Mentors Input

[Peter Matteson]

For 177

Who builds robots/where?

Students and mentors working together. Students do all the machining that doesn't require complex or difficult setups, which is just a couple parts per year. Most of us engineers are usless without the students to help us.

Do you have dedicated space/machine shop?

We have a shop at the high school shared with classes.

Do you rely on corp. sponsors to build?

Not at all.

Who manages the team/students?

Students.

How involved is your school?

Not very. The school does little for the team and usually gets in the way due to a litigation happy locality.

How involved are your students parents?

Not very much until recently. The parents now run the fundraising side of the team.

What is your teams operating budget?

$15,000-20,000 for the last 6 or so years, depending on what our secondary sponsors can give. This covers one regional the championship our build budget and bus transport to our local regional.

How do you get compensated, besides the obvious joy of watching your students grow?

The mentors that work for our primary sponsor get travel covered and teams days comped by the company. I not working there anymore as well as the other mentors usually spend about $1000 dollars a year on materials to alleviate our budget pressures.

What is your typical build season schedule?

Wed & Thurs 5-8, Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5
We don't meet during mid-terms or on snow days because of school rules.

Also we have about 7 dedicated engineer and 4 teacher mentors with a group of 4 or 5 "retired mentors" that we can call in a pinch if we need them.