For Mentors Only: Inspiring Youth

[KenWittlief]

Some of my favorite Mentor/Student conversations:

[Student, 1 minute before a match] I want to make a small change to the code, its only one line
[mentor] we cant change the code now, there is no time to test it before the next match
[student] we dont need to test it - its only one line - I KNOW it will work


[student] My code is not running right, there must be something wrong with the robot controller!" (I call this CS101 syndrome: "My ten line program is giving me the wrong answer, there must be something wrong with the VAX / Mainframe / PC / microprocessor.....")

CS101 version 2.0 [Student] the RC in the robot is blown out, the robot is completely dead!
[mentor] what was the last thing done to the robot?
[student] I made some changes to my SW, recompiled and downloaded, and now the RC hardware has failed.
[mentor] did you try downloading your old code again?
[student] what good will that do? the RC is bad!

the core all these situations is ego. Im not picking on students, because ego is a problem for all new engineers. We have to learn to detach our ego from our work (projects) and accept that we must follow the whole engineering design cycle:

define WHY a new system is needed
define WHAT the new system must do
define HOW the new system will do those things
build a prototype
test the system to ensure it does the WHAT
give the system to the customer (user) to make sure its what they want.

The temptation to jump into a project at one point, and fly by the seat of your pants is overwhelming. For most new engineers, once you have done than, and gotten burned by your own ego, then you really understand the whole design cycle, and why each part is absolutely necessary.