While the teachers shepherd the teams through the six-week
competition, mentors:
- Bring
practical, real-world experience to the team
- Guide
students through the design-to-production machine building process
- Help
organize the team into sub-units that work on assembly components
(i.e., drives, extender arm, wiring, chassis)
- Encourage
students' creativity and problem-solving capabilities
- Reduce
the fear factor in designing a robot "from scratch" with
limited resources and timeframe
- Model
what engineers, scientists, or technologists do in "real
life"
Mentors
do not have to be engineers, scientists, or
technical professionals, but such professionals are preferred.
No
robotics experience is required. The qualifications for
being a mentor are simple:
- A
strong desire to be a positive influence on students
- A
commitment to the six-weeks long competition (see
Mentor Time Commitment)
- A
willingness to befriend students and bring out the "BEST" in
them
- There
is no limit to the number of mentors a team can have
- Ideally,
two or more mentors are needed for a team to be successful.
Having multiple mentors spreads the work out and creates more
opportunities for them to work closely with the students.
Mentors are not required to commit to a specific number of hours of service. The
hours below are considered "high end" estimates of the time
required to help teams get the most of their experience.
| Period |
Activity |
Time |
| August
to Kick Off |
Team
building and skill assessment Orientation to engineering process |
2-3
days, 2 hrs/day |
|
Sept. 19 |
Kick
Off Day |
2 hours
(plus travel) |
| Week
1 |
Kick
Off meeting and brainstorming |
3 days,
3 hrs/day |
| Week
2 |
Brainstorming
and prototyping |
3 days,
3 hrs/day |
| Week
3 |
Prototyping
and start machine build |
4-5
days, 3-4 hrs/day |
| Week
4 |
Machine
build |
4-5
days, 3-4 hrs/day |
| Week
5 |
Machine
build |
4-5
days, 4-6 hrs/day |
|
Oct. 24 |
Mall
Day |
2-3
hrs (plus travel) |
| Week
6 |
Refinement
and driving practice |
4-5
days, 4-6 hrs/day |
|
Oct. 31 |
Georgia
BEST |
9
am - 5 pm approximately |
| Weeks
7-10* |
Repairs
and driving practice |
3 days,
2 hrs/day |
| |
|
|
Contact:
Glenn Allen, Director
Georgia BEST Robotics
Associate Professor
Mechanical Engineering Technology
Southern Polytechnic State University
Marietta, Georgia 30060
E-mail: gallen@spsu.edu
Phone: (770) 528-7381
Fax: (770) 528-7322
