Corporate Campus Sponsored Teams.

[xitaqua]

Hello All,

I was wondering if there is any teams that have their workshop where they build their robot inside a corporate campus ?

What is that experience like, such as the cons and pro versus a more traditional team that meets at a high school campus ?.

Cheers,
Marcos.

[Akash Rastogi]

although I'm not from one of such teams, i know a few common pro's to this situation.

-Direct onsite mentor support
-Not limited by school time/holiday restrictions
-Better learning environment for the kids if the mentor is in his/her "element"

Just a couple.

[GaryVoshol]

Another pro often is better facility/equipment/tools, depending on what the sponsor's business is.

A con is transportation of students to the site.

[fuzzy1718]

MY team builds at a local Ford plant, one huge con is the amount of room. My team and a few others that I have talked to who build at their sponsor's location have very little build space; we are cramped into a room that is about the size of a bedroom. Another con is dealing with security. The only benefit we actually have by working there, is they give us space for a full sized field and normally build some of it for us... free of charge! If you think machining is easier, make sure you don't work in a place with a union, they expect overtime for any parts that are for you. As far as tools go, we aren't allowed to use any of Ford's stuff due to liability.

Hope this helps

[Carol]

We also build at a DuPont site. Besides the pros/cons already mentioned, hours are both a pro/con. Pro because you don't have to deal with school schedules and closings (businesses close much less often for weather than schools!). Con is we can't start work until 5:30 at night, and that early only because we provide dinner (paid for monthly by students and delievered by parents). Space is a con - our main workshop is in one building on site, dinner is eaten in another, and playing field and storage in another on a different site. Pro is that we can work on weekends - our usual schedule during build season is Mon, Wed, Thurs 5:30-8:30, and Sundays 1:00-5:00.

About half of our mentors work for DuPont and there is an advantage being on or near our work site.

[James Tonthat]

Wildstang builds at Motorola.

[Chris is me]

1714 works out of our head mentor's plastic fabrication shop, American Acrylics. This gives us some of the advantages of working on a corporate campus. Mainly, school schedules. Since Wisconsin schools close all the time, working in a shop outside of a school means that snow days turn into 8 hour longer build days. Since the business is relatively small, during build season with prior approval team members can work every day after their other commitments are done. We also can work on weekends (and do frequently).

I don't actually know of many cons to the arrangement at all.

[xitaqua]

Hello All,

Thanks for all the comments.

From the previous postings, I gathered the following team build on corporate campuses :

Team #1718 (The Fighting Pi) Ford Plant
Team#0365 (MOE) Dupont
Team#XXX (Wildstang) Motorola
Team#1714 (More Robotics) American Acrylics

And the PRO/CONS might be summarized as follows :

PRO
- Better access to Industry Mentors.
- Less “site closing” due to weather or “school day off”.
- Access to tools / facility and materials.

CON
- Access to students to site. (eg. Transportation, site security process)
- Student may not be able to use tool himself/herself due to liability.
- Company Policies / Union Policies may limit “build process”.
- Availability after business hours (5PM>). School maybe out 3 hours earlier.


Let me know what you guys think !.

Cheers,
Marcos.

[Trying to Help]

We built at a sponsor's site last year.

More things to consider - who cleans up? what are the pre-build expectations? and what happens if your sponsor doesn't have interest for a following year?

[xitaqua]

Hello Trying to Help,

Good questions !.

More things to consider - who cleans up?
FOOD FOR THOUGHT : I would think teams would follow the same concept as the one that build in school classrooms. I mentored a team in Wentzville, MO where at the end of the day they would put everything back to a "closet". Unless the company is giving the team a dedicated space, the team should clean up themselves.

what are the pre-build expectations?
FOOD FOR THOUGHT : A best way to set expectations is to set a "kick-off" meeting a couple months before the build season, have the company representative (usually a manager or a leader that is supporting the activity), talk to the team and give the pep-talk.


and what happens if your sponsor doesn't have interest for a following year?
FOOD FOR THOUGHT : As in the "real world of engineering", the environment change, the key is to keep the "program sold", ensuring that the company sees the value to it's employee for sponsoring an activity like this. I think many companies sees this as a great opportunity to get engineers to keep their skills current : develop mentoring skills, technical skills and also communications skills.

