[BB]Award Changes for 2010

[Kevin Thorp]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

I am EXTREMELY happy about this. There are too many teams who use pro-e and solidworks (both which directly support FIRST) to just ignore them. I think this will make the judging process very interesting but I think it is definitely a step in the right direction.

I might be wrong, but I seriously doubt Autodesk will allow competitive software to be used in a contest they sponsor. What's more likely is they'll post a general design challange and let teams use any combination of Autodesk software (Inventor, 3ds Max, Maya, etc.) to create their entries.

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by Kevin342

I might be wrong, but I seriously doubt Autodesk will allow competitive software to be used in a contest they sponsor. What's more likely is they'll post a general design challange and let teams use any combination of Autodesk software (Inventor, 3ds Max, Maya, etc.) to create their entries.

Realistically I could see this happening, but if autodesk really believed in inspiring youth to learn science and technology it shouldn't matter what software students learn CAD on. In the long run engineers will use whatever software the company that hires them uses. And anyone who really knows and uses CAD on a regular basis understand that the techniques to make a proper use able model don't change software to software. When you play in the Parametric modeling realm the differences stem from the locations of the button, the order of operations, advanced features (which most free seeds don't include) and the subsequent linked packages (CAM).

If you REALLY know cad, it does not take much time to move from one piece of software to another. Teaching students the techniques and basics should be the goal, not worrying about which icons they hit to get there.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

Unless you got twins and made them say that same things.

Oooh! We have a set of twins on the team!

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

I'm stoked to see this happening. Its like FIRST is actually listening to teams now:yikes.

Yes, it DOES seem that we are starting to see more and more examples of transparency from FIRST.

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

if autodesk really believed in inspiring youth to learn science and technology it shouldn't matter what software students learn CAD on.

Perhaps, but the guys holding the purse strings aren't so easily convinced.

In some cases the software you use at work depends on what the company owns, but there are plenty of examples where employee X convinced management to buy software Y because s/he was familiar with it and knew it could solve problem Z.... <Ka-ching, another $ale>

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

Oooh! We have a set of twins on the team!
>

Great! Now just collaborate with a another team, and have one of the twins go to the other team during the competition and act like this- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4-O-tLsCDo

[Jason Law]

Does anybody know if the control system seminar/webcast is going to be recorded? I looked at the WPI website, but I couldn't find it.

Thanks,
Jason Law