Have you ever attended an FRC workshop about a technical topic?

[Madison]

Just curious how the results of this poll might look. There is a LOT of institutional knowledge about FRC design out there, so I am curious why we see so many common errors appear year after year. I wonder how many in the community are taking advantage of the help that's available.

If you have attended a workshop like this, please let us know if you thought it was helpful and about what topics were covered.

If you haven't, why not? Are they unavailable in your area? Do you think you know enough already?

[RoboMom]

I will be interested to see what results you get.
I put together a sample of workshops around the country. This list is by no means complete. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2585

[DonRotolo]

Teams that know of the workshops' existence aren't (usually) the ones making these errors (like 6" frame segments). It is appalling how many teams don't even think to look for resources that could help.

[jwfoss]

Over here in Connecticut, CTFIRST runs an event called "University Day" which brings together teams in the area for seminars provided by teams as well as local proffessionals.

Last year myself and another mentor provided and presented on two topics; "Drivetrain Design for Competitive Robotics" and "Scouting and Strategy".

These were recorded by a local team and are now hosted on our website www.team2168.org

[ToddF]

We presented a workshop this fall in Richmond about how to design frames using 8020. Our presentation can be found here.

I also attended Den Black's workshop on strategy. With his permission, I recorded it and put it up on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...7&feature=plcp

[Taylor]

The annual IndianaFIRST forum sounds like what you're describing. Teams from Indiana (and surrounding states) converge for a daylong series of sessions. The most recent one covered topics such as the design process, mentor training and development, PID, CAD, game strategy, travel planning, CAN, lightweight design, and programming.
I'd like to present one of the workshop sessions, but I haven't yet got up the gumption to do so.