how often does your team meet during build season?

[IndySam]

The first weeks are design and prototyping and the real building doesn't start until week three or four.

The first two or three weeks are Mon-Thurs 6:00-9:00 (but our brains are working a lot longer.) After that we will also meet on Saturdays and depending on how it's going we will throw in a Sunday or two.

We will absolutely work the last Saturday and Sunday and as long as we can on Monday before ship (hopefully just practicing.)

[Romeo1351]

Build, we meet every weekday, 3-6PM (give or take an hour), and Saturdays 9-4 (9-9 when it gets to crunch time).

[nautica]

During the design process, we have around 3-4 meetings a week. When building starts, we basically meet everyday of the week, from 7 up to midnight (although most people leave by 10 ish). On weekdays, only about 4 people come to work a day. There have been Fridays when I worked at a machine shop from 4-11 at night (free pizza for dinner though).

[Cory]

We don't really have set hours.

Mentors usually show up between noon and two on weekdays. Kids show up between two and three. We work until 7-8:00 or later pretty much every day. Fridays we stay till 9 or 10, often.

Weekends we usually get there around 10-12, and work till 8-10. Sometimes later.

When it gets down to crunch time, we're pretty much there nonstop. Last year I slept in our lab from Thursday through Tuesday.

In 2006 we tried to take Sundays off at first. It didn't really work. We got behind and started working Sundays anyways.

We didn't take any days off that I can remember... Super Bowl Sunday, Valentine's Day... all fair game (unfortunately)

[Bcliff358]

sometimes till first period, if its a good day....

[vivek16]

umm. On a side note, how long can a human being survive/remain sane without sleep?

-vivek

[BJT]

sane? about 5 weeks.

[vivek16]

so if I get decent sleep first week of build I won't need any for the rest of it. Awesome.

-vivek

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by vivek16

arg, i am not getting this right. I mean: is there a single mentor that shows up to every single one of the meetings? the same mentor.

I im inferring that there is usually not and that we need more than just 3.5 mentors

thanks, vivek

Often, the consistency of the team is based on the consistency of the mentors that commit their time and effort to the team. Teams find ways to work with the schedule. Communication is key in running a FIRST team. The mentors that you have should discuss what they can commit to and what areas they will work in with the team. From there, you can figure out if you need more mentors. It is always good to have mentor support and parent support. Time constraints are a big part of build. Learning to work within those time constraints is real world.

Your team has to figure out what you can and can not do this year and learn from this experience. Build on it. All of this advice is nice but it can also be overwhelming. Go through the thread and write down suggestions that have been helpful and something you feel your team can do.

There are teams who build out of a living room and a garage and they are successful. There are teams that build out of warehouses like you are talking about. There are teams that build out of shops at schools. There are teams that build out of shops provided for them by their sponsors. Every team has to figure out how to make the best use of their time and their workspace. There is no cookie cutter method to build.

If little red flags raise regarding lack of sleep, using energy drinks to keep yourself going, letting studies slide - pay attention to those little red flags and discuss them with your team. Your rookie year is the only rookie year you guys will ever have. It will be stressful and the learning curve will be enormous but approach it with as much common sense as you can and have fun learning what a FIRST team is all about and capable of.
Take the time to read the information that has been released for the 2008 manual.
Take the time to look at the resources provided for you in the FIRST website.
Take the time to look at the rookie resources provided for you by teams and referred to here in CD.

This thread is a thread of advice, humor, and suggestions, but the actual programs that have been developed to help rookies through their first build and competition(s) are where you'll get the most bang for your buck.

[synth3tk]

Wow, lots of replies within a few hours. Uhm, anyway, we have the main teacher and an engineer mentor from a company called Fluke (I still don't know who they are) and I think that's part of our problem with limited hours. That and the somewhat restricted school administration, but that's another story. I really wish we had more mentors, since none of the parents help out at all, although we don't have a big team, so right now we're good.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by blakcheez

Wow, lots of replies within a few hours. Uhm, anyway, we have the main teacher and an engineer mentor from a company called Fluke (I still don't know who they are) ...

Since you have a mentor from Fluke, and your post implies that this engineer might be your only technical mentor, it would be a good idea for your team to learn a little about that company. Sponsors, judges, politicians, school administrators, and other interested people just love it when students learn a few things about the folks who volunteer their time to help.

Fluke is a highly respected instrumentation company. They are part of a larger corporation called Danaher. A division called Fluke Biomedical has one of its head offices in Cleveland, so that may be where your team's mentor works. Fluke Biomedical's website can be found here.

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by vivek16

umm. On a side note, how long can a human being survive/remain sane without sleep?

-vivek

Well, it is really hard to die from lack of sleep; the world record is around two weeks for normal people with a full recovery. For longest period awake, I believe the record is several months, but very long periods of sleeplessness like that are caused by medical disorders that result in death. (There was a rather interesting 60 Minutes story on a family in, IIRC, Italy that had one of these sleep disorders running through their ancestry. Basically, one day in their thirties or forties, without warning, some members of the family would be unable to fall asleep and later die after months of sleep deprivation) You do start to hallucinate after a couple of days without sleep though, which may be a problem operating power tools...

[Éowyn]

Originally Posted by vivek16

umm. On a side note, how long can a human being survive/remain sane without sleep?

-vivek

Oh, you'd be surprised . . .

[Blue_Mist]

Originally Posted by vivek16

umm. On a side note, how long can a human being survive/remain sane without sleep?

-vivek

For survival, it's really difficult not to fall asleep at some point in time. Actually, I read someplace that missing a couple of hours of sleep is approximately equivalent to drinking two or three beers. And it's possible to medically overdose on caffeine. Caffeine is a drug and can poison your system to the point of your heart stopping, so DO. NOT. OVER. USE!

For sanity, definitely depends on each person. Some people are capable of pulling all nighters two days in a row (!), some need ten hours a night to function. I know people on both ends and everywhere in between. Personally, I can work on 6 hours a night, maybe 5 if I'm really pushing it. Most people are somewhere in between, and I don't really recommend testing your limit. But if you must, make sure you can crash for at least ten hours or so. Once I worked all night on a school project and nearly fell asleep on my bike on the way to school. In front of a big intersection.

[octothorpe]

I used to think that sleep was just wasted time, and I'd stay up as late as possible as frequently as possible. Eventually I realized that sleep does have some positive benefits after all (at least for me) and tried to get more of it. Of course, there are still occasional exceptions to this approach *cough*3:15amPST*cough*.

Relative to robotics, as much as I generally enjoy the build season, I find the meetings, especially the longer ones, pretty tiring both mentally and physically (being on your feet for 12 hours is surprisingly fatiguing). The trick in my experience is to get enough sleep to keep from falling over (or getting flattened by cross-traffic), but at the same time to be sleep-deprived enough so that everything gets that extra ounce of humor injected into it, thereby maintaining optimal operating status for robotics.