I was thinking about build season and how a lot of new people quit once build season hits, and I realized that they might be quitting because they don’t know what to do. Our team is moderately sized and has existed for a while and everyone who has been on the team for a while are an expert on an aspect of robot design and quickly get to work on it during build season, whereas the freshmen kind of don’t know what they’re doing unless they are super engaged during the off-season. So I’m wondering what tasks in robot building are good for less engaged new recruits for their first build season?
What our team usually does is assign experienced students as leaders of small groups. Those groups must then define and develop a prototype for a certain robot function. That way the freshmen always have something to do and are continuously learning during that time.
If you didn’t opt out of the KOP drive, that is an excellent one for inexperienced students. All of the parts are there, it has been done so many times before that you can find easy support for it online, and it literally has an instruction manual.
Be aware though that it might not be completed as quickly as it might be if you assign veterans to it.