Junkyard Wars Wants You!

Dan Messinger writes "Bring On The Junk! Junkyard Wars is looking for new contestants to compete on the 2003 series. Teams of contestants are given ten hours to build a machine to solve a specific challenge using parts they salvage from a junkyard. In contrast to previous seasons, this year we are looking for individual applicants who are skilled at putting together sophisticated machinery and not afraid of getting their hands dirty. Successful candidates will possess a strong background in engineering, fabrication and a good mechanical 'know how.' Junkyard Wars wants applications from people of all ages, races, creeds, colors, sexes, religions, and sexual orientations, as well as people with physical disabilities. We are especially interested in applications from women and/or people of color, as previous crops of contenders have been underrepresented among these groups. Lots of kids watch Junkyard Wars and we want to show them that anyone can grow up to be the world's greatest mechanic or engineer! If you think you match the description or you know of someone who does - please log onto our website and apply: you will find the application forms as well as all of the information that you need regarding applying. Application deadline is February 28, 2003."

Comments

Sounds like fun

[mhaisley]

Sounds like fun, they have a diversity problem they want you to solve. Its amazing that this day in age we are still this worried about diversity, they probably got threatened by their network and/or the fcc. Anyways, I'm still going to apply, it's a good oppertunity.

Re:Sounds like fun

[BugMaster ChuckyD]

Exactly its not about being "PC" or anythiong like that its about demographics and selling ads. If they get a more diverse group of contestants they think they might get a more diverse (and therefore larger) audience.

1. Diversity
2. ???
3. Profit!

Re:Sounds like fun

[DroppedPacket]

Maybe now you understand why making generalizations about people is a bad thing. Making generalizations is not a bad thing. It is vital to A) survival, and B) it creates a baseline of "knowledge" that can be modified in individual instances. I'll bet you generalize all the time but rationalize it. Try these on for size:

Republicans want to starve children and take health care away from the elderly

People who drive SUVs are bad

African-Americans vote for Democrats

Whites are greedy bastards who oppress everybody else

So why is it important for survival to generalize? Imagine that a group is out trying to gather some food. One of them eats some red berries and keels over dead. The intelligent berry picker thinks, "Aha. Red berries bad. Kill Thag," and then avoids them. The non-generalizing berry picker thinks, "Thag ate bad berries. They must have been bad. But these berries are from a different bush next to those bad berries, so they are OK." Next thing you know, Ogg is taking a dirt nap with Thag.

Absurd? Not really. This is the way survival goes. Humans need to generalize in order to process the vast amounts of information available to us. Generalizations for individuals may not be valid, but over a statistical sampling, they are. (If you don't believe me, don't bother taking any medication. It gets approved via generalized studies over a test group.)

All stereotypes have some basis, either from group observations, or from a deliberatly propaganda myth. (Observation about Group X being evil because they eat live babies goes here as an exmple of a propaganda myth that gets believed.)

Underrepresented..

[Nix0n]

How, exactly? Underrepresented relative to their proportions in the general population, or relative to their proportions with inclination/education in mechanical engineering? If the former, they are idiots. If the latter, good for them. Applying one set of demographic standards to another domain entiely is ridiculous.

TV Magic!

[Angram]

I've always thought about that myself. They've always 'got a long way to go' with 45 minutes left, and just finish the last nail at the buzzer. A little too Hollywood in the timing, and it's consistant with every team every time.

Re:Not trying ot be mean...

[gowen]

But dohn't they contradict the statement of having "diasbled people" and people with "good skills" on the same show

Yeah! They don't want disabled guys like that Stephen Hawking moron on, lowering the intellectual tone...

I fowarded this to my dad

[AssFace]

I hope he applies for it - this is the sort of thing he would love.

when he was a professor, his students hated him because he made them think (imagine that) and he frequently gave them assignments that were much like this show (the one I recall best was they were given a remote control car, assorted kitchen appliances, tin foil, wood, tennis balls, a 286, and some other stuff and were supposed to make a robot that would roam about a gym and retrieve various objects that were placed there. nobody completed the assignment and most didn't even try)

I told him about this show once and he was quite excited - had never seen it - I don't think he watches tv. he wanted me to tape it for him, which to me is like asking me to carve it out of stone for him - I don't even own a VCR.
Now I see that they sell VHS tapes of the show, so I guess now I know a present for him.

I agree with another poster on here that my fav part of the show was the cute brit host girl that is now on that show with Henry Rollins.

Re:I fowarded this to my dad

[AssFace]

They had the whole semester and was team based. The teams could be as big or as small as they wanted them, just had to be of people from that class (not just that time-slot, just that class).

The grade wasn't based on successful completion, but about how they approached the problem - I don't think he expected anyone to actually finish it - but what disappointed him was that nobody even tried.
For that project, just to show them it *could* be done with what he gave them, he did one by himeself about halfway through the semester and walked them through it showing them the thinking process (this was an advanced class, not a 101).
Even after all of that, many didn't even bother with an attempt at it.
His version used infrared sensors, a webcam, a few servos, kitchen tongs, and the remote controlled car - with the 286 motherboard connected to that back. It was setup to run a loop (in forth) that would scan the sensors, figure out what was around, move the steering servos accordingly, and then move forward or backward by running the motors for a fixed amount of time. Then it would check the sensors again and repeat.
IMO it was and is a shitty school and he deserved to be somewhere better.

