Robot Work Event with Genentech
The finance people at Genentech know how to have fun as was on display in their robot work event. Genentech finance employees worked in teams demonstrating team building and leadership while building robots together. Over 70 people participated in 13 teams each building a robot as fast and accurate as possible, and then competing against each other in a series of robot battles. A robot work event can take place almost anywhere on campus. In this case Genentech hosted it in their cafeteria where we simply rearranged the dining tables into robot building stations, and used the floor as our battle arena.
Each team first battled one other team in a series of 1 on 1 robot battles to determine a winner. Everyone had a chance to try their hand at robot battling with many people opting to go for it several times! We concluded with an all bot mega challenge where every robot battles at the same time. The build quality was excellent as we had very few technical issues and none that couldn’t be quickly resolved. Overall an impressive display of teamwork and leadership!
The Genentech campus at Oyster Point is truly spectacular with one of the most inspiring locations found anywhere in the world. Strong bay winds blow across the peninsula creating a refreshing burst of energy every time you traverse between modern curved buildings. My overall experience with Genentech helped me to understand better why Fortune Magazine named Genentech number one on its 2006 “100 Best Companies To Work For” and why they have been on the list for 18 consecutive years.
The robot work event created quite a buzz on campus. We look forward to other teams from Genentech taking us up on our “World Record Robot Build Time Challenge” and taking some time out to have fun with robots and each other.
Robot Team Building
