[moderated] pic: The 2006 NiagaraFIRST Triplets!

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by CatchRothy22

For everyone saying that this is an "awesome" and great idea, and how great their robots are, I think you're out of your mind. First is about high-schoolers, and kids getting involved in engineering by designing and building their robots. I guarantee that the students and kids on these teams didn't build those robots. And building is not simple assembling parts that NiagaraFIRST sent them. 3 teams having the exact same robot sponsored by NiagaraFIRST, I'm sure we can tell who actually built the robot here.


You can find this right on the "About FIRST" page on the usfirst.org site. Teams are supposed to consist of students and kids building the robot assisted by mentors. Not assembling a box of parts sent by their sponsor that's already been duplicated and built by 2 other teams.

I don't see how this is a good idea at all. It completely ruins the FIRST spirit, and takes all the creativity out of the largest part in the Robot season, build phase. This is probably one of the worst examples of gracious professionalism I've seen in my few years involved in FIRST.

Stop selling out to your sponsors, and try creating your own robot for once.

Before things get too far out of hand here, how can you make the assumption that these robots are not student-built? My understanding is that NiagaraFIRST is not a company, but rather a name for a group of three high school teams. So, if NiagaraFIRST is making parts and building robots, then that would be a good thing. Would you make the same accusation of 217/229, or 254/22, or 254/60? Using the same jointly-designed plans doesn't mean that everyone isn't making their own parts. I don't know any better than you do what the actual situation is, but it would probably be better to not make assumptions.

(2c)