Who built your robot?

[Mark Hamilton]

We work togethor with our engineers to build our bot. Admittedly a lot of the base components are made/welded by professional machinist. This is done more for practical reasons then anything else, our access to Motorola's machine shops is limited because they are so busy (especially with recent layoffs). The engineers do try their hardest to involves students, and they involve us a lot in the design process. When it comes to assembly, ussually students and engineers work side by side. It'd be cool to build a robot all by ourselves, but we'd miss out on so much more if we did that. I'd rather have a chance to work with real engineers and learn about engineering, not machining. this is my fourth year in robotics, and im confident I could put togethor a halfway decent robot without the engineers help, but I wouldn't learn anything of real value in the process. I personally had a big impact on the design of this year's robot, but my idea had some major flaws. An engineer took what I came up with and showed us how to make it work. I'm certain I could take this years robot apart, and put it back togethor again, and explain to you why and how everything in it works. So I guess our approach is working.