different robot contests

[archiver]

Posted by Tom Vanderslice.

Student on team #275, ORHS/AST/Hitachi, from Academy of Science and Technology and Hitachi.

Posted on 8/15/99 1:40 PM MST


In Reply to: BEST questions posted by Joe Johnson on 8/7/99 6:34 PM MST:



Well first off...a big howdy to everyone on the delphi board...i'm back in school (yup...started aug. 11 ...and so i'm back
on a regular schedule and realized it'd been a little while since i had checked out the good 'ole delphi board...boy was
I surprised to see a question about BEST on here...

Little bit of background on me, i've done BEST the last two years and like Jon was in the college station hub.

BEST is still going very very strong...for instance, the college station hub had gotten so huge that they had to turn away
teams that were not within one county of them (which means all the people from houston had to find some place else to go)
luckily, some groups got together and managed to start a hub for houston that happens to be about 10 minutes from my
house...the one problem they have is updating hte website.. ...it is a pain when there is no new info...but the website
is basically used for question/answers during the 6week competition...last year the website didnt' mentiont he 99 competition
until kickoff day...

I think BEST is awesome...it's a great kind of prepper for FIRST...its a much smaller scale...and it helps you get back
into that robotics mind set after summer...and all around good project for the fall semester...one of my favorite things about
it is it is very cheap... ...they hand you a box of parts on the first day and that's all you can use...you have a couple sheets
of plywood...some plexiglass...and some pvc....there's your structure...you find a kid's garage to work in and you use a
few power tools and you build...and most importantly...it is ALL students...one thing it reallys helps with is the whole
concept of simplification...we get so used to drawing a part in autocad and having it magically appear in front of us
in a day or two...when you have to actually take a piece fo plywood and a jig saw and cut that shape or when this screw
is too big and that screw is too small and you don't have anything in between or you don't have a screw that is long enough
and you have to change a whole design for the sake of one stupid screw...you learn to make your designs much simpler...
you stick with what works and you move on to the next problem...

but anyway...i love BEST...and i love FIRST...but they are two very different competitions...we spend more sending one kid to
disney world then we do on EVERYTHING in BEST...its a much different scale...

unfortunantely this year my school has decided they are only gonna let us do BEST or FIRST...(don't ask...just know that
we're fighting it to the very end...)...and if it comes down to it...we will be doing FIRST...but you better believe i will be at the
BEST competition...b/c...what can i say..i'm addicted..

Tom