Good Feeling

Sorry about the unannounced hiatus in my blog, I just really needed a little time to re-prioritize my activities. This will be a short post.

I just took a little glance through some pictures on facebook that some members of our team took on their trip to the FIRST Championship in Atlanta. I was so incredibly happy to see that members of our team were able to meet Dean Kamen and Woody Flowers; there were pictures, pictures of autographs and a lot of happy comments. I am so glad that our team was able to meet some of their heroes.

To me, this is what FIRST is about. We worked hard. They won a lot, but not everything. Finally, they got to meet their heroes. That's the best!

Time to Share

I wanted to share an excerpt from this page on the US FIRST website. Note that the first set of numbers is FIRST's Overall Reach (including FLL, FTC and FRC), the FRC breakdown follows.

Overall Reach - All Programs Combined (projected for 2008/09 season)

* Over 196,000 students
* 17,589 teams
* 16,389 robots
* 53,000 mentors
* 32,000 event volunteers

See breakdowns by individual program below.

2009 FIRST Robotics Competition

* 1,684 teams
* 42,100 high-school students
* Teams from 48 states in the U.S., Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Turkey, and the U.K.
* 40 Regional events in the U.S., Canada, and Israel; seven District competitions and one State Championship in Michigan
* FIRST Robotics Competition Championship at the FIRST Championship in Atlanta, GA, April 16-18, 2009
* Robots are built in 6 weeks from a common kit of parts provided by FIRST, and weigh up to 120 lbs. (excluding battery and bumpers)

I took a couple sections from this page to highlight the size of FIRST and also to try to crush the ideas that this is some kind of niche science fair project. I think the numbers quoted start to put this into perspective.

FIRST is a big deal and I hope people reading this understand that. If you are already involved in FIRST, I know you do. I hope there is at least one person that reads this, that does not already know about FIRST and it sparks some interest.

For more information, visit the official FIRST website at usfirst.org or my website at FIRSTObjective.org.

Uneventful Saturday

This morning we got up early to help out at the Gilda's Club fund raising event. See my previous post for more details. Our team was well represented, and our duties went without issues. I also learned that I can easily stand in one spot for more than 4 hours.

I enjoyed some of the live web cast of the Kettering competition (provided by our friends at Code Red Robotics) this afternoon. I'd also like to congratulate Code Red for being on the Kettering District Finalist alliance. Great job for any team and an amazing job for a rookie team! I know we're all looking forward to West Michigan now. :)

Otherwise it rained all day, a rather uneventful Saturday in West Michigan.

Not Bragging or Whining

I think its a little odd how FIRST computes rankings at a competition. You'd think that the best team would be ranked first, right?

Well, this is how FIRST ranks teams. They first look at your overall record during qualifying; Team 904 was 10-2. FIRST awards 2 points for each win 1 point for a tie and 0 for a loss. That gave us 20 points after the first set of matches. In the event that two teams have the same win/loss record, FIRST also computes another ranking based off of your opponents scores.

The teams from the winning alliance receives the losing alliance's score (before penalties) and the losing alliance gets their score after penalties. They average this total and this becomes the second factor for ranking teams. This gives an advantage to teams that win in closer, high scoring matches and a disadvantage to teams that annihilate their opponents (like 904).

Say for instance we win most of our matches and keep our opponents from scoring on us. This keeps our second score low, however if we had let them score more points on us, our score would have been higher. A lower second score means a lower ranking.

Maybe this rule made more sense in an earlier FIRST competition, but in Lunacy I don't think it does. There are a set number of points that can possibly be scored. Also it is next to impossible to really know how many points you have while the match is being played. Scoring judges watch each trailer and try to keep a running count as to how many moon rocks have been scored. I saw many times where scores changed dramatically at the end of the match when the actual count was made. Also teams trying to score with the super cell have to do it in the last 20 seconds. Obviously the better teams will want to have as much of a lead as possible at the end of every match.

904 obviously had the dominant machine in Traverse City, but since we were too good, we didn't rise to the top. Had the field and all robots been working properly we may have been ranked first, meaning we may have had fewer losses.

Teams that will be participating in the West Michigan District event, look out. You'll be playing in our house errr... crater. :)

Super Bowl Sunday

I'm not much of a football fan, and I'd guess that there are others like me out there. I did watch the football game this evening and really didn't care who won. In these situations I usually root for the underdog, and I almost thought my team was going to win.

