Woodie Flowers Award

[Rion Atkinson]

Okay, so here is my problem... I can't figure out if college students are eligible for the Woodie Flowers Award. I looked up the definition and it said "adult mentor". Technically though; a college student is an adult. The mentors that have most impacted my team were students only last year, and now that they are college students, do they qualify for the WFA?

Another thing, if they are eligible, would FIRST just say "oh, just a college student, they don't deserve the award"? Or would they go more on what this college student has does to even cause the students to pick them over all the other mentors?

[EricH]

Typically, the distinction between "college student" and "adult mentor" is made by the team. FIRST doesn't make a distinction.

I also think that they'd be on an equal footing with the adult mentors. I don't know for sure, though; ask one of the Championship WFA's around these forums.

[Rion Atkinson]

Originally Posted by EricH

Typically, the distinction between "college student" and "adult mentor" is made by the team. FIRST doesn't make a distinction.

I also think that they'd be on an equal footing with the adult mentors. I don't know for sure, though; ask one of the Championship WFA's around these forums.

To me, any college student that steps forward to mentor a team is adult enough to me.

Thank you very much. I will do so very quickly. (As soon as I find one I don't feel that I will be bothering...)

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Formerly Famous

Okay, so here is my problem... I can't figure out if college students are eligible for the Woodie Flowers Award...

Patrick Fairbank, 2010 Waterloo Woodie Flowers Finalist, is a college student mentor for FRC 1503.

[Rion Atkinson]

Originally Posted by Richard

Patrick Fairbank, 2010 Waterloo Woodie Flowers Finalist, is a college student mentor for FRC 1503.

Well hey... That's a perfect answer. Thank you very much!

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Woodie Flowers essays are read and judged on their merit alone, not on the knowledge of the person's background or participation in FIRST events.

"The students will describe how this mentor has given them the best understanding of the challenges, opportunities and satisfaction involved in the discipline of engineering and design. Dr. Flowers will lead the past Championship Woodie Flowers Award (WFA) winners as they judge and select the Finalists and ultimate Championship winner based on student essays."

[MarcD79]

I am not posting for the above question on college student. I would like to know if there are any teams out there where more than one mentor on their team has received the Woody Flowers award. Our main Mentor, who also started the team back in 1995-1996, Dave Leenhouts won the WF award in 2005 in Connecticut. Our current Lead Mentor, William (Bill) Pease just won the WF award yesterday.

[Mark McLeod]

Nothing appeals to an engineer like data...
And yes I realize it takes all the romance and anecdotal quality out of the question, sorry.

Woodie Flowers (WFFA) winners per team (I decided to remove the WFAs since they are sort of double winners)
3 for team 111
3 for team 116
3 for team 131
3 for team 155
3 for team 188
3 for team 234
3 for team 357
3 for team 365
3 for team 612
3 for team 987
3 for team 1114
2 for team 25
2 for team 27
2 for team 34
2 for team 103
2 for team 126
2 for team 176
2 for team 180
2 for team 217
2 for team 340
2 for team 341
2 for team 353
2 for team 360
2 for team 375
2 for team 418
2 for team 469
2 for team 537
2 for team 668
2 for team 812
2 for team 932
2 for team 1510
2 for team 1538
2 for team 1547
2 for team 1592
2 for team 1675
2 for team 1732


The rest of the singleton counts are in the attachment, as well as totals that include the WFAs.
I couldn't attach the full spreadsheet with names and places, because it was larger than CD allows.
There are a few oddities, for instance when mentors have been nominated by more than a single team.

[Shankar M]

Thanks Mark for pulling up this detailed set of data on WFA winners.

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Woodie Flowers WFFA & WFA winners per team
...
4 for team 188
...

While four of the essays we have submitted for our mentors have won the WFA (Roland Anderson in 2004, Shawn Lim in 2006, and Mark Breadner in 2007 and then in 2008 at the Championship Event), we're also quite proud of our 3 alumni who have also gone on to win the award.

