2009 Control System Possibility?

[Danny Diaz]

Originally Posted by seanwitte

This is a breakdown in the community, not in FIRST.

I disagree.

I do believe there are some things the community is "responsible" for - the mentorship that Kevin Watson, Al Skierkiewicz, and the hundreds of other mentors from around the country/world provide has been critical to the success of teams, and we all truly appreciate their support. As a community we have increased knowledge and overall the competition has been made much more fulfilling through their efforts.

However, there are some responsibilities that should be enforced on the competition - i.e. FIRST. Whether they decide to enforce this on their vendors or not is their choice, but it's their job to make sure the hardware/software tools that teams get are going to be conducive to making teams productive, competitive, and happy. For obvious reasons they constrict us to a specific set of tools, hardware, and systems. GREAT! But they have the responsibility of ensuring that we get what we need to succeed with those tools/hardware/systems. They can't throw us into the ocean and expect the community to teach us how to swim.

-Danny

[Tim Skloss]

Originally Posted by Danny Diaz

They can't throw us into the ocean and expect the community to teach us how to swim.

But isnt' that is one of the pillars of FIRST, at least according to Dean Kamen? FIRST requires the community of engineers to give back and inspire the next generation. The students need to see that we have an important impact on our society, and make a good living doing it. And those jobs are there for them.

[Danny Diaz]

Originally Posted by Tim Skloss

FIRST is about the students. As mentors we show them that engineering is hard but with disciplined and steady work it can be immensely rewarding. (If it were easy, where's the satisfaction??)

They are all winners the minute they decide to get serious and start contributing to the team's efforts. The competitions are their chance to celebrate what they have accomplished. Whether they end up with a simple, complex, broken or top-tier robot will make no difference.

Originally Posted by Tim Skloss

But isnt' that is one of the pillars of FIRST, at least according to Dean Kamen? FIRST requires the community of engineers to give back and inspire the next generation. The students need to see that we have an important impact on our society, and make a good living doing it. And those jobs are there for them.

Yep, Don't get me wrong, I agree with all these statements - except maybe the part about kids not caring if they have a crappy robot or not; everybody wants to have a successful robot, but I do agree that it's all about how you measure success - a rookie team measures success very much differently than a veteran team, but should that be the case?

I also agree that engineers should be giving back, but I had better not see:

<R244> Each team shall have an engineer, or else they won't understand jack about what's going on.

In my mind, FIRST should have a competition that is accessible to kids, inspiring to kids, and FUN for kids. The engineers should be there to help those kids go farther, not for basic functionality. That's my opinion, at least. Just like there's a kit frame, there should be kit controls that are easy to use.

-Danny