It's kinda silly, all the celebration, production and good old fashioned hoopla that went into a single game. Big deal, we now know the best group of knuckleheads that can carry, throw, and kick a ball. What's worse is that people idolize these guys. When I say people I mean adults, and I'm sure somewhere there is a kid that thinks this is how they should act in order to make their parents proud.

There was a time that pure brute strength showed the ability to survive, but today brute strength is no longer a necessity. In order for us, as a species, to continue to survive, there are a lot of problems that we need to solve.

One day the problem solvers will rule the world. There will be contests where the best problem solvers come together and battle each other and thousands of people will cheer for the winners (and losers). By the way, that day is coming soon. The best problem solvers are working diligently, right now, and will be playing their games in less than 4 weeks. Their sport is known as FIRST Robotics Competition, and their "Super Bowl" will be held April 16-18 in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Yes, this is a big deal.

Is the economy bad for FIRST Robotics teams?

My latest poll asked the question: "Do you think our economic situation is adversely impacting FIRST teams?"

Overwhelmingly you answered that it is bad for FIRST. Over 88% of voters agree with me, that the state of our economy has been bad for FIRST teams. Our team was primarily sponsored by GM, and well, they're not doing so well these days. Our budget is a fraction of what it has been; we're looking at competing in 2 (Michigan District) events and are wondering if we can get the $$ to go to our State Championship. The sad thing is, if we make it to the State Championship and do well enough to qualify for the World Championship in Atlanta, right now, we don't have the resources to go...

If your team is feeling the economic pinch, leave a comment and tell the world how you're dealing with it.

FIRST Robotics Competition Kick Off Video

It's been about a week and a half since we attended the 2009 FRC kick off. Our team attended the West Michigan Kick Off, and we seemed to have some video and audio difficulties just as we switched to the live online feed. Unfortunately we didn't see the kick off video (which is always a cool upbeat video) that gets everyone's attention. This is a different video than the game animation, which I've already posted here.

I've found the kick off video and linked it in here; turn up the volume and click this link.

This is what FIRST is all about!

37 Days To Go

Like yesterday, our team didn't meet today. Unfortunately, I cannot think of a story to tell tonight so I'll look ahead at our looming deadline. We have 37 days left to build, program and test our robot. Those days will be gone before we know it, and we will be facing our first competition.

The next 5 weeks will be an amazing experience for the students that have chosen to be involved in FIRST this year. Following those 5 weeks are our competitions, which are the celebrations of our labor. Someone said a FIRST competition is a combination between a NASA rocket launch and a rock concert. I'd agree, FIRST is the hardest fun you'll ever have.

The Difference with FIRST

Kick off was a week ago and our team is making good progress. We didn't meet today, so I have nothing new to report, but there is something that was mentioned at kick off that I'd like to write about today.

FIRST Robotics Competition sets itself apart from other science competitions in one fundamental way. There are lots of science competitions and there are even many different types of competitive robotics competitions for students to get involved in. All of these other competitions or contests give the students some parts, a complicated problem to solve and lets them apply what they've learned to solve the problem with the things they are given. This tests the students knowledge of what they've learned and how they work through problems with the knowledge they have.

FIRST is different. FIRST gives the students some parts and again a complicated problem. But the thing that makes FIRST different is that they give the students some engineers, scientists, and real-world professionals to solve the problem. The students are not just applying what they know, they are learning from professionals, who don't always know all the answers, but mentor the students with the skills they've acquired in their professional career. It's this relationship between student and mentor that is getting students excited about solving problems.

I think everyone will agree that we have a lot of problems to solve, and it will be these students that are involved in FIRST that will be solving the toughest. If you're new to FIRST, check out my website for more details: www.firstobjective.org

2009 FIRST Robotics Competition Kick Off

It's hard to describe what tomorrow means to people involved in FIRST Robotics Competition. Tomorrow is the official kick off to the new season, and this means many things.

It means that if you are involved in FIRST the next 6 weeks of your life will be among the busiest you'll have. Each team has the same 6 weeks to design, build, test and program a robot, which as of today we still don't know what the robot is supposed to do.

Kick off also means that we learn the new game. This is important and it is sometimes a hard thing to describe to people that do not know about FIRST. Imagine if you went into a high school and selected the 30 best athletes. You had all of September, October, November and December to train. It would not be till the beginning of January that the sport (or combination of sports) would be announced, then they'd have 6 weeks to perfect their moves and plays.

