Eagle Robotics really is about more than just building a robot. The network that's created by the integration of sponsors and technical/non-technical mentors provides opportunities for students that they would not ordinarily experience within the typical high school environment. We believe that the spider structure in this year's game, "Rack 'n' Roll," is a metaphor for FIRST Robotics and Team #1388.
The team is at the core of the structure, where students, mentors, and sponsors coalesce in the spirit of gracious professionalism to achieve success. Our sponsors enter the jolting, shaking structure from various directions on the spokes of the lower tier to provide a base of support. The "keepers" are representative of the dollars they contribute. Eagle Robotics has never had one large corporate sponsor. We live in a small community that is known primarily for its agricultural economy, even though we are at the hub of one of the largest fiber-optic networks in the world. Wine grapes, strawberries, and broccoli are some of our largest crops. We have been able to draw on the strength of our local community spirit to find businesses, service groups, and individuals who partner with us each year. We are proud to say there are thirteen sponsors who have supported us for three consecutive years; not one has given more than $3,000 in one year.
Individual students and mentors join the team at the middle tier, more stable due to the chain linkage to the base of sponsor support. It is here that the learning process occurs. The eight spokes symbolize the variety of skills that individuals bring to the team. Students share their skills, and mentors transfer their knowledge in a medium of science and technology where each person's opinion is granted equal consideration.
Students learn hands-on about the engineering process as they work under pressure to meet critical deadlines. They gain skills: teamwork, leadership, marketing/fundraising, budgeting, project management, design, mechanical drawing (pencil and CAD), welding, machining on mill and lathe, woodworking, electronics, pneumatics, computer programming and software interface, web page design, and technical writing.
While on the team, students and mentors travel back out to the community at large to share our successes and carry out the mission of FIRST. In keeping with our agricultural roots, Eagle Robotics has sponsored a Pumpkin Catapult Contest each of the last three years. One member of the community, who had attended the previous year's contest, emailed the team to find out the date of this year's contest because he was building a large trebuchet, or "seige machine," as he called it. Next year the contest will be held at a local winery owned by a farming family. We hope to incorporate a theme of how robotics is used in agriculture.
Another community event in which the team has participated for the last three years is the Arroyo Grande Valley Harvest Festival. We demonstrate one of our competition robots to attract people to our booth where children spend long periods of time trying to grab a piece of candy from a bowl using a robotic arm. Many times they put the candy back to try again instead of eating it! This public exposure gives team members an opportunity to talk to people about the program and to get kids and their parents excited about technology. We encourage them to go back to their schools and start Lego Mindstorms clubs. This is how we began our relationship with a community-wide FIRST Lego League team and informal Lego programs at two schools.
Eagle Robotics was happy to accept an invitation to the 2006 10th Annual California Coast Venture Forum Networking Conference. An insurance executive in charge of organizing the event happened to attend a Softec meeting where Eagle Robotics gave a presentation. Softec is one of our sponsors; it is an association of technology and software companies on the California Central Coast . He thought it would be nice to have a FIRST team at the forum, since Dean Kamen was the keynote speaker. The students and mentors were thrilled to meet Dean personally. One student even got to ride in the car to take Mr. Kamen back to the airport.
Sometimes the students individually benefit from the synergy of FIRST. Our 2007 Team Captain Garrett Tietz went to work last year at the machine shop that fabricated the wheels for our robot. The owner of the shop was impressed with Garrett's CAD drafting skills.
Through her involvement in FIRST, mentor Dawn Hinchman was contacted by California Space Authority with a request that the team assist in organizing the California RoboChallenge Competition at the NASA Centennial Challenge in May, 2007. After four years as official team mom, she has also gained significant insight into how best to prepare students for the global economy. This serves our high school well, given her position on the local school board, especially since our district is in the process of developing an engineering academy. Knowing the corporate sponsors of FIRST teams may help attract matching funds for the academy grant.
The father of a freshman team member is an AT&T Software Development Technical Manager who mentors the programming sub-team. Noting the lack of formal instruction in programming, he has offered to teach a summer enrichment class in JAVA to better prepare next year's team.
The top tier spider represents Eagle Robotics team members who have graduated from high school and gone on to become productive members of society. As in the physical structure itself, when students exit FIRST, they leave the program on a variety of paths (like the spokes) strengthened by the foundation of the tiers below. Veterans of Eagle Robotics are attending engineering programs at universities such as Carnegie Mellon, Stanford , Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and UC Davis. Current senior Paul Skillin has been accepted to the Colorado School of Mines. Nic Evangelo, who graduated our rookie year, completed the IBEW apprenticeship program and is now a permanent employee at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. Several of our graduates have re-entered the matrix of FIRST as mentors, or even sponsors.
The following are accounts of former team members' experiences since graduating from Eagle Robotics.
Joey Gannon, two-year veteran, and original member of Eagle Robotics in 2004, our rookie year, writes in response to our email:
"I figured out in my sophomore year of high school that I wanted to be a computer scientist, but I was never totally comfortable with the idea of being permanently constrained to a cubicle. When our school started doing FIRST during my junior year, I found my niche. This was the first time I had worked with programming something hands-on, producing a much grander result than just some flashes on a computer screen. My two years of FIRST in high school have really driven everything that I'm doing. I'm going to Carnegie Mellon University , one of the world's best schools for robotics. I won a robotics competition here using many of the skills that I learned from FIRST. I mentored a rookie FIRST team last year, and I'm back as their lead technical mentor again. I secured an internship with the Intelligent Robotics Group at Ames and am now pursuing a career with NASA. I would never have gotten as excited about robots as I am now if it weren't for FIRST."
Marvin Byrd, member our rookie year, writes:
"As far as FIRST helping me out, there's a couple of things. When I got my last job working for Maglio, Inc. (a small prototyping company) I was told that the reason I got hired was because I had experience. I am proud to say that I am now working for Alcon as a co-op, rated in the top 100 companies to work for by Fortune 500. When I went in for my job interview I didn't bring much: my resume, a picture of Zippy (Team 1388's first robot), and a 2.6 cumulative GPA (college is hard). Out of all the applicants they took 10 from Cal Poly. So you can say I have been riding the US FIRST competition all the way. From what I have seen there is a big job market for people who actually know what they are doing in the real world; I know too many people that can't function outside of "theory land." I am currently designing and building test equipment that will test 6 of the boards that are going to be used on their Next Generation Laser system for production. Time schedules, managing money, knowing all the rules, and programming experience I would say are directly related. Everything but the programming is left out in school and is over half of the job, which is probably why experience is so valuable. Literally less than half of my time is spent on actual design work. Best of luck, hope you guys win!!"
Mike Hendricks participated in FIRST as a student for one year, our rookie year. He has returned every year since to mentor the team, especially in electronics and pneumatics. In 2006, while the team stayed home, Mike and another member of Eagle Robotics went to the Championship in Atlanta to volunteer on the field set-up crew. Mike's current employment is related to his involvement in Eagle Robotics. A mentor saw an ad for electrical/mechanical assembly at a company that is a member of one of our sponsor organizations, Softec. The same mentor met the CEO of the company at a business conference and struck up a conversation about the job opportunity. She passed the word to Mike, who got the job two years ago, and is now a production foreman. To complete the circle, Mike referred two members of Eagle Robotics for assembly positions, for which they were hired.
FIRST is not about winning or losing. It is about the networking of students, mentors and ideas. As in the metaphor, when our students encounter adversity (like the spoiler ring), their experience in Eagle Robotics provides an ability for them to learn from it, to overcome it, or to possibly convert it into a success.
