DaySailer.org Forum

This is not related to DS's but I'm invoking 'winter' rules...

This evening I attended a meeting at a nearby town's high school and was asked to become a mentor for their robotics team. I accepted. Since I'm retired on disability and the only thing fun to do is work on my boat yet it's too cold to do that, this request was a real windfall for me. I spent ten years developing and installing industrial robots so it's a good fit. Normally, I don't like being around kids much but this team has 50 of the nicest kids I've met and I had fun helping them.

The team is one of thousands and is part of Dean Kamen's (think Segway) international initiative to steer kids into science and engineering called FIRST. There is a 6 week robot build followed by competitions ending in an international championship. There is also a lot of teams helping other teams and 'coopertition', not to mention scholarships and grants.

The time commitment is huge! But it's all after school and weekends. I'm thinking this will certainly impact my response time on this forum, sorry if it does, I like you guys too!

Nice opportunity to tweak young minds... congrats.
It's good that you are able to give back, or pay forward, whichever applies.

We're much older (at least I am) and much more patient (at least I am becoming so), albeit perhaps higher maintenance sometimes...

That's pretty awesome- great way to "give back" to society.

Maybe you can convince them to design and build a robotic boat crew.

ctenidae, I agree that would be pretty cool. Actually, some 40 years ago I took the Westlawn Yacht Design course (don't remember a thing!) and my last project was a 30' catamaran with 4 hydrofoils shaped like scaled down aircraft tails. An onboard computer was to take input from all kinds of aero/hydro sensors and automatically navagate, trim sails and use the elevators to control heel (up on one side down on the other). It was neat but we didn't get that technology until a few years ago. Now it's only a matter of money.