There are a lot of adults participating in this competition, and I am wondering what kind of jobs they have…
There are engineers like Dr. Joe and Andy Baker… There are teachers who are team leaders… But that’s about all I know.
So, will the adults mind telling us a little detail about what kind of jobs they have? I am just interested in seeing what FIRST people do outside competition…
Software engineers are a minority in the FIRST community, but I’m one of 'em. I work for Motorola, on the iDEN system (Nextel is our main customer). We design & develop the whole iDEN system and sell it to anyone with enough money to buy it. My department of 150 or so people develops the piece of infrastructure that controls the dispatch (2-way / push to talk) portion of the phones, as well as mobility management (keeping track of where each phone is). The team of 4 people I work with develops software that’s used to test our department’s product. We simulate other components of the iDEN system and generate hundreds of calls per second in order to test the box’s capacity & capabilities under high call load.
That’s my job. It may not sound exciting to everyone, but I enjoy it. It’s challenging (most of the time) and fun (again, most of the time).
Mike
I am a tech ed teacher at the high school and also project leader
other thatn that I am finishing my ME to go with my PE-
and staring classes in robot design at UVA in the fall
-absolutely no life what soever
yahooooo!
dahl
Most of the adult mentors on the team work in the engineering field, such as toolmakers, electrical engineers, or CAD Drafters like my self. But then you have the other end of the scope- One of our parent mentors owns his own wedding video business. I think it’s good to have mentors/parents/helpers that come from a variety of different backgrounds. Even though some may think the most important part of the compitition is engineering a robot in six weeks, that’s not all that is involved as probably all of you know. There is public relations, accounting, marketing, or just plain being there to make posters or banners to show team support. But anyways, the more people you get involved with a program like FIRST, the better it is for the indivual student’s to learn the skills that will help them when they enter the (GASP) “REAL WORLD”!!! 
Until 3 months ago I was in the CAD Design Services for UT Electronic Controls. I would take Production Change Notices (PCN’s) and add them to the component drawings. I would also design new parts and cases using Pro Enginering software.
I now work for Reliability in the Failure Analysis Lab. I take failed components and determine why they failed. We have an Electron Microscope, Real Time X-Ray, Stereo Microscope and vatious other equipment at out disposal.
Believe it or not, I run team 393, I am female, and I am a business teacher/school-to-work coordinator! I have no technical abilities at all, yet I love FIRST! (I have come a long way though.) I started a team at my school after watching my husband (team 234) and his team after one year. I fell in love with FIRST and everything it offered the students. Therefore, I do everything BUT the engineering…and I have come up with a new job title for myself…“social engineer!” 
*Originally posted by Libby Ritchie *
**Believe it or not, I run team 393, I am female, and I am a business teacher/school-to-work coordinator! I have no technical abilities at all, yet I love FIRST! (I have come a long way though.) I started a team at my school after watching my husband (team 234) and his team after one year. I fell in love with FIRST and everything it offered the students. Therefore, I do everything BUT the engineering…and I have come up with a new job title for myself…“social engineer!”**
didn’t you once drill thorough a pnumatic cylendar(sp?)? paul is doing the right thing by keeping you away from the robot. You don’t want the robot to get hurt. You can, but not the robot.
And yes, you are very social!
BTW, Tell Caleb to get me Rick’s email address. I really need it.
Drilling holes in a pneumatic cylinder is a great way to save weight on a robot!! Or so I heard!!!
FYI! I did NOT drill a hole through the cylinder. I only knicked it. (Big difference.) However, the engineers did give me a very intense job one night of drilling holes in a piece of steel. After working very hard at it (and after about 15 minutes of drilling) one of my students said, "Mrs. Ritchie! Your drill is in reverse.
Needless to say, I learned something that night.
here was my job last year. i had to drill all of those little speed holes, but i didn’t make the mistake of using the drill in reverse. im a little smarter than that.http://members.home.net/cbteam234/Robotics/mike.jpg
You do know the best way to drill speed holes is with a drill press right? Not that speed holes do all that much. I believe it’s about 500 1/2" holes to the pound…
Matt
*Originally posted by Matt Leese *
**You do know the best way to drill speed holes is with a drill press right? Not that speed holes do all that much. I believe it’s about 500 1/2" holes to the pound…Matt **
There was no way that we could take apart the robot and drill press everthing. That picture was taken turing week 5 of the 2000 season and we weren’t even close to getting done. Thats about how many holes our engineers said it would take. We eventually had to give up structural pieces that in the beginning we said that there would be no way that we would take them out. Before all the drilling and hacking we were about 8 pounds overweight. And we still about 4 pounds over when we shipped it. Somehow, we got it under to be able to play.
*Originally posted by David Kelly *
**There was no way that we could take apart the robot and drill press everthing. That picture was taken turing week 5 of the 2000 season and we weren’t even close to getting done. Thats about how many holes our engineers said it would take. We eventually had to give up structural pieces that in the beginning we said that there would be no way that we would take them out. Before all the drilling and hacking we were about 8 pounds overweight. And we still about 4 pounds over when we shipped it. Somehow, we got it under to be able to play. **
You think you have to take something like that apart to put in on a drill press? Hah! Back on 7, one of our engineers (Hi Allen!) used a drill press as a hand drill. We didn’t have a hand drill with a 1/2" chuck. I think there might be some photographic evidence somewhere but I’m not in possession of it.
Matt
*Originally posted by Matt Leese *
**You think you have to take something like that apart to put in on a drill press? Hah! Back on 7, one of our engineers (Hi Allen!) used a drill press as a hand drill. We didn’t have a hand drill with a 1/2" chuck. I think there might be some photographic evidence somewhere but I’m not in possession of it.
Matt **
What was i thinking?
? If someone says you can’t do it, we’ll prove them wrong. we’re all engineers!!
lol! I just thought about 2 of the mentors my old team had for a short while. They were retired NASA engineers who tried to biuld part of our robot with gears that didn’t touch. HAHA. Anyways, some of our mentors were NASA people, college professors, college students, and one computer resource manager (not even a teacher).
about drilling holes into the steel frame…
for the 2000 comp the rambots found out the day before we shipped that the bot was i believe 5lbs overweight (could be wrong on the number…for some reason i wanted to say 15lbs)
we used the ever popular drill holes into the steel frame method of slimming down. after a couple thousand holes were drilled (literally) we were able to make the weight.
this year we had no problems with weight, weighing in at 70-something (i think) lbs.
