Regional Animation Awards

[stevek]

In Regards to KOKO ED's Last Post

Ive found the same thing. The HS set up a CISCO Networking room (Students actually get cirtified if they want- Pretty Cool) And we were finally able to get the Software Loaded on decent computers in this lab (last year it was in the make shift Robotics computer lab- the best computer in there was one that I got a client of mine and me to donate. The other computers could barely load a scene let alone work or render. So this year we had some computer power, really cool for network rendering. But it is seperate from the group and an animation team that started at Ten strong finished at Three (two seniors- WAAAAAH). The room is connected to the Robotics lab, but seperated by two sets of doors. This isolates the students, as you said. On Weekends we have parents of the Robotics students alternate on bringing food to feed lunch to everyone, a couple times the animation team was never informed the food was there because people forgot they were in the next room. Don't get me wrong, our team loves us and we all get along, and we work together on stuff, but There is a seperation in the Competition that has always bugged me (and this is only my second year) In fact I have a degree in Architecture and that includes structures calculations/design and building stuff which is engineering based, but I really work in the video graphics industry but theres never a clasification for me so I am called an Engineer. I'm mechanically capable and love working with the robot, but I'm never fully comfortable with that title. But as far as FIRST knows the whole programs is made up of "Students" "Teachers" "Parents" & "Engineers"- So by default I'm an engineer. OK with me but FIRST needs to understand that there are other people in this world that contribute and volunteer and give back. So I agree, we need Further Integration and Recognition of Science and TECHNOLOGY so students dont feel like they are a seperate team. We do alot to work it in on our end- but thats blown to bits at the competition when everything they worked on for 2.5 months is never even mentioned and just thrown in as FILLER "... if there's down time!!!" (and that came from the mouth of autodesk rep)

We love this whole thing, Lets Just Raise the Bar Each Year!!