标签: challenge

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Oh what horror! As you may know, I currently hang my hat in Huntsville, Alabama, home of the US Space and Rocket Center and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center . I've been told that there are more rocket scientists per square foot in Huntsville than anywhere else in America, and that's saying something. In fact, there's a joke here in town that, if someone says, "Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to do that," half the people in the room look disappointed and leave (LOL).   The really exciting news is that registration is now open for next year's NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge , which will be held April 16-18 at the US Space and Rocket Center. This challenge is open to teams from high schools, colleges, and universities from around the world. The challenge involves designing and building a human-powered rover, which reflects NASA's interest in exploring planets, moons, asteroids, and comets.   Each student team will comprise six members. Two members of each team (one male and one female) will power their team's rover over a half-mile obstacle course that simulates an extraterrestrial terrain, including craters, boulders, ridges, inclines, and crevasses.   (Image: NASA)   A few days ago, I was delighted to have the opportunity to meet up with Human Exploration Rover Challenge project manager Diedra Williams, volunteer coordinator and education program specialist Amy McDowell, and university affairs officer (and all-around technical guru) Dr. Frank Six. This meeting was kindly organized and coordinated by Angela Storey, public affairs officer for the Rover Challenge competition.   As you will see from the Rover Challenge website, there are all sorts of interesting technical restrictions. For example, the entire rover must be capable of being packed into a 5x5x5-foot cubic crate. Also, no energy storage components are permitted -- everything must be human powered.   This is actually a huge undertaking. Based on previous challenges, the organizers expect up to 100 teams to register. (Registration closes Jan. 9 for international teams and Feb. 6 for US teams.) In addition to the 600 students and their parents/supervisors, the race itself is staffed by more than 300 volunteers, including employees from the Marshall Space Flight Center, representatives from sponsoring companies, and members of the community.   There's also a "pit crew" staffed by 50 technicians and engineers -- accompanied by just about every tool available, including welding equipment -- who are on hand to help the students fix any problems with their rovers. These experts don't actually do the work; instead, they teach the students how to do it themselves.   This all sounds tremendously exciting. I cannot tell you just how much I would have loved to have taken part in something like this challenge when I was at high school or at university.   In our meeting, the folks from NASA were telling me some of the interesting things that have happened in previous challenges, and how the course is constantly evolving to include new trials. There will be a big emphasis on creating a Mars-like environment for the forthcoming challenge. Also, the 2015 course will include new obstacles, including a five-foot climb, which is a lot harder than you might expect when you are powering one of these rovers.   In addition to teams from all over America, the folks at NASA were bragging about the participants they've had from around the globe in previous challenges. They were reeling off the names of countries like Russia, Canada, India, Romania, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Germany, and even France, for goodness sake.   Eventually, they ran dry without mentioning my home country. "What about England?" I asked, with only a little quaver in my voice. They all looked sad, and then someone said in a doleful voice, "I'm afraid that no team from the United Kingdom has ever taken part."   Well, this was a blow, and no mistake. I mean to say, it's a sad state of affairs when a country like France is represented on the international stage while England is nowhere to be seen. I cannot believe my ears. I hang my head in shame. It's probably too late for an English school or university to create a vehicle and field a team for the 2015 Rover Challenge, but -- as the folks from NASA pointed out -- anyone can come over to observe and report back to home base in anticipation of attending a future challenge.   Speaking of which, I'm going to make it my personal mission to ensure England is represented in the 2016 Rover Challenge. Yes, of course, I'd also be happy to see contenders from the rest of the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, but I'm only one man, and I can only do so much, so I'm afraid I will have to focus my attentions on England for the moment. So long as we trounce the French, I can die a happy man (LOL).   In particular, I'm hoping to persuade my alma mater, Sheffield Hallam University, to field a team. I'm planning on contacting my old engineering department as soon as I can. Perhaps I can even persuade some UK space-related companies to sponsor the "Max's Marauders" team (don't worry, this name is just a place-holder). Ooh, just a moment, my chum Adam Taylor is head of the Engineering -- Systems for the Space Stream -- High Performance Imaging Solution Division at e2v . Some of the imaging systems on the Rosetta space probe were created by e2v. I wonder.   Adam... incoming!  

