Why Do we *ship* to bots?

[Ken Patton]

The ship date definitely provides a clear milestone around which the team can focus. The robot has to be done by then. At the regional, there really isn't time to "build," just one day for practice then 2 days of competition. So make sure you get it done before shipping!

I think the 6 week deadline also contributes to the wow factor by making it obvious that the teams did an "impossible" job (strategizing designing and building) in an "impossibly" short amount of time. If the time factor were taken away it wouldn't seem so amazing.

Below is an old quote from Dean Kamen (from 1998 kickoff) that describes some of the thinking behind ship here, compete there:

"One of the problems is that we live in a media age, and only things that happen on a national scale work. Well, when science fairs happen, its a plastic paramecium on a bridge table in the basement next to the gym. Then they go home and flip on the Super Bowl.

If we did this event and the winners didn’t go to Disneyland, if we did this event and there was no “super bowl” for the kids to think about, if it wasn’t really competitive, if they weren’t watching the world’s best technology people the way they watch Shaquille, it wouldn’t have an impact.

So I know its expensive on a per student basis that you touch. And why do they have to build it here, fly over here, fly over there? The point is not even the giant companies individually, all of whom have great philanthropy programs, can impact the kids because they’re competing with things that have national scope. And when you put all of these giant companies together, your companies, and allow these things to develop the same kind of scale as these distractions that kids see, the hope is, those kids will work harder, the kids around them will see it, the infrastructure which we now see is starting to develop will build around the country. These kinds of stories will happen more, and the result will be a change in the culture of the United States."
*end quote*

You should note that now we have a lot more regionals, so there is less flying than there was way back in 1998. And of course, we no longer have the Championship at a built-up stage at DisneyWorld, its in an arena in Atlanta.

Ken