Control Engineering

Paul Grayson

An Unusual Approach to Hiring
September 28, 2007

Each of the 89 DARPA Urban Challenge teams has had to face the same question and some people think it is the most critical part of the design of a driverless system: How do you put a team together that will get the job done?  From this question all other questions flow: Who should be on the team?  What should the team's structure be? What format is best for handling cutting edge R&D?  How will it be funded?  What materials will it be built out of?

Most teams have turned up to be small compact units made up of a few close friends who have know each other for a long time before this project.  They have a history together, know each others strengths and weaknesses, work well together, and enjoy each others company.  

The circumstances AIM found itself in forced a bit different structure to evolve.  The AIM Team's structure and organization is as experimental as the vehicle itself.  An all-volunteer team distributed around the world working by computer with a final assembly point centrally located in the heart of a Midwest state -Traverse City, MI.

My recruiting efforts, to create a Skunk-Works-like team for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, here at AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC confuses people.  Rather than a long qualification and interview process - as is the usual case in applying for a job in the defense industry - here at AIM we let anyone who applies to start work.  This is a technique used by a construction company owner that I met who depends on skilled trades to do the work in his business.  Anyone that shows up at the construction site with their tools and says they want to work is allowed to start.  Getting the job is not the hard part, keeping it is.   They have one hour to demonstrate how good a worker they are.  At the end of the hour he lets the least productive worker go.  His work team is constantly evolving and he is assured that he has the best workers available on the team.

Here at AIM we use a similar approach; we let anyone who "shows up with their tools and wants to work"  start.  The results have been surprising.  People have stepped up and accomplished remarkable things.  Along the way they discover a lot about themselves and what is important to them.  We have an extensive list of benefits for team members who stay with us.  Being a volunteer at AIM is work and other team members count on you doing your part - whatever it is, as rapidly as you can.  Every task assigned is important to moving the project ahead.  Tasks range from emptying the trash to working with artificial intelligence - all of which are important to the team.  In many cases this is the first time that AIM volunteers have been part of a team and it takes them a while to get used to it.  Sometimes it is not an easy transition, but is well worth the effort.  You may discover many new career paths open to you.

Our main goal is simply to prepare our US Army supply truck, AGV WENDY DARLING,  for a driverless run from Traverse City, to Los Angeles and back.  This is 5,552 miles by rough calculation and involves hundreds of towns.  This trip will allow us to make publicity stops for our sponsors all along the way so local government officials can get their picture in their local paper with our truck in the background.  We will do this as soon as we can.  The more sponsors we get the sooner we can be on our way to LA.

United Way is one of the newest groups to offer help.  They are looking forward to the publicity they expect that this will bring them.  The Father Fred Foundation - a homeless shelter and food bank has donated a great deal of their staffs time and equipment from their garage sale to AIM in exchange for the publicity we can bring to their cause - advertising they could never afford to buy since every cash dollar is needed for the homeless people they serve.  The director of Girls and Boys Town has a different reason for supporting AIM's project.  An unusually high percentage of the children who Girls and Boys Town raise choose the military as a career when they grow up.  Supporting the AIM's work is a way for the Girls and Boys Town organization to continue to protect the children they have raised now that they are serving in the armed forces.  We are proud to be able to help these fine organizations and their noble causes.



GO ROBOTS !

Posted by Paul Grayson on September 28, 2007 | Comments (0)