Go to any start-up event, at any part of the world, and ask the company founders in the room this question: "So, how's it going?" Nine times out of 10 you'll get a response like, "Great, couldn't be better" or "Amazing, things are crazy right now" or, my all time cringey favourite, "Yeah man, we're crushing it!" Just walk away from these last guys—there's no hope for them. So, I ask you, if nine out of 10 founders are claiming their business life is wonderful unicorns and beautiful rainbows, why is it that the old 80-per cent-of-start-ups-fail rule still applies? It's simple. Most of them are lying. Many aren't consciously choosing to lie, they are just relaying to you how they want to feel, how they want to believe things are going. Possibly some are lying to themselves, but in most cases even as they are telling you all the good stuff, their brain is screaming: "What are you talking about? That PCB design is a mess, I'm pretty sure our subcontractor is planning to rip us off, and if I don't get some money in the door, like last week, I'll need to start applying to MacDonald's for work!" How do I know they are lying? Because if you ask the same people, after the fact, why their company failed, they will usually admit that things had been bad for a while and that it was just a matter of time. But if they knew things were going south, why didn't they ask for help, change tack, or share their problems at one of the aforementioned start-up events? They want to tell you the truth. They want to tell you their woes, but culturally it seems it's not cool to talk about your problems. Indeed the confrontational and competitive nature of business means that it is a fundamental tenet that information is power, and sharing any significant company information unnecessarily is bad form—and sometimes gross misconduct and a sacking offence. The result for start-ups is that it becomes them against the world, and they need to keep giving off the "right" impression right up until the moment it all crumbles around them. All too often we are on the sell. There's the awful expression "always be closing" that implies whenever you are speaking to someone you need to be angling for a sale and so painting a rosy picture. This, of course, is stupid and shortsighted. A start-up company needs all the help it can get. And the one in 10 founders in the room who don't give the stock "going great" response have worked that out. They will tell you what is wrong with the business. They have realised that there are problems that they can't fix alone. More importantly they understand that by sharing they might get some help towards solving them—at least a nudge in the right direction. If you never admit to anyone the things that are going badly, then no one can ever help you. The point of networking isn't just to pick up sales leads or partnerships—it's about speaking to people who have been there before you and solved similar problems, who may know someone who can advise you over a coffee or help you find new investors. If you never give these people a chance to get to know what's not quite working right, then you're missing an enormous opportunity to learn from others and benefit from their knowledge. It seems to me that, while failure is lauded almost as an entrepreneurial right of passage, actually doing something to avoid that failure is frowned upon culturally. So next time you meet someone at an event or you grab a coffee with your start-up buddies, don't ask them "How's it going?" Ask them instead, "What's your biggest challenge at the moment?" You will have a much more interesting conversation. I can guarantee it. Simon Barker is chief technology officer of Radfan, based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England.  

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear... I feel a challenge is on the way. This was triggered by my recent blog .   As you may recall, I was visualizing a Discworld-esque scene that takes place in the wee hours of the morning. In particular, I was envisaging a furtive figure making his way down an alleyway and tapping on a door. Then a flap in the door opens and the following exchange takes place between the doorkeeper and the furtive figure:   Furtive Figure: "A gibbous moon hangs pendulously in the sky..." Doorkeeper: "Monk fish croon their soothing songs of snooze..." Furtive Figure: "Yet still the dog doth grunt and snore..."   Well, the first reaction to this blog was from Brian, who spake as follows:   Furtive Figure: "Yet still the PR doth route evermore..."   As soon as I saw this I thought to myself "Now, there's a challenge if ever I saw one!" So, now I'm wondering who can come up with the best lines. These could be related to programmable devices and/or microcontrollers and/or their design tools and methodologies. For example, I will start the ball rolling with the following humble offering:   Doorkeeper: "The error log portends a day of woe..."   But we don't need to restrain ourselves only to technology. I must admit that I was rather taken by my own "...croon their soothing songs of snooze..." line, so let's leave the door flung wide open and admit anything that "goes with the flow" as it were.   So... are you up to the challenge?

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear... I feel a challenge is on the way. This was triggered by my recent blog .   As you may recall, I was visualizing a Discworld-esque scene that takes place in the wee hours of the morning. In particular, I was envisaging a furtive figure making his way down an alleyway and tapping on a door. Then a flap in the door opens and the following exchange takes place between the doorkeeper and the furtive figure:   Furtive Figure: "A gibbous moon hangs pendulously in the sky..." Doorkeeper: "Monk fish croon their soothing songs of snooze..." Furtive Figure: "Yet still the dog doth grunt and snore..."   Well, the first reaction to this blog was from Brian, who spake as follows:   Furtive Figure: "Yet still the PR doth route evermore..."   As soon as I saw this I thought to myself "Now, there's a challenge if ever I saw one!" So, now I'm wondering who can come up with the best lines. These could be related to programmable devices and/or microcontrollers and/or their design tools and methodologies. For example, I will start the ball rolling with the following humble offering:   Doorkeeper: "The error log portends a day of woe..."   But we don't need to restrain ourselves only to technology. I must admit that I was rather taken by my own "...croon their soothing songs of snooze..." line, so let's leave the door flung wide open and admit anything that "goes with the flow" as it were.   So... are you up to the challenge?