New to robotics...feel lost, useless, and robotics career question

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by EricH

Scouting is probably the number one most overlooked area in FIRST. .

scouting is important at the events

but Legola52 needs to find his nitch on the team now. The 1st regional is still a long way off.

we had a guy on our team a few years back whos older sister had been on the team for three years. He had been to regionals, and to the championship at Epcot with the family.

His first year on the team he thought he knew what FIRST was all about, and all about the robot design and fabrication. But he kinda floated around and didnt really click with anything in particular.

When we got the kit of parts after the kickoff, I asked him to check out the pneumatics, to check all the cylinders and the compressor and valves, and to make sure all the parts worked.

He charged up a tank and connected the biggest cylinder, with a valve and some hosing, and manually triggered the valve, switching the cylinder back and forth at full pressure.

he got this look in his eye (and I had the feeling we were in trouble :^). That year he lead the pnuematics design and implementation on the robot.

You never know whats going to grab your imagination when you are on a FIRST team.

[SirLancelot]

I agree with all of the above--pick a field and you may learn to love it!!

There's never a shortage of things to do, and not all of them are obscure. You could learn the 'C' programming language (I suggest the tutorials at cplus.about.com, by the way), you could teach yourself Inventor, or you could simply find a mentor and aquaint yourself with some of the power tools and become one of the team's machinists.
If your team hasn't already done so, you may wish to consider sketching out your robot idea for this season and delegating each person to a specific aspect of it based on personal interest. That way, each person will have a job that they'll (hopefully) enjoy, and they'll learn a lot about it in the process.
1502 was a rookie team last year, and I'm know well the feeling of being useless. I just decided to teach myself Inventor, and after that, the bad feelings were gone. I know that I'm needed for something that no one else on our team is yet capable of doing. If you find a purpose for being there, FIRST is a blast. Everything will get better!!

best of luck to you and your team!
~Anna

[EricH]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

scouting is important at the events

but Legola52 needs to find his nitch on the team now. The 1st regional is still a long way off.

Scouting needs proper prep work. I had a sheet 3/4 finished by the end of Week 1.
If no one else is thinking about weight, someone should. Legolas52, that could be you or someone else, but weight is very important. You need to know how much the robot weighs (as closely as you can) so you know how many holes to drill or what parts to remove if you are overweight. If you are over 120 pounds without the battery and/or bumpers, you will not compete.

[Kim Masi]

my first year of FIRST was quite challenging. I think everyone feels a little lost their first year because they don't know what they can contribute to the team. for someone like me, who had no engineering or mechanical or even computer skills whatsoever who just thought robotics sounded interesting, and i am now one of the leaders of the team, i was the driver last year and now im helping with the fabrication of parts and learning how to use the machines.

my first year i designed the tee-shirts and did public relations and video. once i had a feel for what the team was like and what the competitions were like, i had a better idea of what i wanted to do in the future it takes a lot of paitence to know what you can contribute to the team, and dont worry, you still have a few more years to build and contribute.

think of something that your team has a need for. is it a website? is it promotions at the event? talk to your mentor and brainstorm ideas to help your team grow.

[Donut]

My freshman year I joined the team intending to be on programming. I had the least experience of all the programmers and was initially given a small little job (just code to turn a compressor on and off) so I could learn the language and my job could be easily done if I screwed up. I just looked at the code others made and what they gave us to learn, and asked my Dad (who became a mentor) for help understanding things. Next thing I know, all the programmers except for me and the team lead quit or stop coming due to work, and I had the entire autonomous mode and arm code given to me to do. Now I'm co-programming lead and Vice President of the club.

From personal experience, I say finish what job they gave you, then use that extra time to learn everything you possibly can, you never know how much you might end up helping out!

[Uberbots]

best way to get involved: ask a team who is working on something if they need help.
that way, (if they arent snobs) they will most likely say yes, and bam! you have a prt on the team.

you just gotta make sure (if one dya youhappen to be on the other end) that you dont leave someone out, or even worse discriminate.

just last year, we had one of those kids who would discriminate against the weak (aka, the soft-spoken). The disciminees either left the team, tried to sabotage our robot, and one of them actually got a mad parent involved.
it was ugly, but we got thru it (and made a STRICTLY enforced rule against leaving people out)

u gotta be careful. but ask for help, and ask if help is needed. thats all it takes.

[Dillon Compton]

This is only my second year on a robotics team, and I had a somewhat similar experience on my team my rookie year. I dont attend the school which my team is based out of, but I was asked by the team leader (my dad) to contribute my programming knowledge (which is limited, but more than anyone else's) to the effort. I agreed, and my FIRST career began.

I experienced extreme culture shock my very first meeting.
The school at which my dad teaches is in Philadelphia, and the kids on it come from all over the city...I live out in the suburbs, and am pretty much the stereotypical geek.
It was pretty difficult to prove myself to the rest of the team and to get accepted into the group, but I worked hard, learned what I needed to to contribute to any lacking aspects of the team (in my case I learned much more about programming, memorized all the wiring rules and became head electrician, and was integral in design and fabrication of our arm), and by the end I had gone from 'Dillon' or 'Mr. Compton's Son', to 'D-Rock' or 'Ben'(an affectionate reference to a supposed likeness between myself and Mr. Franklin...). Work hard, prove invaluable to the team, and not only will you have fun, become obsessed, and get accepted; you'll also learn some things!

the forums and the whitepapers on this site are a great resource, and there are some useful link on my teams webpage...[shameless plug]...www.masteryrobotics.com. Click on the "resources" or "links" tabs!

Good luck

-Dillon