Casting call for Discovery channel - Top Engineer

[PVCpirate]

Cool! I know you probably can't talk about the show very much, but can you give us a general description of what to expect?

[ewhitman]

Each episode (there are 8), will be one challenge. They give us the general idea of the challenge, and we have 30 minutes to write our ideas on a white board, then 5 minutes to present to the judges. The judges pick their 2 favorite ideas, and those people become the team captains. They take turns picking teams from the other 8 contestants.

Once we have teams, they give us the detailed rules and the budget (e.g. 4 days and $10,000). Then we build something. Then we test the devices and the judges eliminate somebody from the losing team. Eliminated contestants are no longer eligible for the grand prize, but they don't go home either, so the teams are always 5v5.

We had pretty good shops to work in (1 for each team) and could get parts from wherever we wanted (McMaster, of course, was a go-to choice because we needed stuff FAST).

They've only shown us the first episode ahead of time, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by ewhitman

Each episode (there are 8), will be one challenge. They give us the general idea of the challenge, and we have 30 minutes to write our ideas on a white board, then 5 minutes to present to the judges. The judges pick their 2 favorite ideas, and those people become the team captains. They take turns picking teams from the other 8 contestants.

Once we have teams, they give us the detailed rules and the budget (e.g. 4 days and $10,000). Then we build something. Then we test the devices and the judges eliminate somebody from the losing team. Eliminated contestants are no longer eligible for the grand prize, but they don't go home either, so the teams are always 5v5.

We had pretty good shops to work in (1 for each team) and could get parts from wherever we wanted (McMaster, of course, was a go-to choice because we needed stuff FAST).

They've only shown us the first episode ahead of time, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

That's cool. I've seen the commercials and look forward to the show.

[PVCpirate]

Sounds like a technical version of the Apprentice. I'll give it a shot.

[kaliken]

I probably should at least give the CD community my contributions to the show as well...

Similarly I applied..Made it to the call to LA for final selections before being down selected...(without going into details turned out a couple issues prevented me from doing the actual show...)

But... I ended up as a technical consultant for the actual show.

My job...
Essentially... I was part of the team of engineers that got to test the actual challenges. So we got the raw challenges from the producers and chief technical advisers. This usually consisted of a single piece of paper with the first draft rules... Many times I had to go back and say... "I need more requirements" and they would say.. "nah...make it cooler for TV!" Eventually we nailed down all the challenges.

As for the build...We had the similar time frames and budgets. (Though we often had to re-scope things so budgets fluctuated--hopefully 10K was enough for you.. I know we ran into that cap for one of them)

In addition we had to unfortunate luxury to work in the not fully ready shops so they could figure out what tools we needed. (think not having Solidworks or any major tools. ie no CNC nor oscilloscopes). Though by the end we had most the items we needed (though we never got that programmable CNC... man would that have helped)

Overall it was a blast. Not a bad way for me to use my vacation time as each challenge turned into a mini build season... I think the challenges turned out well and it will be a great show. I highly encourage you all to give it a shot! And hopefully next year we will have more FIRST members on the show!

Also...

You all can look for me as I ended up doing a commercial for one of the sponsors. Though I can't tell you exactly what the commercial is until it airs, but there is a direct tie to the show (its obvious) so it will only be aired when the show airs... I am the taller guy in Black.

[DampRobot]

When I first heard of this show, I was a skeptic... But this actually sounds really cool! I'd watch this show (but then again, I listen to old EWCPcasts for entertainment, so...)

I guess now Dean's vision of FIRST changing the culture seems less crazy than I once thought it was.

[CLandrum3081]

This sounds amazing! I hope it's still running by the time I graduate college!