No Mentors..

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by CrazyCarl461

Use the available resources mentioned earlier and to track down whoever your can, FIRST alums are hiding everywhere these days!

Carl,
For the benefit of our readers, can you go into a little bit about FIRST alumni and what that means - where they can be found? Also - maybe the benefit of college mentors? Also - one more thing - explain the kit-bot. What that means.

Thank you. It would be a good reference for rookies/new teams.

Jane

[Andrew Schreiber]

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ighlight=lingo Jane asked me to post this thread (I think this was the right one).

I also went through and found some of the old threads/resources/links.

http://www.team358.org/files/mechani...nRefTables.jpg - Drive train reference tables, might not be accurate anymore but can be useful for demonstrating the concepts.

http://picasaweb.google.com/RoboticW...67714923582722 Lewis's gallery, one of the best places for robot pictures I have found. (I've heard things about Pat Fairbank's but don't have a link.)

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...32&postcount=1 Something I think is important.

Finally, an introduction to our friend Dave Lavery.

Editted: Found the right link.

[JaneYoung]

Thank you for providing helpful links to information, Andrew.

Jane

[CrazyCarl461]

FIRST Alumni are anyone who has participated in FIRST in high school or, in the case of college-run teams, participated as a college mentor and are no longer involved with a team. This is usually because they move to a new city and start working a fresh new job and FIRST gets pushed down the priority list. I have dozens of friends from Purdue alone who are now scattered around the country working and going about their non-FIRST lives. Sometimes they can be brought back into the program if approached by a local team. 461 recently got an engineer from the local Caterpillar plant who was on a team in another city to stop by meetings this fall.

I'm not sure where FIRST gets their list of potential mentors willing to help, but it probably has something to do with the push the past few years (Dean's homework) to gather information about team alumni. The form had a place to indicate if you would be willing to continue involvement in the future.

College mentors are a similar case, they are usually former high school participants who want to continue the experience. We have found this is a good way to keep getting an infusion of different design philosophies from different teams from around the country every few years.

As for the kit bot, that will make more sense when you pick up your rookie version of the kit of parts. It includes a bolt-together chassis frame that is pre-built to be within the size constraints and work with bumpers, kit gearboxes and kit wheels. It limits you a little in design configurations but it provides a robust drive system that takes only minutes to set up, allowing you to focus completely on the other robot mechanisms. It is also a good way to get something up and driving to give your team practice driving and using the cRio platform early in the build season.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by CrazyCarl461

College mentors are a similar case, they are usually former high school participants who want to continue the experience. We have found this is a good way to keep getting an infusion of different design philosophies from different teams from around the country every few years.

Excellent, Carl - thank you!

And, to add, college mentors can also bring an understanding of the other aspects of the competition with them that will help in the areas such as business/imagery/marketing, etc. Powerful stuff.

Thanks again, Carl.
Jane

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

Excellent, Carl - thank you!

And, to add, college mentors can also bring an understanding of the other aspects of the competition with them that will help in the areas such as imagery/marketing, etc. Powerful stuff.

Thanks again, Carl.
Jane

Not to toot my own horn (because I'm actually bad at this) but college students bring perspective to many teams of how other teams are run. Students also feel more comfortable talking to them because in many cases they are only a couple years older. This can be a blessing and a curse because sometimes students will not listen to the college mentors. College students also don't always have the discretion that older mentors do when it comes to doing things.

[CrazyCarl461]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

And, to add, college mentors can also bring an understanding of the other aspects of the competition with them that will help in the areas such as business/imagery/marketing, etc. Powerful stuff.

Definitely! Purdue FIRST (461, 1646 and 1747) has been lucky enough to get Purdue students from various Chairman's Award winning and highly successful teams throughout Indiana such as TechnoKats, Hammond and Cyber Blue. It's been a good way to learn from their successes and leverage some of the methods that have made these teams so great.

[wendymom]

As everyone here has said, Yes you can do it without "professional" mentors. We have run for 5 years without a "professional Mechanical Engineer". We started with 4 college guys who had done FIRST in high school (one graduated, so now we have a "pro") and a team mom who cant even program her DVR. The college guys were a great resource, they knew all about how competitions went, how to market the team, how to judge whisper and everything else that goes along with running a team. We managed to win Rookie All Star and go to Champs our first year.

Everyone here on CD will jump at the chance to help you out if possible. Texas has some of the best teams in the country and some of the nicest mentors to boot. They will give you hand whenever possible.

Remember it's not all about the robot. If you look at the awards list you will notice that 2/3rds of them have nothing to do with the actual robot. Just have fun, be goofy, don't panic and if you make it to a regional (even with a box of parts) all the teams will help you out.

[Andrew Schuetze]

Thanks for all the helpful posts from the community that is FIRST. I did post in the KOP thread by the same OP that I'll be contacting this team ASAP.