[Carol]

Originally Posted by xitaqua

and what happens if your sponsor doesn't have interest for a following year?
FOOD FOR THOUGHT : As in the "real world of engineering", the environment change, the key is to keep the "program sold", ensuring that the company sees the value to it's employee for sponsoring an activity like this. I think many companies sees this as a great opportunity to get engineers to keep their skills current : develop mentoring skills, technical skills and also communications skills.

This is important. You HAVE to make sure that your sponsor sees the value of the team, sees the importance of what you do. Out of sight, out of mind, and the company may then look at their donations as a good place to cut back. We always invite our sponsors to our end of the year picnic, and do demos at the end of the year at corporates site(s), emphasizing the benefits to the students (how many scholarships won, stories of students who have graduated college and gone in engineering, etc.)

[xitaqua]

Carol,

I am thinking in encouraging the teams I mentor to have a picnic.... I like this idea, do you have info on how it is organized, like who cooks the burgers and get the food, is it something the parents lead, the students, the mentors or the coach ?

Originally Posted by Carol

This is important. You HAVE to make sure that your sponsor sees the value of the team, sees the importance of what you do. Out of sight, out of mind, and the company may then look at their donations as a good place to cut back. We always invite our sponsors to our end of the year picnic, and do demos at the end of the year at corporates site(s), emphasizing the benefits to the students (how many scholarships won, stories of students who have graduated college and gone in engineering, etc.)

[rachelholladay]

So I'm not sure if this counts as working on a corporate campus (because it is corporate but its not a campus, its one building) but FRC 1912 Combustion works in the upstairs loft of QinetiQ North American, one of our most loyal sponsors. There really is no place at our school that would be a good work area (we had to go that route for a few years and it was not awesome). It is nice not to have to be constrained by school hours although we still do have to be respectful of when we work because we have to ask our sponsor to open up and lock down behind us. Our mentors really stress with us the importance of always keeping the work area clean because we would hate for our sponsor to walk up there and see a huge mess. As alluded to early we have had some volatility in our build space and nothing is a guarantee. However (I'd like to think) we have a solid relationship with our sponsor and we are very grateful to them for lending us the space. There are two unique points to note about our situation though. We do not use any of our sponsor's tool/workshop areas (everyone is told not to touch anything that is not our), none of mentors (as of currently, this was not true last season) are employees at the company. Also, since we work in the upstairs, absolutely everything we use must go up and down the stairs. I can't tell you how many times we've carried robots, pits, red tool chests, parts boxes, etc. up that staircase. (I guess on one hand, it keeps us in shape..)

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by xitaqua

Hello All,

Thanks for all the comments.

From the previous postings, I gathered the following team build on corporate campuses :

Team #1718 (The Fighting Pi) Ford Plant
Team#0365 (MOE) Dupont
Team#XXX (Wildstang) Motorola
Team#1714 (More Robotics) American Acrylics

And the PRO/CONS might be summarized as follows :

PRO
- Better access to Industry Mentors.
- Less “site closing” due to weather or “school day off”.
- Access to tools / facility and materials.

CON
- Access to students to site. (eg. Transportation, site security process)
- Student may not be able to use tool himself/herself due to liability.
- Company Policies / Union Policies may limit “build process”.
- Availability after business hours (5PM>). School maybe out 3 hours earlier.


Let me know what you guys think !.

Cheers,
Marcos.

To elaborate more regarding 1718: students are allowed to use the teams tools: drill press, band saw, grinders, drills, etc. They are not allowed to use any of the Ford-Specific items like Mills, Lathes, and CNC's.

There are some other pros. Our work space is never closed. Even in bad weather, our team still meets. If we need an emergency part made, we CAN get it done in a pinch.

There are definite cons too though. Especially in a larger company, you'll run into people working there and even managers who, for no good reason, don't really want you there. They can cause all sorts of headaches. At a school, you usually don't see as much of that.

All in all, I would stay in the plant given a choice. The full size field is a huge plus, and always being able to work (even all nighters since we're a three shift plant) has been very beneficial.

[MARS_James]

At the space we had for 2011 was attached to a building shared by GE and Florida Turbine Technologies. It was a huge space they used for storage and we consolidated all of their stuff to about 1/4 of the room. Our biggest issue was that their was no restroom in our suite so when we had to use it our teacher sponsor had to get a group around the building slide a security key and then everyone could walk in. Though we had one issue near the very end where a door we thought was locked from both sides wasn't and FTT employees had been walking into our space while we weren't there and touching and moving our things, though the FTT gremlins did see the schematics for one of our parts and tweaked it and fabricated it for us so not all bad.