Against all odds...

[MasterChief 573]

Originally Posted by ForgottenSalad

I have started attending school in a boarding school in northern New Hampshire. My school is a small school, around 100 kids enrolled, and I would like to get a FRC team together to compete in the 2008 season. However, the odds in this are against me, and I would like some input and advice on how to make this happen of if it's even possible to pull off at all. I will list some of the odds against to sort of give an idea.

1. We currently do not have power tools or machines, or even a 'shop'.
2. Finding a mentor. I can't think of a single teacher at our school with the kind of background needed. I could provide much mentorship, but I would need help.
3. Funding. Small school, small endowment. We would have to be entirely sponsored and/or out-of-pocket.
4. Time. During build season we would have short of 2 hours a day on weekdays, 3 if we worked through dinner, with MAYBE one day of the week where we would do FIRST instead of sports and could get 5 hours in. We would have 5 hours Friday 12-16 hours on Saturday and 1 or 2 hours on Sunday. Is it possible to build a robot in this timeframe?
5. People. We would have a small team. It's seen as 'nerdy' so the interest for something like FIRST here is low and I'd be lucky to get 6-10 people.
6. Parental support. Many students board and are not local. It'd be hard to get local support from the parents because of this.

The few things I see going for this is FIRST provides huge scholarship opportunities and I see that as a huge selling point for the program to a boarding school. Also, I've matured a lot in my leadership through FIRST... I think having FIRST at a school is a huge bonus and is a great idea for this reason. All advice, input, etc, about this situation and starting a team is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-Mike Wessler, Former 810 Team Member

In order

1. You don't need a shop to build a robot, our team doesn't have one. We just build it in a class room. However you will need to buy tools and the members might have to find a way to do that.

2. As far as mentors are concerned around half of ours (2 out of 4) are parents of a member. As long as you know someone with engineering knowledge willing to dedicate time you have a mentor.

3. NASA provides sponsorship to all rookie teams in need of money for their first year.

4. I don't know how to address time but I will say this, if you can dedicate 2 to 4 hour every other weekday and 4 to 6 hours on Saturday or Sunday you have plenty of time.

5. You don't need a big team, I would say that 15 people would be bare minimum but if you can get that many your in business.

6. I don't know exactly what you mean by parent support but I would say that if you mean what I think you mean that it doesn't take more than 3 to 5 parents max to do that.

[David Brinza]

The FIRST KOP and the documentation available makes building a drivable robot pretty straightforward. Teams (rookies and veterans) run into trouble when they get too ambitious. Build the basic drive-train and chassis early (this is a good week #1 project) - get students to practice driving around obstacle courses while the design team develops a simple mechanism to handle the game piece or some other aspect of the game. Make sure your frame is almost an inch shorter than the max allowed dimensions - I've seen too many teams in panic mode at regionals because they didn't account for bolt heads, bumper brackets, signage, etc. and their robot wouldn't fit in the box!

Read the game manual and especially robot rules carefully - the inspectors will try to be helpful, but don't have leeway in making sure the robots are compliant.

A really valuable reference is the Guidelines, Tips and Good Practices Manual. Almost everything you need to know about building a compliant, reliable robot is contained in that document. Of course, you've got the CD community to call on if you have questions or problems.

[Taylor]

Step 1: Move the school to Rhode Island
Step 2: Get in contact with a local machinist/fabricator/mechanic and see if you can use his/her shop
Step 3: Try to incorporate other area schools - there's no rule that says a FIRST team must all be students from one school. Don't fret over numbers - last year there was a 4 member team at WMR that did fantastically well.
Step 4: Talk to area universities & students, drive interest. Saying you've partnered with a local college will impress the devil out of people.
Step 5: Get as much exposure as possible. Pester the local media. Print brochures (or steal some from CD-Media - that thing rocks!)
Step 6: Get as many people as possible to go to an offseason event - fellow students, teachers, administrators, board members, local business owners (prospective sponsors), university reps, the guy that made your burrito at Taco Bell, you get the point
Step 7: Write DK and WF and they'll talk up your team next time they're on Colbert or Mythbusters
Step 8: If you need a mentor team in Indy, let us know.

[ForgottenSalad]

Thanks for all the advice and responses... School will be back in session this week and when I get a chance and work up a plan in my mind of how I am going to do this I will begin steps needed to plan this out.

[Akash Rastogi]

I think someone said it before but NASA does offer start up money for rookie teams. It will be helpfull and once you can show your school and the parents that NASA will be helping you guys out, this will generate interest amongst them.
Also, go around your community and nearby towns in search of mechanics or anyone with engineering and programming experience to mentor and coach the team.
Hope you can pull this off.
Idea for a name- "Miracle Robotics"