Robotics after FRC

[EricVanWyk]

This is a bit off topic, but I recommend against mentoring FRC during your freshman year, and very strongly recommend against ever mentoring a team that you were a student on.

[Jenn Feathers]

Originally Posted by EricVanWyk

This is a bit off topic, but I recommend against mentoring FRC during your freshman year, and very strongly recommend against ever mentoring a team that you were a student on.

why so?

Originally Posted by EricVanWyk

This is a bit off topic, but I recommend against mentoring FRC during your freshman year, and very strongly recommend against ever mentoring a team that you were a student on.

i understand the whole not mentoring as a freshman, but why not the team you were a student on? One of our mentors is the team captain from 2001, and she does great!

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by EricVanWyk

This is a bit off topic, but I recommend against mentoring FRC during your freshman year, and very strongly recommend against ever mentoring a team that you were a student on.

I think that if you wait 4 years to go back to your high school team you will be fine. After 4 years all the kids you knew on the team as peers will be gone and you can assert yourself as an adult and mentor easier.

[JesseK]

You land lovers...

Build a robot that flies. (MIT puts on a competition, not sure what it's called)
Build a robot that swims. (NURC)
Or build a robot that does both. Hah.

Originally Posted by JesseK

You land lovers...

Build a robot that flies. (MIT puts on a competition, not sure what it's called)
Build a robot that swims. (NURC)
Or build a robot that does both. Hah.

ATV bot? I'm digging it.

[Jenn Feathers]

Originally Posted by JesseK

You land lovers...

Build a robot that flies. (MIT puts on a competition, not sure what it's called)
Build a robot that swims. (NURC)
Or build a robot that does both. Hah.

swimming robots? sounds like a challenge. i heard and read about it a lot before kick-off this year, but what are the chances of FIRST actually throwing a water game at us? it would definiatly be a surprise. Has there been any tries at getting FIRST to start a water or air division?

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Jenn Feathers

swimming robots? sounds like a challenge. i heard and read about it a lot before kick-off this year, but what are the chances of FIRST actually throwing a water game at us? it would definiatly be a surprise. Has there been any tries at getting FIRST to start a water or air division?

Swimming robots are a lot of fun, we've been competing in NURC since it's beginning. There are other underwater competitions, such as the RobuSub autonomous underwater vehicle one in San Diego, and MATE which is open to high school and college teams.

Water could possibly be a component of a future FRC game, but the odds are slim. We often play FRC games on top of wood basketball courts...they don't like water.

[Jeffy]

Originally Posted by EricVanWyk

This is a bit off topic, but I recommend against mentoring FRC during your freshman year, and very strongly recommend against ever mentoring a team that you were a student on.

I half agree. Mentoring the team you were a part of is bad for many reasons.
I mentored this year in a different state than my hometown team (as a freshman in college) and felt very satisfied. It definitely takes a shift in mentality, but it can be done.

Originally Posted by Jeffy

I half agree. Mentoring the team you were a part of is bad for many reasons.
I mentored this year in a different state than my hometown team (as a freshman in college) and felt very satisfied. It definitely takes a shift in mentality, but it can be done.

What are those reasons?

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

What are those reasons?

If you go straight from being a senior on a team to being a mentor on that same team the next year it is difficult. The reason it is difficult is because you have now gone from a peer working with the students to their mentor and they are now your "subordinate". The relationship is completely different and it can be hard for both the new mentor and the current students to be seen in a truly authoritative position. You might have been the team captain as a senior in high school but that isn't the same as being a mentor and being in charge.

[EricH]

I think we've gotten off onto two different tracks here.

On the topic of mentoring in college, I would suggest that we use http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=47004 which is still at least sporadically active and covers all of the reasons in this thread and a few others besides.


On the topic of engineering competitions in college (note that I did not say robotics competitions, and I'll go into why), there are quite a few. I know that at my school, I can think of 16 off the top of my head, and those are teams, some of whom change competitions. 16 separate teams, covering everything from on the water (concrete canoe) to over the water (steel bridge) to on the road (Formula SAE, Supermileage) to offroad (Baja SAE, SAE Clean Snowmobile) to in the air (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, SAE Aero Design, concrete airplane). And for those of you keeping count at home, I didn't get to quite a few teams, and even if I did I'd probably miss a few that I have limited knowledge of. 'Nuff said.

Now, why limit yourself to robotics competitions? Sure, you know them quite well. But you're also depriving yourself of the opportunity to grow in another direction. I've been on the SAE Aero Design team for 5 years now, but my senior design project is the NASA Lunabotics competition. (Aren, if you're going to that competition, we should meet up sometime.) I've learned a lot about teaming, flight, crashing (), and dealing with (lack of) success from the Aero team that I really don't think I picked up in FRC.

Sometimes, getting out of that comfort zone is the best thing that can happen to you.

Oh, and protip: Two or more engineering competitions at once and you're slightly crazy. Two or more with anything above a freshman's homework level (or that of a senior with senioritis) and you can remove the "slightly" from that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some homework to get back to...

[tsaksa]

Originally Posted by EricH

Now, why limit yourself to robotics competitions? Sure, you know them quite well. But you're also depriving yourself of the opportunity to grow in another direction. I've been on the SAE Aero Design team for 5 years now, but my senior design project is the NASA Lunabotics competition. (Aren, if you're going to that competition, we should meet up sometime.) I've learned a lot about teaming, flight, crashing (), and dealing with (lack of) success from the Aero team that I really don't think I picked up in FRC.

...

Glad to hear you say that. I would have, but you beat me to it.

Robotics is great (I am sure everyone can agree on that) but there are also a lot of other engineering challenges out there. In addition to the points you made, it is can be very expensive and require a large variety of skills to help put together a quality robotics program. It is sometimes easier for a smaller school to fund and staff some more focused competitions than robotics. A collage with a very strong mechanical engineering program but a limited software or electronics program might find a different kind of competition fits their focus better. I hope I do not offend anyone too much here, but in my opinion, there is at least some chance, robotics may not the be the absolute be all and end all of all engineering achievement.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by tsaksa

I hope I do not offend anyone too much here, but in my opinion, there is at least some chance, robotics may not the be the absolute be all and end all of all engineering achievement.

I got a nice challenge working on the high mileage vehicle in college...not robotics at all, and it taught me a lot.

I dont think it matters too much what you do, as long as you do something that lets you apply what you're learning in class.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

What are those reasons?

That you are not exposed to different attitudes, methodologies, or management styles. Also, you will be viewed as a student still.

I've been on a few different teams and had the chance to watch numerous others, I've always learned new methods for running teams or mentoring from them. Why deprive yourself of the opportunity to learn from another set of mentors and share your experiences with a group that otherwise wouldn't?