Meet the mentors

[JoshH]

I would really like to see who out there is mentoring what teams and what software, etc. they are using. I created a document that you can use to cut and paste below items about you and your team. Please feel free to post your information. Maybe there are even some of right down the road from each other without even knowing it. Here's a little about me and my team.

Name: Joshua Houser

Company: Pelco by Schneider Electric

Job Title: MAD Tools Administrator

Location: Clovis, California

Team #: 1671

Team Location: Clovis, CA

PTC Product usage:

Training: Year round MCAD, no real programs to train other areas.

Additional info: Working on a collaborative network of Central California teams, see the Central Valley Robotics website at http://www.cvrobotics.org/main/

Team Challenges: Getting accurate robot weight (need to have electronic components with proper density), develop multiple robust chassis designs for multiple competition challenges (steps, ramps, slick surface, etc.)

[rsaitz]

Great idea, Josh. My team's info is below:

Name: Robin Saitz

Company: PTC

Job Title: SVP, marketing

Location: Needham, MA

Team #: 2877, The Ligerbots (www.ligerbots.com)

Team Location: Newton, MA

PTC Product usage: Pro/ENGINEER, Windchill, ProductView

Training: They learning Pro/ENGINEER in school and PTC has trained them in Windchill. We actually had a couple of kids in over the summer who learned how to use the software and then helped ohter kids learn the software during the year.

Additional info: This team, now it's second year, is eager to help other teams. They have also been great spokespeople for FIRST, presenting at PTC's media event and PTC/USER management forum. If your team is interested in particpating in PTC events locally (seminars, hosting a hands on workshop, regional user groups (RUGs)), let me know. we can hook you up.http://www.cvrobotics.org/main/

Team Challenges: This team had strong robot but need more focus on non-technical aspects of the team. they have reorganized for next year with student CEO, CFO/CMO and CTO with the hopes of providing more focus on each of these imporant areas

[JoshH]

Hi Robin,

Sounds like your team is off to a great start! Team 1671 started it's business-based management structure last year, including CEO, CFO, etc. The students write resumes and interview for the positions. It seems to be working well, but I'm sure it will take some more work. Should we start a new discussion thread on this subject?

Also, I noticed that you plugged CV Robotics in your e-mail. Thanks!

Josh

[rcolatutto]

Name: Rob Colatutto

Company: Teradata

Job Title: Mechanical/Hardware Engineer

Location: San Diego, CA

Team #: 1622

Team Location: Poway, CA

PTC Product usage: Pro/E Wildfire 4.0, Windchill

Team Challenges: I'll echo the weight of the electronics components being an issue, we added them manually this season with very good results. Same goes for the motors, compressor, etc. A big challange for us this coming season is going to be member turnover, as over 1/3 of our team has graduated last week.