So, you're not an engineer! How do you help your team??

[Bharat Nain]

I am lucky that I had the opportunity to help out in almost every part of the team. My main role on the team is programming and manipulating the robot arm, but I seem to have memorized all the mechanical stuff about the robot, and also be on the volcano crew for a while, it was great education and fun.

In the future, I plan either for mechanical engineering, bio-genetic engineering or something in the media field. My role on the team definitely relates to all these, I have been the camera man for many events last off-season.

I love robotics, it has a spot for every kinda future career a student chooses.

[Corey Balint]

I could not have expected as much to happen to me by joining robotix. My career aspirations changed, just everything is different then expected. During competitions im the main driver, and also learned alot about the mechanical aspects over the year, so i help out in pits, and refurbishing during times with no competitions. I also spent times as head scout, so i pretty much did alot and experienced alot all in one season.

Im thinking i wanna double major in Mech Eng(possibly or some other type of Eng) and Business. I never wouldve wanted to be an engineer without it. I always wanted to do something in sports management, and this gave me another, more realistic option.

And all the stuff i plan on doing in my life, i try to use in robotix. Next year i think im going to help out with the business aspects of the team and also be more involved in the build and pits.

[white_ChocOlat8]

In these past months I've found that engineering is not for me but I did however discover something I’m really good at and that is talking to people. So what I do for my team is I help search for the new sponsors every year. eh it's not a bad gig.

[Jon K.]

On RAGE I was the Human player for WPI Battlcry 4 and Bash at the Beach last year, and HP for UTC Regional, The Championship Event, and WPI Battlecry 5. I also do a lot of random things on the team. I learned the basics of Mastercam and CNC machining this year, to produce our teams sprockets as well as some for teams 809, and 195, along with the designing and fabricating of our Team awards this year. I am trying to learn PHP for our website this coming season and thats pretty much it.
Also I am not quite sure what I want to do yet, possibly something to do with machining but I am not sure.

[nobrakes8]

I'm a student on 1071. I specialize in manufacturing (machineing). I'm an apprentice tool maker for Utitec Inc. which does ultra precision machineing, so I pretty much can machine anything square, rectangular, round, from aluminum material (light and soft) to CPM 10V (very hard and heavy) material. I can machine just about anything you could imagine. If team 1071 needs a part pretty accurate i could machine by hand up to .0003" to .0005" (ten thousandths) tolerences if they need me to.(Usually in robotics we're just handed parts and use dial calipers and stuff just to get sizes close within a few thousandths of the size they need) In the future I hope to become a general manager or plant manager at a manufacturing shop and get a degrees in mechanical engineering and some type of business administration degree.

[Cory]

Over the last four years I've done some of pretty much everything with the exception of animation and programming.

I like mechanical stuff the best. I do CAD, design, build, all that good stuff.

The last two years I've done a lot of leadership stuff along with most of the day to day runnings of the team.

I've also been lucky enough to get to actually go out on the field and compete one way or another for the last three years.

Cory

[tiffany34990]

as a student on my teams well umm good ? how do i help--well i'm in the pit crew so basically i help clean up, find the tools for the engineers-- i help make the parts-- i love the work on the lathe and milling machine and drill press is good too-- remember stuff for the guys on the team--i'm the person they usually make find something or do something and as a veteran and all i oversee things and help out in various things like fundraising, improvements, teaching the rookies, website and all the fun stuff

but i want to go into medical research--doen't really help the team--but later on in the community and the world

everyone helps though in their own way-- it's a great big family i see it as- pretty much during the 6 weeks the ppl on u'r team that's who u see and deal with through the good times and bad times

[Allison K]

I'm an alumni-mentor. I don't have a job title, as I'm kind of a unique entity on our team. There are other alumni-mentors as well but we all have different amounts of time and different skills to bring to the group, so most of us are floaters, so to speak.

How do you help your team?
-Train the scouts and oversee the scouting process.
-Run the offseason program (The technical and non-technical divisions, which include organizing fundraising and outreach projects, finding new sponsors, getting all the old robots up and running, build a new crate and cart, team building fun).
-Idea Machine (This is everyone on the team really, but I compile the ideas into emails and send them to the necessary people).
-Field coach.
-I bring the goldfish (The edible kind).
-During build, I jump from group to group, helping where I can, and I spent a lot of time supervising in the machine shop.
-Currently I'm helping the seniors organize their senior project (which has been intergrated into the offseason program).

What's your current career?
I'm currently a college student, working towards a degree in secondary education (debating between majoring in chemistry, biology, physics, psychology, or some computer science or application).

Is this related to what you help out with on the team?
I suppose that anything I do that's working with high school students is related to a secondary education degree, so yes.

~Allison

[Ryan Dognaux]

I've been doing animation during the build season and scouting during the competition season for my four years with Cyber Blue. Next year, I'll be going into Computer Graphics Technology at Purdue. From there, who knows, it all depends on what I end up actually specifying my major as.. which I have no idea as to what that will be yet. Most likely something that requires a lot of technical skills, but at the same time some artistic ability. A bit of both sides of the brain.

With scouting - a lot of teams have adapted scouting to include computers with huge databases and all that jazz. I, personally, have found that unnecessary. We do it pen and paper style, everything is kept in a notebook, and scouting reports on the teams we're going up against go to the pits to assist in creating a strategy. It's simple, and it has been proven to work well.

While I'm most definately going to continue with FIRST into college... I don't know what I want to do on the team I mentor. Guess we'll see...

[Josh Hambright]

I help my team with alot of different areas, atleast i like to think i help out more then i get in the way. But i help mostly with electrical, controls, pneumatics, and programming, the same areas i was incharge of back in high school, except now i just help them solve problems and help them get stuff done rather then doing the brunt of the work like the old days. I also help out with mechical when i can, strategy, CAD, website, animation, video production, public relations, and just about any other area.

My career right now is retail. I am an employee of Target. Which has just about nothing to do with robots. Except i now know how everything in the backroom that is sweet and hydrolic and pneumatic and mechanical works because of robots, but that doesn't really help me at robotics. I am also a student, which does i guesse help me with robotics, because i'm in the CS program at the local community college until i move away in august to Bloomington.

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I work at Xerox as a meterials handler which is basically a fork truck driver, I must be the only one involved in FIRST.

While i dont actualy drive a fork lift, i do work in the backroom alot and I'm certified to use the big powered pallet jack that can lift stuff really high in the air. The equipment in the back room rocks!

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Bharat Nain

I love robotics, it has a spot for every kinda future career a student chooses.

I agree, and I just wish that in the future, the scholarship opportunities available to students who participate in FIRST will be more than just engineering based scholarships.