD

Something new we did this year was a class on leadership and team building skills. The class helps in teaching students how to lead and build confidence.

In the past we have arraigned tours of various manufacturing facilties. We like to see how things are made and what kinds of machine tools can do what operation.

We also have lectures on manufacturing, materials and controls.

[Peyton Yeung]

If I could go back to before the 2010 season I would like to attend a design/build workshop where I could learn effective designs and then how to use machinery to build those designs, a competition workshop where I could be told about how competitions were run, and a driving workshop where I could learn strategy and how to drive robots.