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Bill's Blog
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News direct from the Director of FRC at FIRST
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Busy like a bee
Good Afternoon Teams,
HQ is a hive of activity. On the first floor we’re prepping fields as fast as we can. There will be 11 trucks on the road this year bringing Regional events to the continent. Michigan and the Mid-Atlantic Robotics Regions have three additional fields they will be transporting to District events. Hawaii and Israel each have a field (because it’s tough to drive a truck to either location from HQ) and as always, we will have a spare field positioned in Memphis ready for rapid deployment in the event of an emergency. This makes for a total of 17 separate shipments scheduled to leave our warehouse this month.
Every year we rebuild the game specific road cases to fit the new game elements and pieces. The field for this year’s game is both bulky and heavy and the engineering department did an impressive job managing to fit everything into place. Because the first floor is full of game specific road cases under construction, the second floor (usually reserved for FIRST Place) and third floor (shared with the See Science Museum) have been overrun by road cases that are being packed with the materials necessary to support Pit Administration, Robot Inspection, the Judges, the Volunteers, Awards and everything else necessary to run a FRC Event.
On the fourth floor, and across the street in our overflow facility, staff are hard at work. Key Volunteer training is underway, the Senior Mentors are planning a Robot Transportation conference call for teams on February 9th and the FIRST Green e-watt saver program has announced a sales incentive for teams. If you remember (or participated in) the 2010-2011 Brandeis Cross Program Survey, the executive summary has just been posted on the Impact page of our website.
At the same time as we’re preparing for events, we’re arranging to test the field and field management system at Week Zero events, and planning for the FIRST Championship in St. Louis. A draft Championship agenda should be released soon (a lot of different departments have a hand in planning this FIRST wide event). I can tell you that FRC is working to change the Wednesday night pit access. Last year FRC teams were allowed to enter the pits starting at 5 p.m. This year we’re trying to make that access available a little bit earlier. The challenge is we have to get the pits set up and the robot crates in position before we can open the doors. As soon as I have an agenda I’ll let you know.
20 days until Stop Build Day
See you soon!
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Is it week three already?
Good Afternoon Teams,
We are rapidly approaching the halfway point of build season. I hope all is going well for your team. Keep checking those Team Updates: http://frc-manual.usfirst.org/TeamUpdates/0 and don't forget to build in safety both for the team members who work on the robot and for anyone who will be lifting/transporting the robot. We provided a pair of gloves in the Kit of Parts. Remember to wear gloves when lifting the robot in and out of your practice area to prevent cuts and be sure to use good lifting practices.
2nd Regional Event and FIRST Championship Registration payments are due this Friday, January 27th.
We have been working diligently and the "Save as PDF" function has been fixed on the Competition Manual page: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/competition-manual-and-related-documents
We have added the ability to download all of the TeamUpdates to the Game and Administrative Manual as a PDF. We are working on theability to download individual Team Updates and will let you know when we’veadded that functionality.
Do you have an innovation inspired by your FRC season experience you think is worthy of recognition? Apply for the FIRST Future Innovator Award, presented by the Abbott Fund! We begin accepting applications this Friday, January 27th. Submissions must be received by Noon EST, March 16th to be considered. This award will be presented at the FIRST Championship in St. Louis. Check here for more information: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/future-innovator-award
Microsoft is very excited about supporting the FRC teams by providing direct technical support and assistance. If you have a Microsoft store nearby, call and ask for the Community Development Specialist. If you have questions specific to the Kinect, contact skills@microsoft.com
28 days until Stop Build Day See you soon!
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A Few Questions Answered
Good Morning Teams,
Do you have technical game questions? The FRC Q&A is open. See what other teams have asked the GDC and leave a question of your own.
Don’t know your password for FIRST Choice or the FRC Q&A? Your team’s log in and password for both systems are available in TIMS on the team summary page on the right hand side.
Don’t know what to worry about next? The FRC season deadlines are all available on the Season Calendar.
Are you having trouble saving the FRC Manual to PDF? You’re not alone. We know there’s a problem. The developers are working on it now. Please stand by.
Are you traveling to a Regional Event and don’t know what to do with your robot the night before the big day? This year, most US and Canada Regional Events will allow teams to drop off their robot and equipment between 6 & 8PM the evening before practice day (Wednesday night in most cases- Thursday if your event starts on Friday. Check the event agenda when it is published for more details.) Teams may ONLY drop off their robot and equipment, no unbagging, no plugging in batteries, no work of any kind. Teams are, however, encouraged to leave their Robot Lock Up forms in plain view so that robot inspectors can get a jump start on approving forms for the morning.
Do you need help with your Robot? Do you have expertise you’d like to share with a team? Visit the FIRST Virtual Technical Advisor System to form relationships with teams, mentors and technical experts who are available either through email, phone or instant message.
Are you hosting a week zero event? Here at HQ we’re planning to be involved with two events on Saturday, February 18th so we can get feedback on how the game plays and how the field performs. If your team is hosting a week zero event, please let me know by sending an email to FRCTeams@usfirst.org.
Are you following the Team Updates on your smart phone? Down load the FRC Manual app today. The iOS App to follow the Q&A is now available in the App Store. Search for FRC Q&A by Quextit Media Corp. Android users, we haven’t forgotten you, the app is in development and we’ll let you know when it is ready.
35 days until Stop Build Day
See you soon
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If - Then
Good Afternoon Teams,
Are you a little busy? A lot busy? I want to remind you of a few things, then I’ll let you get back to what you were doing.
If you haven’t noticed yet, one of the three driver stations on each alliance will be just 44” wide this year (narrower than last year). Be sure to design your driver station to fit this new dimension.
If you haven’t seen them yet, Field Walk Through Videos are posted on the FRCTeamsGlobal YouTube page. Here at HQ we think of them as the Matt & Derek show and wonder who would win the best supporting actor category.
If you haven’t used it yet, a group of four FRC alumni from Diamond Bullet Studios developed a simulation of the 2012 FRC game that was used by the Game Design committee during game development. Go here to register and download the game.
If you didn’t make it to Manchester for kickoff, the workshops are now available online.
If you haven’t heard, the FRC manual is copyright. © FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC®) 2012.
If you can’t get the FRC Manual updates on your iphone, reload the app.
If you aren’t sure what the FRC sticker in the Kit of Parts was for, use it to help fulfill Dean’s Homework. Take pride in FIRST and place the FRC sticker somewhere prominent on your finished robot so it will show up in photos. Let everyone know your robot is a FIRST robot.
If you’re wondering how to get your robot to your first event. The February 9th Senior Mentor call will be all about Robot Transportation. Join us at 7PM ET Call Toll-free: 1-866-951-1151 And use Conference Room: 9533018
If you’ve forgotten, be sure to check the team updates every Tuesday and Friday. Update #1 is already posted.
If you still have questions, Q&A opened today at noon. There will be a “How To” there for the new system and a link to the system itself. The login information for your team's account is in TIMS.
42 days until Stop Build Day
See you soon
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Flash update IV
Good Morning Teams,
If you can’t make it to your local kickoff tomorrow.
24 hours until Kickoff See you then!
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