I'm sure everyone knows some high school somewhere that takes football a little too seriously; the athletes on the team do almost anything to win, sometimes the coaches too. They do this because it has a lot of meaning to them and it is something that they want to be proud of.

The students that participate on FIRST teams have this same sort of drive to compete and win, although FIRST makes sure to inject a healthy dose of Gracious Professionalism into every student, teacher, mentor and parent. This means that teams do their best to win, but it MUST be fairly. In fact when teams are working on their machines before a competition, teams will often help other teams, even if they know they are going to be opponents in an upcoming match.

There is an atmosphere about FIRST that I've never seen anywhere, and I know the world would be a better place if all of our leaders held these same values.

Back to Kick Off - it starts tomorrow morning, and if you're interested you can watch the same live feed that we will be watching. It will be broadcast online at this website:

http://robotics.nasa.gov/events/2009_frcwebcasts.php

The web cast starts tomorrow (Saturday January 3) at 10:00 am EST.

Are there enough sponsors and mentors?

So, I had 2 readers voice their opinion on my poll regarding if there were enough sponsors and mentors for every school to have a viable FIRST team.

The unanimous vote was yes, which makes me feel great.

But sometimes I worry about this. In these tough economic times, it's difficult for established teams to get enough sponsorship to sustain their team. As FIRST grows and more teams are started, it is going to be tougher to find enough companies willing to fund this type of program.

In my last post I wrote about the new FIRST in Michigan concept. With the potential growth of FIRST in Michigan, I certainly hope there are enough sponsors and mentors to go around.

Please take a minute and vote on my new poll. Do you think FIRST in Michigan is a good step for FIRST?

FIRST in Michigan

Today, FIRST made the announcement regarding the new structure of FIRST events in Michigan for the 2009 season. In this press release FIRST details how Michigan teams will compete in FIRST Robotics Competition in 2009.

In an effort to reduce costs and increase competitions, FIRST has broken up the state into 16 districts. Teams will then be able to compete in any number of the 7 different district events (I assume this is like a smaller regional). This should give teams the opportunity to compete in 2 district events whereas they may only have been able to compete in 1 regional event last year. The new structure also allows Michigan teams to ship robots between district events at a reduced rate. The teams that do well in district events will then compete in the state championship event and then can qualify for the world championship in Atlanta. 18 teams will be selected from the Michigan State Championship to go to Atlanta (equaling the number of teams sent from the 3 regionals in 2008).

The good -

It should be a lot more reasonable to compete in FIRST for Michigan teams. The district events will be closer to home and should reduce travel and shipping costs. Since Michigan is surrounded by water, it can make getting to an event a little more difficult (and expensive).

Since there will be more events in Michigan, it may make it possible for more administrators and government officials to attend, thus possibly encouraging more teams to get started.

The bad -

The regionals in Michigan (as we once knew them) may no longer be the pinnacle of regional events. All three regionals used to be the toughest in the world, and now that is being diced up and turned into smaller events that may or may not compare to a Michigan Regional.

The ugly -

Someone needs to find 4 more places in Michigan to hold district events. This may mean holding these events in a schools gyms. It may get tricky to find schools willing to turn their campuses into event venues during the dead of winter, and typically during exams and basketball season.


Whatever happens, it sure will be interesting. In these tough economic times, at least FIRST is trying to help out.

What is FIRST?

In my last post I talked a lot about FIRST. This post will shed light on FIRST for those who don't have a clue as to what I'm talking about.

FIRST is a non-profit organization that is committed to changing the minds of students. FIRST is an acronym meaning, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. What FIRST is trying to do is show school kids that there is more to life than wanting to be a sports hero or a movie star. FIRST honors those students that are interested in science and technology the same way today's culture honors those in sports and films.

So, how does FIRST accomplish this? Typically students become involved in FIRST through a team at their school (not always, sometimes teams are organized in other ways). Teams of students then work together, with teachers, mentors and sponsors to design, build and program a robot. Every year in January FIRST announces a new game (more like a sporting event) that will be the focus of the year. Once the announcement has been made, each team is given the same kit of parts and they begin work on building their robot. They have a strict 6 weeks to complete their robot, and it then must be boxed up in a wooden crate and shipped before the deadline. If not, you team will not be eligible to compete.

