Considering how important it is to have your alliance be able to actually move in this new game (for the elevation at the end), I’m wondering if we won’t see a new type of team member emerge during this season: the Alliance Repair Special Engineer. Basically, the Alliance Repair Special Engineer checks on your alliance partners before your matches (maybe sometimes long before your matches) to determine if their robot is actually functioning. If not, the Alliance Repair Special Engineer can swing into action and get the non-functional heap up and running to at least some minimal level in time for your match. The Alliance Repair Special Engineer needs to be not only excellent at robotics but also fast and efficient. He or she would probably need to know several different Cortex programming languages. And if you make it to Worlds, it would help to speak a number of different human languages, too. 
“Alliance Repair Special Engineer”, Hmm, that creates an interesting acronym.
What do they do when not being an Alliance Repair Special Engineer? are they “Not Incredibly Constructive Engineers?”
Dang… I just spent the last five minutes trying to find the “Like” button!
Jason
Personally I’m a fan of “Emergency Alliance Repairman” 
Kinda describes their job concisely
Some teams, especially their aging mentors, have trouble finding their own even with both hands tied behind their back. So I’m thinking maybe some teams might benefit from having one provided for them.
Besides the acronym, I really like this idea. It not only ensures for your team that you will have someone to elevate, but also encourages more experienced teams to help out their newer counterparts. As a former member of a team whose robot had major problems all season, including stuff at the end that even my mentor was unsure of how to fix, it would have been very helpful to have been given some help by a veteran team who may have encountered a similar problem before. It also encourages newer teams to stick with robotics.
At local competitions I for years have always gone around and fixed my alliance partners robots. During alliance selection I would also have the teams I picked leave right after being picked and go right to my pit. This would allow my teammate to give the robot a once over to ensure nothing drastic was about to happen. I guess my question is why isn’t this already a team members job.
Jpearman Humor. Awesome.
We really should have more volunteers like this at local tournaments. The ROBOTC technical service saved our day at worlds, and I didn’t see much things this nature in Georgia local competitions. This should be a more common style of volunteering other than inspection, referee and judges – VEX system technician.
I agree that the acronym is probably a little bit iffy, especially in the British/Aussie/Kiwi realm of activity (unless, of course, one of them happens to be a mentor). No student wants to become the butt of an unintentional joke. The title of General Team Debugger might carry with it a certain air of British Commonwealth humour, as well. So I’m at a loss as to what sort of title such a person or persons might be called. Suggestions?
Special Engineer Alliance Repair Goblin…
I about fell out of my chair laughing!!! Those are funny!!!
We kind of did that function this year at 2 tourneys. We went around and did our scouting and if they were not functioning… we helped them get up to speed to make it into the ring. It helped us for sure… We won because of it!
Alliance Repair Special Engineer… OMG that is funny!!! Cannot stop chuckling! FullMetal that is good!
Alliance Emergency Repair Engineer
I am team 8926’s chief engineer and this is exactly what I do at competitions. My Job before a tournament is to lead in building the robot, but when at a tournament my job is to find my alliance partner, make a gameplan, and then see their robot do a quick systems check. If they don’t pass my standards I do whatever I can to help them. There was one team that I was still helping fix small problems they had 2 days after our match together at Worlds. I would rev comment that all engineers do this at tournaments. When your building your own robot you are solving problems from scratch, but you can learn a lot more when your helping fix problems that you can’t completely redesign. It has really helped me in the way I approach problems that I have with my own robot.
I have never really been into acronyms so I lust like shorter names. We could shorten the original name by just calling them the Alliance Service Specialist.
I know few alliance Repair Special Engineers, and they are great at what they do if you know what I mean 
someone said Emergency Alliance Repairman, EAR. I like that one.
I have definitely filled this role of the robot “fixer” at competitions in my area. Even while I am competing I am often called to completely code a robot in 15 minutes or less. However, we have a position on the squad at my school called the REO, or “Reserve Equipment Officer”, who carries wrenches, repair materials, batteries, etc. on a combat vest to make sure we can fix the robot, when needed, on the spot.
You could call it PART (Partner Alliance Robot Technician)
Although this may be confusing…
Team member 1:“Hey, where’s the PART?”
Team Member 2:“I don’t know, what part are you talking about?”
1:“Our robot is broken! Find the PART!”
2:“WHAT PART??!”
funny, my trench coat that I wear all year seams to be used for that purpose, I never know what I’ll find in there. Once I found some kittens and another time a clawbot kit.
Really? Kittens? I find puppies in my pockets all the time. I’ve never seen kittens…:rolleyes: