[noy_tou] wrote:They point out rule 4f, "on or adjacent to the track surface". The track surface was the same where they were testing it. I am confused why that part of the question is up for debate there.
The "track surface" had technically not been defined at the time Centerville was testing. Also, if they were testing in the hallway instead of the actual testing room, then they were neither on the actual track nor were they adjacent to it, technically speaking.
[noy_tou] wrote:I also understand that they weren't testing braking distance, because nobody had that opportunity. However, friction on that specific floor has a huge impact on what they were testing, and they clearly went into that building to gain that advantage.
What stopped other teams from doing the same thing? If there was no explicit prohibition against it at the time, and other teams could have gone in that building to test, how does that make it an unfair advantage?
[noy_tou] wrote:However, I pointed out a few times that even if there is a debate whether or not their actions qualify as cheating, I still do not think those students aligned with the Code of Ethics they agreed to. I realize that the "spirit of the competition" is not defined, and maybe the Centerville coaches are correct that testing, calibrating, and modifying vehicles is a part of that. However, I hope that, for the sake of all past, present, and future competitors, that the spirit of the Science Olympiad program means a little bit more than that. I hope that everybody hold the spirit of competition to be one of respect, honesty, kindness, and fairness, rather than testing, calibrating, and modifying.
I think you're taking those words a bit too literally. Obviously the spirit of competition doesn't include just those aspects (I'd also like to point out that the coach said "spirit of the
problem"), but the spirit of competition also includes, well, competition.
chalker wrote:Bazinga+ wrote:I would just like to say that I'm quite disturbed at the fact that teams were videotaping Centerville testing their EV near the competition. I honestly believe that those who were taping it were acting much more out of the spirit of the competition than those running the EV.
I have no evidence there was any videotaping done. While it has been mentioned here on the thread, we were only provided with a single photo and there was never any comment about additional photos / videos (nor were they requested as Centerville confirmed what they were doing). I'd also like to point out my strong belief that observing / taking pictures of other teams in public is NOT against the spirit of the competition. I've posted about this before here and encourage everyone to read it:
http://scioly.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php? ... re#p287852 To summarize my thoughts: by trying to be all secretive about device designs at events that are open to the public, a disservice is being done to the mission of SO
I think what Bazinga is getting at is that (s)he got the sense that the teams were recording Centerville just for the sake of catching them "cheating" on tape, and using it as evidence against them. I personally find this unsettling as well.
EastStroudsburg13 wrote:And I applaud chalker for doing so much more than he needs to and addressing everyone's concerns, and I really think we ought to be showing him more gratitude for being so accessible as opposed to insinuating he is corrupt or at fault, or emphasizing how upset everyone is.
^Agreed. Chalker, thank you for being transparent with everything and taking the time to lay out what happened and address everyone's concerns in the midst of all this snowflurry.