What improvements would you make on your team for the 2005 season, and how would you make those improvements?
In one sentence i would say… “Team 108 (SigmaC@t) will be doing everything right this coming 2005 season.” We have learned a lot from our mistakes this year.
edit- i had to post while i was in school so i really didnt get to write what i wanted to say… our team needs to work it out better between the subteams… and also do it right the first time. there might be a lot of team out there who has problem with members getting frustrated at each other… it happens a lot between us… so we are going to be have events for members during build season just to hang out and stuff, that way relationship between us would be so much more better…
Well, now we know what we’re dealing with…I think we were kinda shock and awed when we rolled into Palmetto. I mean, we rolled up with the two kit totes, maybe a box of other miscellanea, and we brought in a little red wagon on Friday.
But we’ve got nearly everyone coming back this year (I think we lost maybe three folks to graduation, maybe some more), and we now know what we’re doing–
STEP ONE: Build everything legal. (We had an issue with a cylinder at Palmetto, so it became a really expensive structural member.)
STEP TWO: Build everything tough. (Our chassis was bombproof, but our arm was on the flimsy side.)
STEP THREE: Take whatever our first impressions were about the game and run the opposite. (We wrote off hanging from the bar as an insignificant amount of points.)
STEP FOUR: Meet a bit more often, especially around the last two weeks. (We were at two hours one night a week plus all Saturday for the entire build, save the two days FIRST spotted everyone. So we didn’t have much time to practice.)
STEP FIVE: Dance like freaking lunatics at competitions. (Our maroon shirts blended in perfectly with the seats at the Colonial Center, so it didn’t help we were sitting for nearly all of the competition.)
This year our goal is to become more of a business-like team. We’re slowly moving our operations out of the founding family’s garage and into the school and we’re trying to set up a structured leadership within the team so things run more smoothly. We (the mentors) are also preparing workshops for the students this summer so everyone’s familiar with how to build and no-one gets left out come build time.
I’d say organization - in 2005, we’re going to be sure to verify that we have all of the parts right after kickoff, instead of waiting a couple weeks. Also, we’re going to start planning the robot immediately - this year, disorganization caused us to delay starting much of anything for about a week.
We’re also going to be expanding a bit - our team is currently from the all-boys Malvern Preparatory School, but we’re going to have a few girls from Villa Maria Academy, our sister school, on the team next year.
Try to keep Hinkel under control. How do we accomplish this - DUCT TAPE and lots of it. 
Whilie I am moving on, the team will continue to work hard on recruiting and fund development (sponsors) along with better mechanical training.
For those of you who are talking organization, PM me if you would like a copy of our team’s bylaws, org chart, and policies.
-With 16 graduates this year, we need all returning members to really step up, despite half of our team (and the more talented half, may I add) leaving.
-No more procrastination (ha!)
-Controls team needs to work on autonomous on the edubot in fall more.
Our team is more engineering based, and i like that. My team needs some improvements like team spirit, it is kind of hard to cheer when there is nothing to cheer about. Also we need to improve the way we look at the game, we as well dismissed hanging from the bar because it wasn’t at the time enough points. Next year we are going for the most points. Structure of the robot is good everything is solid, and lightweight, aluminum. So i guess the only thing that needs improvement is public relations at events, and the chairmans award. I am sure we need more improvements but thats all i can think of now.
we are going to be putting more of an emphasis on the engineering process this coming year. starting in september we are going to be doing bi-weekly challenges such as “how to climb stairs” or “how to lift this” etc designing, building and testing every idea. then when the season comes arround and we have x task to perform we go and look at what we have done and what can be used then figure out how to integrate it all together…the main thing for us this year is that everything get done in CAD first then it gets built. we are also planning on 2 robots (1 practice) this coming year. 73 will be distintly different in the 2005 season
For us, I guess I’d say communication between the subgroups - we were decent in that area but I think that it’s very possible to share even more information on the developments we’ve made every at every meeting.
Leadership will be the biggest improvement for my team. This year, we had one returning member (myself) so I had to deal with all of the training and what bit of the registration and such I knew about. However, I do not have the greatest of leadership skills, but as the only experienced member of the team I had to take up the role. Now, I am getting a lot better at leading, as is my now-experienced cabinet, and my co-president/sister. Now, with greater leadership there will (hopefully) be more structure and control, and we won’t have to deal with many of the problems that we had to deal with this year.
i think that my team can also not procrastinate so much and get working quicker. Hopefully the maturity level of some of the freshmen will rase to maybe that of a 4th grader, i would love 5th, but that may be pushing it!
As far as # three goes, you have to also remember that if game elements are introduced in 2005 that are similar to game elements in previous years, then many teams may take the way of going with what they know as far as playing the game. I saw a lot of teams this year use the same type of arm that they used in 2001 to manipulate the 2X multiplier, as there were big balls available to play in the game that year as well.
Bottom line… Go for playing the new game element if you are a rookie team. At least then you will be on level ground as far as the thoughts go behind the way to attack the problem… Unfortunately, with the game this year, there was really no “new” elements, except climbing stairs and of course the autonomous mode.
As for number 4. Yes!!! Most definately. Get as much face time with the robot as you can!! More time never hurts, but it always hurts to not have enough time to do even the simplest robot function… like make a well built chassis. Remember there are no blueprints, so you have to create them and then build… So in essence, you are prototyping and rebuilding more than actually just building it right the first time unfortunately.
And #5… GO FOR IT!!!
Your asking a lot… Keep fighting the good fight. My team might be able to get a couple into the middle school level of maturity this year. The rest of the team is just fine.
RAGE has held a post-season feedback meeting and is now undergoing an end-of-the-year evaluation and interview with each team member, adult mentor and chaperone to see what needs improvement for next year.
Some areas that are surfacing that I’m aware of are team spirit (we’re not really great in that area) and mentoring new team members - we’re thinking of pairing veteran students with rookie students for the first few months in the fall.
We also want to have returning students assume more responsibilities.