I was a mentor for a scrappy, underfunded robotics team of about 12 9th-11th grade students until the season was cancelled. One of my favourite parts of the experience was pointing out the "theory" behind the "practical". "What you're dealing with is called X and this is why it's important" was an increasingly common reply I'd give.
One of _many_ examples was when the software lead came to me excitedly and said he got basic autonomy working, but the robot wouldn't drive the same distance every time. We talked about open vs. closed loop systems, their wheel encoders, and PID loops. I'm convinced that when he goes to study any of those things in university, because of this real-world exposure to them, they will be far easier to grok.
In case anyone is curious, this program is called FIRST Robotics Competition [0], and it is life-changing for the students who get to participate. (I'm an alum.)
I got my first job through FIRST and was so much better prepared to solve difficult problems through what I learned there.
You probably have a local team in your area. If you're interested, you should mentor! The students' excitement is contagious and its a fantastic experience.
I am also an alum -- I started the FIRST robotics team at my high school back in the day. I was part of a community where being a doctor, a lawyer or an accountant (nothing bad with that) was the expected norm. Having exposure through FIRST to technology, engineering and the creative innovation process led me to pursue engineering. Very grateful for FIRST and the amazing people that make it happen. Woody Flowers, one of the icons of the program, and a professor of mine at MIT, recently passed [0].
Likewise an Alum here. Wound up doing EE + CS in College and gravitating to AI, and now doing a PhD in robotics! (FIRST wasn't the only factor, but probably the earlier to set me on that path)
Thanks for being a mentor! I spent years in embedded systems design and industrial automation and now that I'm "only" doing software development, I really enjoy mentoring with FIRST. Tell your kids "Hi" from team 4027 (CC4H - 2018 Detroit Champions)
. We had a really strong machine this year and were sad to see the season cancelled. We'll be sharing some of our engineering notebook and a season retrospective anyway. We're also working virtually with several groups that will make our team stronger next year. The competitions are fun but it's still all about the education and experience building things.
For teams without as much funding, there's also a competition called the "First Tech Challenge". It's a smaller robot, which makes it far easier for a team to self-fund and get started.
I started a team with 4 other friends in high school, and we ended up placing 2nd at the World Finals (sadly, we lost in the finals...)
As an international who worked with a bunch of friends and made it to FTC World Championship that year, it was definitely worth it. @chillee your robot was very impressive!
We did the same thing with a gyro to make the robot drive perfectly straight, and it was enough reliability to secure a place in the finalists at regionals.
One of _many_ examples was when the software lead came to me excitedly and said he got basic autonomy working, but the robot wouldn't drive the same distance every time. We talked about open vs. closed loop systems, their wheel encoders, and PID loops. I'm convinced that when he goes to study any of those things in university, because of this real-world exposure to them, they will be far easier to grok.