Robots are not small and not cheap. Each robot weighs in at about 120 pounds and has an on board computer / micro controller. A lot of teams will use various sensors on their robot so the computer will know exactly the conditions it is experiencing. In most competitions there will be an autonomous period (roughly 15 seconds) in which the robot is guided only by it's computer to try to score points. The remainder of the game is devoted to tele-operated mode, where the robot is driven by a team of students via radio control.

Competition is arranged such that 3 teams form an alliance. So, your team will partner (temporarily) with 2 other teams and compete against another alliance of 3 teams. It is at this point that some teams will be playing a more offensive role while others will be more defensive. Teams then try to score as many points as possible and prepare themselves to score bonus points at the end of the match. Bonus points are sometimes awarded to teams that can elevate their alliance partners to a pre-determined height.

So, back to the question of how FIRST can honor students the way we honor sports and film stars. Each competition is an all-out extravaganza with large video screens, loud blood pumping music, lights and tons of people. When a team enters the field for a match, it is very much like being on the field for the super-bowl.

Regional competitions are held beginning in March at various field houses around the country. Teams that do well at a regional competition are then eligible to compete in the World Championships that are held in Atlanta in the Georgia Dome in mid April.

So, right now we are just a mere 2 days away from this years kick-off. At the kick-off we will learn this years game and the six week clock will begin. Everyone involved in FIRST has been waiting for the announcement since last April. The coming weeks will be tiring, stressful, fun and exciting all in one.

I will be posting my experiences on a regular basis. Check back soon!

Who am I and what am I doing here?

First of all, my name is Roger Smith and I am employed as a Software Engineer and have been in this field for over 19 years. I have some educational experience in Electrical Engineering, however my degree is in Engineering Graphics and Computer Science.

I began my career writing CAD software in Assembly Language and have migrated through Unix workstations to Windows. I am currently developing software for Windows platforms to allow interior designers lay out office furniture.

I think it was roughly six or seven years ago I attended a manufacturing conference in Chicago. Dean Kamen was a speaker, and I was very excited to hear what he had to say. This was shortly after he announced the Segway Human Transporter. I had heard of FIRST at this time, but really didn't understand it, or for that matter even feel it was very important. I wanted to see Dean because I wanted to see and hear about the Segway.

Dean came out on stage to speak, and of course he was on a Segway. He talked a little about what was involved in designing it and probably could have gone on hours about it, but he said that he'd rather talk about FIRST. It was the next 20 minutes that has changed my life. The way he talked about the state of our educational system and what FIRST has done to change it was simply amazing. I knew that when my kids entered high-school I was going to push them to join their school's team, and possibly I'd help out.

When my daugher (my oldest) started 9th grade I told her to keep an eye open for announcements about the first meetings of our school's team. She never saw anything. It turned out that our school was working with another school and they were not getting much support from either school. Well, we missed that year (2006) and I was determined to get involved the following year. I did meet up with some folks on our team and followed along as registration began for 2007. At the last possible moment our sponsor decided to throw in the towel and our team had no alternative other than to look for an established team to work with.

In January 2007 I officially became involved with FIRST by helping mentor one of the areas of the team that so graciously allowed us to work with them. In the coming months I gained such an appreciation for what FIRST is doing that I began trying to get the old team from our school back together. All our efforts fell on deaf ears and nothing happened.

Our combined team did quite well in 2007. We were on a winning alliance in Chicago and enjoyed a fantastic trip to Atlanta for the World Championships. It also became quickly apparent that our kids would be working again with our new friends for 2008.

I am excited about the 2008 season; I will be mentoring again, this time with the kids doing programming and electrical. I keep trying to get a team going again back at our school and I am still getting nowhere.

In all actuality for a school to have a FIRST team is rather rare. I didn't know this in the beginning and have taken on the role as a FIRST activist. Not only do I want to get a team started in our school, I think every school needs a FIRST team.

So, now that you know who I am, the reason for my blog is to let the blogosphere know about FIRST and how working on a team benefits students. I intend to post details of our 2008 season, my progress on starting a new team and my efforts to help other schools see the importance of FIRST.

Hang on everyone, the countdown is on: it is 7 days until the FIRST kick-off.

My next post will describe what a FIRST team does, and why the kick-off is so important.