Holiday Mentors Build Season Discussion December 18, 2006

Today’s Discussion Items that needed improvement from last year Potential Ideas Mentor Determined Subteams Detailed Schedule Schedule & Assignments

Improvement Needs Some students didn’t get to work on robot items, even though they wanted to Not enough mentors to help mentor robot items Spent too much time prototyping/building things not used Not enough time for programming Not enough communication Others?

Students didn’t get to work on robot items Create Pre-Determined Subteams Mentors Pre-Assigned, get to select students At least 1 Experienced student At least 1 CAD student At least 1 New Student

Not enough mentors to help mentor robot items We have many new mentors this year Would like to have at least 2 mentors per subteam Mentors can switch off or fill in for eachother

Too much time prototyping & building things not used Leadership Team Creating Day to Day Schedule Will stick to Build Process better (PDR, CDR, milestones, etc) Better up front robot design (determine which sensors)

Not enough time for Programming Tighter Schedule More Milestones More focus on Sensors

Not Enough Communication Integration Team Meeting (like subteam leaders meeting) Twice a week 1 person from each subteam Detailed reports & schedule updates Leaders will put tasks & upcoming milestones on board MS Project Schedule will be updated daily Possible thermometers?

Schedule Possibilities Parallel Track 2-3 Prototypes of Each System Allows Room for Design Failure Smaller Groups (more hands on) Longer to get to Final Design 1/16 Select Robot “Design” 1/9 Faster time to production Get in Pre-select groups faster No spending time on things not used Highest Potential for Design Failure Finish Robot by the end of Week 4? Or Week 5?

Other Concerns? Any other concerns from last year? Any new mentor concerns?

Your Schedule When ARE you available? When are you NOT available? What would you like to be involved in?