71's It's A Wonderful Life

[JVN]

Mr. Bill,
Thanks for sharing. Never underestimate the impact and inspiration you and your team have on the rest of the robotics community.

For those that don't know...
This clip has special significance to me.
In September of 2002 Mr. Bill posted this:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=14564

I was one of the "outsiders" that requested a copy of their tape (after watching 71 win two straight Championships, who wouldn't request a copy!) This video had a major impact on my development as an engineer, and also on my understanding of the FIRST program and what it means to be a FIRST team.

Some people have heard me say: "Design is an iterative process." This has turned into almost a catch phrase of mine, which I parrot over and over to my students. The first time I realized the power of this principle was watching the evolution of the 71-2002 machine.

There was one great sequence in the video which showed a time-lapse of the robot as it evolved over the season. I've always been in awe of 2 things: first, that a team actually took the time to pose their robot in the same position to document its progress, and second the number of iterations the robot went through.

Back then, I thought that the design process consisted of "design it, build it, throw it in the crate." Team Hammond taught me the power of iteration, which greatly impacted the way I design, and the way I teach my students. It opened my eyes to a whole new world.

Thanks again to Team Hammond for all the inspiration over the years and for giving me a big smile on Christmas Eve! Here's to the thumb...

-John

PS - I think this same story probably applies to any number of 229 team members from that time (2002-2005) but I won't speak for them. All I know is that we watched that video about 10,000 times during college.