Karthik Kanagasabapathy in 2005 and Ian Mackenzie in 2008 (both mentors of Team 1114) along with Tristan Lall in 2009 (a former mentor of Team 188, now a mentor of Team 2505) were all once students on Team 188.

Five of these winners were involved with 188 when it first began in 1998, while Tristan joined the party in 1999.

[Mr. Lim]

Originally Posted by Shankar M

Thanks Mark for pulling up this detailed set of data on WFA winners.

While four of the essays we have submitted for our mentors have won the WFA (Roland Anderson in 2004, Shawn Lim in 2006, and Mark Breadner in 2007 and then in 2008 at the Championship Event), we're also quite proud of our 3 alumni who have also gone on to win the award.

Karthik Kanagasabapathy in 2005 and Ian Mackenzie in 2008 (both mentors of Team 1114) along with Tristan Lall in 2009 (a former mentor of Team 188, now a mentor of Team 2505) were all once students on Team 188.

Five of these winners were involved with 188 when it first began in 1998, while Tristan joined the party in 1999.

These are really cool numbers to see! Although I'm no longer affiliated with 188 now that I've become a teacher at 1310, the experience of being on 188 is something special that stays with you forever. I won't try and speak for Karthik, Ian or Tristan, but I know how we all felt in 1998 at the EPCOT centre when we saw Chief Delphi's swerve drive for the very first time. Mark Breadner instilled FIRST's ideals in us, and even though we didn't have the resources to build a competitive robot at the time, we were inspired to work hard so that one day we could do better.

The statistics will say 3 for 188, but it's astonishing to know that the team has produced 6 individuals who have gone on to win the award.

Here's a neat little link that sums it up nicely:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/18519
Karthik and Ian with their new team, 1114, in 2004 - the year they built the SimSwerve drive, which was undoubtedly inspired by 47's 1998 swerve, but mounted on pods that extended and retracted vertically, allowing it to climb a 6" high platform. A swerve drive that could climb... whodathunk?

Can you a imagine a team with Mark Breadner and Roland Anderson running around trying to keep 14 to 18 year-olds Karthik, Ian, Tristan and myself from cutting off our own fingers? I was there, and I have the scars to prove it =). Good times!

[Joe Reel]

I think team #45 has had two WFA's: Andy Baker and Mark Koors.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Joe,
The confusion may be that Andy received his WFA before WFFA were introduced. You are correct. At one time there was only the Championship Award, i.e. one person per year.

[Mark McLeod]

Yea, tallying just the WFFA's left off these pre-WFFA winners (WFAs) at Championship.

1996 - Woodie Flowers
1997 - Liz Calef, Team 88
1998 - Michael Bastoni, Team 23
1999 - Ken Patton, Team 65
2000 - Kyle Hughes, Team 27
2001 - Bill Beatty, Team 71
2002 - Dave Verbrugge, Team 67
2003 - Andy Baker, Team 45

The full list is here

P.S.
That also tempts me to list the Teacher Pioneer Awards given at the 1999 Championship which seemed to be sort of a WFFA-type award.

• Susan Godez, Team 128, Grandview Heights H.S., Powell, OH
• Kyle Hughes, Team 27, Oakland Science, Mathematics and Technology Academy, Clarkston, MI
• Bill McGowan, Team 11, Mt. Olive H.S., Flanders, NJ
• Chuck Nystrom, Team 173, East Hartford H.S., Hartford, CT
• Gary Dillard, Team 180, Stuart, FL

You'll notice that Kyle Hughes appears on both lists.

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

P.S.
That also tempts me to list the Teacher Pioneer Awards given at the 1999 Championship which seemed to be sort of a WFFA-type award.

• Susan Godez, Team 128, Grandview Heights H.S., Powell, OH
• Kyle Hughes, Team 27, Oakland Science, Mathematics and Technology Academy, Clarkston, MI
• Bill McGowan, Team 11, Mt. Olive H.S., Flanders, NJ
• Chuck Nystrom, Team 173, East Hartford H.S., Hartford, CT
• Gary Dillard, Team 180, Stuart, FL

Never before heard of these. Thanks for posting.