Why do teams voluntarily do FIRST without adult technical mentors?

[Joe Lambie]

You know Andy; I am still amazed by the things that come out of your brain. This one has got me stumped.

For a number of years, and to a large extent still I am very much in the boat of wanting the students to do the majority of the design and manufacture work. Mentors I believe should be providing expertise and guidance (along with travel arrangements, money management and so on). From having the experiences I had in FIRST, I personally got so much more out of “doing” things then I would ever have gotten by just watching and listening. However, it was also a great opportunity to work alongside and with engineers, and learn from their years of experience. Often this was a great asset to our team, with young, creative, and crazy-minded students providing a fresh look at how things can be done along with the voice of experience in our engineering mentors letting us know when perhaps we were just a little too crazy.

Now this is not to say that teams in which students provide less engineering and manufacture work are not as inspired. In fact, some may be inspired to ask why an engineer chooses to design and manufacture a half-inch shaft over a 3/8ths shaft, while another may be inspired to learn how to manufacture it. They did not need to be in the shop or design room to be inspired, but merely see how exciting the world of engineering and science can be, and then have the drive and initiative to go out and find the answers as well.

Who knows, maybe someday Student A from Team XX, which was student run, may work in the same company as Student B from Team XXX whose team was mostly engineer run. Both these people have very different experiences in engineering, Student A may have an insight into the manufacture of parts and a sense of what can be done to simplify the creation of parts and therefore lower cost, while Student B may have an incredible sense of design and a fantastic handle on the fundamentals of machine design. By putting the two together, you have twice as much brainpower and expertise at work on a real world problem, both able to point out specific concerns from both sides of the engineering world of design and manufacture. As a result, you could get a better design, that is simpler to make, and safer to operate, while saving money. What more could any company ask for?

Ultimately every human is different, thankfully. If we were not all different I imagine we could be sitting and staring at the wheel sitting next to the fire in awe of how great the two are. Instead, we have traveled to the moon, and someday we will travel to Mars and beyond.

I propose a different view of the issue at hand. It is not so much of how the team is run, be it by students or engineers or a combination there of, but how each student learns and is inspired. Ultimately the students are the drivers behind this competition, for without them Dean and Woody would have a great idea, but not a whole lot of progress. The students need to ask questions if they are inspired by something they see, and the mentors need to be sure to answer them to the best of their ability. Remember though, it’s always fun to get your hands dirty once in awhile too.