pic: Team 221 LLC. - Wild Swerve Module

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

Kits like these dull the value of that education immensely, and a level playing field does nothing to mimic the real world. There are always engineering companies with better tools, more funding, and better employees than you in the real world.

Completely disagree. These kits do not change the fact that different "companies" still have access to better resources. No amount of COTS components will ever change that.

Until FRC kits come with CNC machines, state of the art build facilities, a $10,000 voucher for McMaster, and clones of Paul Copioli and Andy Baker, a level playing field will never be an issue. Moreover, "raising the bar" of the competition is absolutely a major part of the real world.

What industry do you know of where the competition never gains access to new and previously unattainable technologies and the leaders never have to worry about stepping up their game?

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

Learning to improvise and compete with what you have, not with a standardized kit will train you more for the real world.

Completely disagree. Real world engineering is often more about evaluating and selecting available off the shelf components than it is innovating from scratch. Innovation is best suited to filling the gaps between what is already available, not re-creating what you're too stubborn to use.

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

The goal of FIRST can be met with a set of legos, the robot is just a medium. But the education that comes with it, that is truly special.

This is your opinion, and I respect it, but I have to completely disagree. The goal of FIRST is inspiration. Anyone who tells you that watching a LEGO League robot is 100% as inspiring as watching 1114 hurdle trackballs, 67 fill a trailer, or 25 light up the high goal is lying. The size, speed, and power of full sized FRC robots are much more sublime. People go to the zoo to see the lions and tigers, not the ants.

Inspiration is showing what true professionals can do and lighting enough of the way so that students can connect the dots between their lives and the life of a professional engineer. College and hands-on training will get them there; we only need to show them the way.