Team 1114 Student: Taylor

[Taylor Nicholson]

Thank you everyone for your kind words and congratulations of me becoming a Dean’s List Finalist! I would also like to congratulate Craig Robinson (aka “Butters”) as all that I have done has been supported by him as well as every other member of Simbotics.

I must say that last night I was a little put down by some of the comments in the GTER thread. To wake up to see my accomplishments recognized like this was very uplifting.

I would like to give a quick example from this past build season of the mentor-student relationship on this team. At the beginning of this season I began prototyping and designing our shooter for the 2012 season. I went ahead and designed an entire assembly of a turreted shooter during the first week of build season. From here I presented the design to the engineering mentors on Simbotics. While the mentors said the design was already great initially, it could still be improved. I sat down with our lead engineering mentor as he guided me to better the design and evolve it to what can be currently seen on Simbot Jordan. While I may have learned a little by working myself through the design, I learned much more working with an experienced engineering to help me improve it. This is what FIRST really is for, and our team has found what we think is an almost perfect model for students and mentors working together.

The experience I have had over the last four years would have been much less satisfying without our mentor support, and I can only hope that in the future I will be as inspirational to some, as the mentors on Simbotics have been for me.

Originally Posted by neshera

Just curious:
Where will Taylor be going to college/university?

To answer this, I have been accepted to the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, and Queen’s University, and expect to hear a response soon for the University of Waterloo, where I ultimately see myself continuing my education.