Team 192 – Lessons Learned

From reading our documentation, one might get the mistaken impression that Team 192 is, and always was, a well-oiled machine. This is very, very far from the truth. When Team 192 first met, we were little more than a random handful of teenage aspiring engineers—a formula perhaps more dangerous than a malfunctioning robot tearing apart the board in a fervent search for Botguy.

Teenage engineers tend to share several general characteristics: they are always convinced that they are right, they are easily distracted by Youtube videos, and they are generally lazy, except under certain very special circumstances. Unsurprisingly, then, many of the lessons we learned came in the work ethic department, as that was the area in which Team 192 was most in need of improvement.

Our team members were not picked entirely at random. The team was assembled from the pool of teenage engineers in the Lockheed Martin Explorer Post 1010 program, from which Teams 191 and 193 were also assembled. A group of senior members in Post 1010 studied the other members and created three well-balanced teams, led by a Team Captain, a “Right-Hand Man,” and a Prime Documenter. These three people were supposed to help keep the other ten people on the team in line.

However, keeping the team in line proved difficult under the best of circumstances. We found it difficult to agree on a consistent strategy during our first week of planning meetings. Additionally, the team is based at Lockheed Martin, and not at a particular school, which made it difficult for some team members, who were scattered across Montgomery County, Maryland, to travel back and forth to meetings, especially during rush hour traffic. The issue of having more manpower than tasks was also evident as many of our meetings dissolved into idle chatter between unproductive members.

Once the first week has passed by, we realized that we still had much left to do and that we needed to get organized, and quickly, if we wanted to succeed in this year’s competition. Our project plan was the first step to effectively organizing our team. With the project plan, we all now had clear guidelines, tasks, and sub teams –one for each robot—specifically tailored to our strengths and availability. With these goals in mind, we set to work. To our surprise, we found that, with our newly organized team, we could actually make progress on our two robots. A new atmosphere set in, and we began to bond with our teammates, some of whom were already acquaintances and the others whom we never saw outside of Botball.

The members of Team 192, therefore, learned a number of things from our Botball experience. We learned the value of organizational tools, specifically the project plan, in helping us complete assigned tasks. Setting concrete and well-defined goals for ourselves definitely helped us see various projects through to completion. Assigning specific people to specific tasks also helped: it kept the members of the team constantly active and out of each other’s ways. Everyone got a chance to exercise their strengths, whether that strength was supervising, testing, coding, or documenting. In addition, once our team began to function as a cohesive unit, we learned exactly how powerful teamwork could be. We became friends with people whom we otherwise never would have met.

Documentation was especially an important part of the Botball process, as it provided the framework for our organization, and often kept the team running on time. The two primary documenters worked closely with other members of the team, who consistently provided us with test data and even took more involved roles such as providing us with in-depth descriptions of the functions of each mechanism of the robots when we created our two mechanical design Power Points and commenting our code. Documentation projects such as the project plan helped our team to become even more organized and efficient. With everyone exchanging information and aiding in the documentation process, our documentation projects helped to bring our team together to form a more cohesive unit. Documentation was also one of the few areas of the Botball competition which helped us improve writing, an important life skill. Building the perfect robot is useless if the creation cannot be described to others.

One of the most surprising elements of the Botball competition was that a team built on intellect alone would not succeed, as we learned in the early stages of our journey. We had many smart, competent members who had little to do with their talents because of poor organization. Only after modifying our team structure could all ideas be incorporated and expressed. The best teams are built on a combination of dedication, organization, drive, and, yes, some raw talent, as well as potential to learn and accept change.

Our main advice to future teams would be to get organized early, because it will help them to stay ahead of the game every step of the way. Always be willing to modify plans, because even the most highly developed designs do not operate as intended. Perhaps most importantly, become friends with teammates, because cooperation becomes much easier when working with people you like.

Regardless of how we do in the competition, the members of Team 192 are extremely proud of our accomplishments through the Botball season. The Botball experience has taught us all some valuable lessons which can be applied to many other real-life situations. We’re already looking forward to participating in the competition next year.