I did not look at all of the quality resource links already provided in other posts but here are a few of my suggestions:

For Teams by Teams
The 2007 President’s Circle has selected resources that are particularly useful for helping start new teams. Our goal was to provide a substantial directory of useful resources, while not including everything available from the FIRST Community.
Resources

• Top Team Manuals for New FIRST Teams
• Top Web Sites for New FIRST Teams
• “Must Have” Resources for New FIRST Teams
• Where to Find Financial Support for New FIRST Teams

FRC Mentors Resources Library
The contents of the FRC Mentor Resources Connection have been accumulated and categorized through the efforts of many FRC Team Mentors and FIRST Senior Mentors. It is an exercise in Mentors helping Mentors. Their insight and contribution make this offering possible. FIRST would like to thank all of these dedicated volunteers for their time and support of this project.


I would say that in today's FIRST competition, a critical mentor/coach is someone who can program in C++/JAVA or use LabView as the mechanical end of things can be easier to achieve basic robot functions but nothing happens if one doesn't put in some code. We didn't need much of an autonomous mode or have to write much code back in 2001 when the control system was a BASIC Stamp robot controller and operator interface with just speed controllers and relays. Things are still a bit plug n play in that regard but setting up the wifi connection between the robot and laptop ... does require some skill but a good techie student might be able to read and follow the manuel to get things up and running.


As an additional FYI for other posters to this thread, FRC in Texas has been exploding in the last three years and these kinds of situations will be more of the norm. Corpus Christi, Texas did not have any FRC teams until the 2009 season so the local college scene is only going to have a few FRC veteran students with one or two years of FIRST experience. We will need a lot more of the virtual and tele-mentoring resources.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schuetze

As an additional FYI for other posters to this thread, FRC in Texas has been exploding in the last three years and these kinds of situations will be more of the norm. Corpus Christi, Texas did not have any FRC teams until the 2009 season so the local college scene is only going to have a few FRC veteran students with one or two years of FIRST experience. We will need a lot more of the virtual and tele-mentoring resources.

Andrew's post and awesome information sheds light on the situation here in Texas. Not to sidetrack but it is good for our FRC community to see that Texas is spread thin in all areas, including the 'local college scene' in areas like Corpus Christi. That means that it is also spread thin in graduates of the 'local college scene' who have been exposed to FRC or FIRST, in general.

Mentors, please think about the impact of this on the teams that have formed in recent years and formed for this upcoming season and if you can sign up to help mentor long distance, go for it.

Andrew is one of our robotics heroes here in Texas, who values and cares about teams in FIRST. We are lucky to have him among us.

Jane

[rsisk]

I don't think I saw this mentioned, but you can always ask your FIRST Senior Mentor in Texas for help with finding mentors...

From the FIRST web site: http://www.usfirst.org/community/vol...t.aspx?id=3310

TX Mike Henry mhenry@usfirst.org

[Andrew Schuetze]

Originally Posted by rsisk

I don't think I saw this mentioned, but you can always ask your FIRST Senior Mentor in Texas for help with finding mentors...

From the FIRST web site: http://www.usfirst.org/community/vol...t.aspx?id=3310

TX Mike Henry mhenry@usfirst.org

Temporarily highjacking this thread
Having one senior mentor in a state of 27,000 square miles with now 145 FRC teams is a difficult job as Jane Young can attest. (Jane was the first FSM before turning over the reins to Mike Henry a couple of years ago.)

FIRST in Texas (FiT) is attempting to help with the same problem that we have in the FIRST Tech Challenge. There is likely to be 150 - 200 new FTC teams in Texas this year alone. To make it a bit more of a challenge, many of these teams will be competing at events hosted by folks new to FIRST themselves. To help with that situation, FiT is funding six or seven mentors that we are calling FTC Technical Mentors to help provide training and assistance across the state. I think they have people under contract in Houston and Fort Worth and maybe in Laredo. However, they are looking for folks in El Paso, Lubbock, Tyler and the Killeen/Waco area. If you have FIRST experience and have time to organize training sessions and practice sessions over the next 4 - 5 months, get in contact with Erin Hagan or Kristi Holman with FiT ASAP. Send them a cover letter and resume via fax or email.

Okay, back to posting ideas on how this FRC team in Corpus Christi and others survive thier rookie year by finding and developing mentor support systems.

[JohnBoucher]

There are many retired engineers out there, you just need to find them and not scare them off.
Letters to the editor for your local newspaper and contacting tv stations explaining your situation should get you some help. It worked for us.
You will need to keep it simple so you don't overwhelm the people helping you. FIRST , the FIRST engineering staff and Andymark will supply you with enough parts to make a running robot in the KOP. They do a great job with the rookie kit.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

There are many retired engineers out there, you just need to find them and not scare them off.
Letters to the editor for your local newspaper and contacting tv stations explaining your situation should get you some help. It worked for us.
You will need to keep it simple so you don't overwhelm the people helping you. FIRST , the FIRST engineering staff and Andymark will supply you with enough parts to make a running robot in the KOP. They do a great job with the rookie kit.

They don't always have to be engineers either. This year the acquisition I am most excited about is a retired millwright who loves to tinker.

I also bolded/underlined a section that always needs more emphasis. FRC is a competition. Don't forget this and build something because it will be cool, build something that is competitive. There is no shame in using the KOP stuff, it is there to be used.

[EricH]

If worse comes to worse and no local mentors can be found, by any or all of the methods suggested above, CD is a good place to ask some of those questions. Having access to several thousand mentors in one place, even if you aren't physically there, is a whole lot better than having zero mentors.