The Ultimate Game-Breaker Robot: 2012 Edition

[wireties]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

I think you are still basing your comments off the opinion that FRC is supposed to be a microcosm of the real world of engineering - I heartily disagree. I have a different opinion about what FRC allows students to learn before they may or may not have their creativity crushed by the corporate machine.

I'd rather learn about creativity and thinking outside the box in an environment that has little repercussions towards the safety or livelihood of another human (FRC) than come up with plain and safe solutions to problems or clients' needs in the real world where I have less opportunities to screw something up and possibly endanger a life (eg: Boeing engineer).

Not all of us think the same way you might about how to handle an FRC design because we think that this competition is probably one of the last times before entering the "real world" of engineering that we can take risks that won't really affect anyone but our own teams.

Hope you understand what I mean by that.

I do understand and I enjoy FIRST just as you do. I'm not an old stodgy manager. In my spare time I am trying to build an (industrial volume) ultrasonic desalination machine (talk about thinking way outside the box).

But I think you are missing (some of) the point of FIRST. They do not give us 6 months to try all kinds of cool ideas (which I would like). Why is the build season only 6 weeks? - to put the design teams under "quick turn" pressure like that seen in a "real-world" environment. They impose serious design constraints and rules/requirements - again like the real world. So (though I love to tinker and try wild new stuff also) I do not frustrate the students by advising such an approach given a 6-week window.