intro
most of the team is very busy rolling into finals. we should’ve started sooner on this and come to a better ranking order weeks ago, lessons for next time, no need to dwell on it. all directors are busy and starting to feel the pressure. In hopes of alleviating this pressure Daniel Puratich is proposing taking point in selling and pushing the comp roster. Note that in times of pressure someone kind of need to make calls to save everyone else time, even if that be the wrong call. In this spirit, here’s my proposed roster. Once directors agree (approval granted early on 2024-04-07) then we will sell this to leads, once leads agree we will sell this to the team. Note this is heavily based on 2024-04-06 Voting Options . I am starting this doc on April 6th in the evening and it may be public eventually (was private before shown to leads). This list is not perfect but we are out of time on this decision unfortunately.
list
Nathan Green
Yuchen Lin
Daniel Puratich
Smile Khatri
Hardy Yu
Emma Chan
Amy Hu
Evan Janakievski
Tong Zhang
Nathaniel Li
Aidan Bowers
Ishman Mann
justification
top eight guarenteed, nine through twelve are waitlisted in order as per comp requirements. Technically we can pick anyone on the waitlist to sub in, however, the order I wrote above is the order I think we should intend to sub them in unless more information comes to light at that time. When we give comp organizers the list we give them the first eight in no particular order and then we give them the final four in no particular order.
Nathan, Hardy, and Yuchen work very well together for ardupilot stuff. Hardy and Yuchen need comp experience, been on the team a while, and Nathan can guide with his knowledge well. Nathan and Yuchen required as well trained advanced license pilots. While Hardy isn’t a pilot he’s a dedicated lead without any comp experience.
Aidan and Nathan are required for trailer driving. The trailer will be very helpful for us at competition because we can bring basically the entire bay. Aidan is a strong all arounder and also ardupilot support. Four people on ardupilot might be excessive but it seems reasonable considering that will be a big challenge for us. Daniel, Evan, Nathaniel, Tong, and Smile have confirmed in discord they are not comfortable driving trailers and/or have never driven with a trailer before. Taking the trailer is required as supported by Anni and Alison because it’s the “easiest way to make sure we have all the things we need and otherwise finding stuff at comp is a nightmare + jamming all the people and stuff into cars would be terrible”. Anni has informed us that learning to drive trailer is ok, Daniel and Smile should be able to figure it out. We will need trailer for comp to bring a bunch of stuff. Actually oing the trainning is mostly just asking SDC admins politelyand should be doable easily.
Smile never been to comp, strongest mech we have available. Same arguement for Evan, strong mech up and coming. We just don’t have space for a second mech. Autonomy needs at least one person. Smile has been on the team for longer than Evan so it makes sense for him to have priority. Smile and Nathan will be only mech focused people at comp which is a risk if significant repairs are needed. Evan is very much a strong pick and it would be extremely beneficially if we could take a ninth person.
Emma will be very helpful for logisitics and photography, no comp experience, very up and coming ops member. no other ops members will be present.
Amy and Tong are both strong picks, Amy has more experience and can pass on knowledge. Photography experience as well. Amy has lots of flight test experience. Tong has some FT experience, but less than Amy hence the lower rating. Autonomy is limited at comp so only one auto member in top eight. While autonomy is important for our growth and points potential, we are limited and Ton agrees Amy is a stronger pick here.
Ishman is a risk due to lack of flight test experience but placed last because extra soldering help will be nice for final slot. If we do not need to fill this final slot than we could. EE Leads are highly encouraged to push flight test attendance as a necessity to be useful at comp.
Nathaniel for extra mech hands as Conall cannot be locked in just yet as co-op is still pending at time decision is needed. An extra set of mech hands will be important in case of repairs or improvements at comp.
For drivers we have Daniel, Nathan, Aidan, & Smile to be the primary drivers with possibly Emma as well. primary drivers are all a bit older and have experience. Emma is a bit youunger (I think) so dont want to stress her out with driving. If we get Evan as well as #9 then that’s a bonus as well, but also a bit younger and dont want to stress him out with driving. Tong is also a driver ayo.
Daniel has comp and EE experience. Worst case soldering grindset. Hopefully helping coordinate the team and calling tough shots through blind overconfidence when needed (ayo kinda like this one, a lil practice, or foreshadowing if you will).