DPRG mailing list archives: [DPRG] On contests

Fri Jun 1 08:13:20 CDT 2007

My observation on contests were that most people worked on their robots
the most on the week previous to the contest. A lot of people the night
before the contest. :)

The reason we went to 4 contests, 2 Roborammas and 2 Table Top Contests
spread 3 months apart was to encourage people to shoot for a goal that
was not so far away.

Kip

On Fri, 2007-06-01 at 00:20 -0500, Kenneth Maxon wrote:
> To Randy's comments: I was inspired to build build build even though I was a
> no-show and ended up being far from ready for this competition...  "The Man"
> stepped in and preempted my ability to complete in time, but that will leave
> me the rest of the year to finish and be tuned in advance for next year.
> 
> More contests / less contests doesn't really come into play, it is the
> existence of the contest that provides the opportunity.
> 
> Interesting observation about the SRS contests from my point of view.  Big
> contests with lots of vendors and tons of speculators are great for the
> health of the club.   In my opinion however, the better contests were those
> held before the SRS stepped up to the Seattle Center exhibitions.  Where
> those who showed up and crowded the lines around competitions were people
> with an actual interest in robotics.  When one holds 5 events in a day and
> everyone can have a front row or nearly front row seat and everyone present
> has hands on or direct interaction with robotics the communications / ideas
> / interaction is much closer and more tight knit.  The remaining events that
> seem to bring the crowds repeatedly for the public events are sumo and
> battle bots and pugetropolis area contests always seemed to have problems
> getting a draw of new contestants for sumo.   Grand Challenge is a different
> story and just pulling it outside away from the bustle of the people waiting
> to watch battle bots improves the event immensely.
> 
> David, I do have to second your comments on awards.   I have a ribbon won at
> an SRS even for best engineering in show from an SRS event.  The fact that
> they took the time to recognize my efforts present me with a ribbon, snap a
> picture and post it on the web site for a year in front of my peers is a
> very nice recognition.  There are so many levels of robotics and so many
> skill sets of individuals involved, it is important to carefully find a way
> to recognize and reward effort across the field, not just the top 10%, the
> people who have money to throw at it, the people who have time to throw at
> it, or what ever advantages are out there.  There are high school aged
> individuals who build incredible robots, although simple by some standards,
> it is important to recognize excellence at this level for their high
> performance in their experience bracket.  Just food for thought...
> 
> -Kenneth
> 
> 
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-- 
Kipton Moravec KE5NGX
"Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
--Mark Twain