2011 Issue

50 There were several facets to consider, and again, there is no straightforward resolution to recommend. One needs to estab- lish contact with school teaching staff connected with the team. Also, setting out a suitable venue to meet – a place which facili- tates whatever is planned to engage in instruction, or undertake other downstreamelements of mentoring with students, and how such meetings might take place in the context of the schedule of activities - once the team enters into the six week design and build phase. These are all matters which might vary greatly across different team/mentor situations. However, one fairly global mat- ter which will affect those members hoping to have access to the sponsor-provided software is how to get such access. During my involvement in the last 2010 robotic competition, I achieved results through some customized back door access. This was not ideal, but was mustered through necessity, as time to engage with students floundered as a result of students not respond- ing in a timely fashion. A much better arrangement would be to formalize the involvement of the mentor in a parallel manner to that of the student team – in the view of the vendors. Whatever may come of future arrangements (presently in process – see subsequent paragraphs), it is essential for the intending mentor to liaison with the team, such as with which vendors to establish software use licensing agreements. There may or may not be obvious accommodation in such processes for the mentor, with commensurate suitable access to the software. Consequently, there may still be a certain amount of member’s personal ingenu- ity, planning, and execution required to successfully undertake the kind of mentoring they envisage. In my capacity as facilitator between the robotic competition and the ASME professional membership throughout Utah, I am looking to finalize the applicable usage license parameters permitted to professionals like myself seeking to mentor, as laid out by these ‘critical’ software vendors. Whatever information I gather, I will publicize for the benefit of those members who are inspired to take part. Hopefully, there has been sufficient material to motivate engineering professionals to get engaged in some form of mentoring relationship with the robotic competition to see the wider mutual benefits of sharing their engineering experi- ence and knowledge – getting involved, recognizing stepping up as worthwhile. Dr. Starzdins is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at Australian National University. He holds doctorate from the Australian National University in computer science. He was closely involved with the ANU-Fujitsu CAP Parallel Computing Project over the years 1990 - 2002, and was its Research Leader over the last 3 years. Since then, he has been involved in collaborative projects with Sun Microsystems Laboratories, Intel Corporation and Platform Computing. His research interersts include parallel numerical algorithms and libraries, computer architecture and operating systems for high performance computers, middleware for cluster and grid computers and computer simulation and performance analysis. They also extend to Computing Education and Green Computing. Starzdins