He had a few students that liked him and worked well with him and they went on towards their PhDs at CalTech, Princeton, and MIT. The rest just complained to the deans that he didn't do cookbook labs (he was an analytical chem professor).
He worked with Bob Ballard and designed his own JASON project on site (via the web - which was just getting big (1995) he setup a remote controlled car that drove over a plexiglass platform which had holes in it (and the car had a webcam mounted on it, pointing down throught he plexi). Under that plexiglass, about 5 inches down, were common household objects spread out on a table - and then that entire deal (under the plexiglass) was covered in sand.
From the web page, you could log in and gain control of the vehicle for a time limit (I think 1 min) and then you could move it around - press the right button, the page would submit and you would move a unit right. You would see on screen what the car "saw" through its camera. Then you could press the "blow" button (forget what it was called) and it activated a compressed air hose on the vehicle that would blow the sand away that was under the car/plexi.
The desired result was that you could go in and uncover part of the buried scene - much in the way that Ballard works when he goes on his dives (Bob Ballard is the man that discovered the wreck of the Titanic).
This project brought much attention to the college and allowed many elementary schools to compete against each other and chat via the web page - there was additional content that allowed them more to learn about the process.
My dad also worked for NASA in the summers and represented the school...

But, because of all that he did and the fact that his students felt he didn't do enough cookbook labs, he didn't get tenure.
He left, they shut down the JASON project that was there, and he stopped working with NASA.

Then he moved to Biotech and made 5x his previous salary the first year.

After 5 or so years with that, he got laid off and he travelled Canada living out of his car and writing two books for a year.

Not sure what he is up to now - last I talked to him he was at a conference in LA that discusses biotech automation and he was talking with a friend out there about a job.

I have a lot of respect for him, but then, I'm biased :)

Re:Great show but wrong place to solicit

[Malc]

If it were a case of scavenging the SourceForge junkyard for libraries, we might stand a chance of winning a virtual Junkyard War/Scrapheap Challenge. The pre-requisites would include coding/integration not welding ability.

Re:sometimes I think to myself

[diablobynight]

but that's the point, they don't even have to be wealthy. They are given half or full scholarships and treated like royalty by the school because the ratio is 40 to 1, and I could see it being societal if the were just dropping out, but the fact is that they just don't drop out, they drop because their failing out. Girls I know pick schools by locations and how much fun they're going to have there, guys that want to be engineers, just look at the school, and its curiculum I went to school in Flint Michigan when I went to Kettering. No parties really, dreary weather, shitty town. And girls left, I stayed, so after I went through 5 years of B.S. hell and 4 years of grad hell. This is my pay back, my cushy office in my own consulting company. And now the city is pushing for my company to be more diverse. It's pissing me off. It's a free country and I will hire the best person for the job, not the mediocre person that fills out my quota system

Real Engineers

[Gerry Gleason]

Will hack anything they can; they don't limit themselves to software and a little computer hardware. How many /.ers have rebuilt an auto engine? I have done a couple in my day, and I'd bet the percentage is way more than the general population. There are way to many comments on this story that stereotype people on /. without any consideration of reality.

And on the diversity front; yes, engineers as a group are a lot more white and male than the population and even many other professions, but that doesn't mean we don't value diversity. We just don't have much time for a 'token' anything. I hope they can find a couple of competent participants that are not white males to spice up their show, but it will flop if these people don't add something to the teams they are on.

The question I have is whether participants are paid. I would volunteer in a heartbeat if they made it worth my while, but I don't have time to just contribute my valuable time to their money making operation. I also think the concept could be a lot cooler if it wasn't so much of a race as a true engineering competition. You could still factor in time as a bonus for shorter time taken, but rushing through things rarely makes for good engineering.

You could also downplay the 'wars' part of it and mix in some footage of a wide variety of wild and weird engineering feets, projects and competitions. Highlights of the 2.70 contest from MIT would always be good for a side story. For those who don't know the reference, '2.70' is the course number for a mechnical engineering design course that features a design competition where you get a box of parts and a goal, and teams just go at it. It has been featured on some programs in the past (Scientific American is one such program AFIAK). Just a thought.

Re:Correct me if I'm wrong..

[On Lawn]

I agree. Slashdot has many many members, and probably very few know how to do real machining and welding. Heck, a small percentage of your hot-rod modders knows those things. Add the word quality, and of those that can, you've shot off another 90-5%.

But in that 90% are people with real can-do attitude, that has been my favorite part of watching junkyard wars. Monster Garage, on the other hand has pretty well trained machinists. But it makes the show less entertaining, and less accessible for me the lay-viewer. In fact, what they do is so over my head the producers never really show me how they are doing it.

Its not that these qualities are mutually exclusive. But watching someone show resourcefulness in making make-shift stuff is more along my line of understanding then someone that simply knows how to fabricate it anyway.

-----------------

OnRoad: Racing Game Subcultures.