In week 2, we began to make significant progress on the field construction as we knew being able to test our designs and ideas on the ‘real’ field would be crucial. We were also able to start some basic prototyping.
- Train our new students how to safely and properly operate the tools in our shop
- Become more confident in the prototyping and iterative design process
- Improve our strategic game analysis and select appropriate prototypes based on that analysis
One of the great parts of BEST is the plethora of detailed field drawings that are provided. This allowed us to have at least 4-5 students working on building different aspects of the field at all times, and we were able to complete most of a one-quarter field.
Our progress was not just limited to the field; our initial game analysis led us to focus on a strategy that prioritized scoring points from Coal and we began work on designing a ‘gathering arm’ for the Bauxite. Early prototypes were put together and we moved ever closer to our first driving base.