904 / FIRST - In The News

Last week a journalist and photographer from Rapid Growth stopped by to talk to our team. Rapid Growth is a weekly online magazine that is reporting on growth and change in Grand Rapids Michigan.

They wrote a story about FIRST and Team 904. This piece is currently the "cover story" however this link will take you directly to the article.

This article is different than most I've read. It focuses more on the vision of FIRST rather than the performance of a specific team at an event, and I like that. It is important to show the community that FIRST is not a science fair, but more like a real life test run.

The story spells out all the good things that these kids get from being involved in FIRST, like communication skills, problem solving, and working as a team. The article doesn't touch much on how extraordinarily fun a competition is. I certainly hope they can attend the West Michigan District Event and experience the enthusiastic energy!

Where's The News?

Alright, we've finished week 3 of the FIRST Robotics Competition Regional and District events. Have you seen any great news coverage of any event over these 3 weeks? I get an email from Google Alerts every day that notifies me of anything new on the Internet relating to "FIRST Robotics". The quality of the info has picked up, as I'd expect, but I still haven't seen any television news stories covering FIRST events.

If you have any good TV/video coverage of FIRST events, send me a link; I'd love to see them. If you know of a good FIRST related blog, please send me a link. I know a lot more news is being distributed via blogs in lieu of real paper. I love to read blogs, but I don't want to read someone's blog that is 99% about their life and an occasional post about FIRST.

I write every night and almost all of it is about some aspect of FIRST. I'm trying my hardest to push FIRST into the blogosphere and I'd love to meet others doing the same thing.

FIRST needs to get in the news, whether it's on TV, radio, printed paper or Internet. I'm doing what I can, but this isn't a one person job.

FIRST Article in Popular Mechanics

The Popular Mechanics website popularmechanics.com posted this article a few days ago. It was interesting to see more pictures of robots built for this year. Popular Mechanics focused mainly on FIRST Robotics Competition Team 354 - The Pirates.

The article brought up a subject of huge debate this year; wheels. Since all teams have to use the same wheels, is it better to use more or less? From the article-

This posed a new challenge for the Pirates, who were accustomed to engineering robots that could tear across a carpeted surface. “At first, we weren’t sure how many wheels to put on it,” said senior Jason Lewis, the team captain. “But there’s not that much you can do [to gain traction], unless you make some crazy braking mechanism. If you add eight wheels it’s not going to increase your friction. It’s just more wheels slipping, more weight and battery power being drawn.”

I know a lot of teachers were talking physics about this question, and the science seems to make sense. But it was also a gut feeling from our team that the more wheels turning on the floor, the better traction we'd have.

In our preliminary tests, I think our team got it right. We have quite a bit of traction, and couple that with our software implementation of traction control, I think we have the right combination.

The article also mentioned that The Pirates went with a shooter style design -

Instead, Lewis sketched out a robot that could effectively score points without moving much—a design that transferred from paper to parts largely unaltered. The robot employs a rotating turret capable of launching seven moon rocks in only four seconds, with a maximum distance of nearly four feet. A series of conveyor belts inside the robot suck moon rocks into a vertical shaft, which is capped with a rapidly spinning wheel that the Pirates simply call “the shooter.”

At this point it's difficult to know if a shooter or dumper will be the better design. It was our philosophy that a shooter would be not nearly accurate enough to score in these small trailers. Time will tell, in about a week.

Our first competition starts a week from today. Stay connected to my blog, I'll be micro-blogging during the matches to keep you updated on our status.

In the News

I find a lot of interesting articles about FIRST online, especially now, since teams are working hard, both building their robot and also trying to get more media coverage. In past years, teams have been encouraged to contact local government and broadcast media to spectate and or report about FIRST events.

Most print and online articles are typically the same. They start off talking about a local team who are working diligently building their robot, then they go on to explain what FIRST is and why schools are involved. Reporters are writing about FIRST all over the country. There was an article Friday in the Salt Lake Tribune, another on Friday in Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York. There was also an article on Friday on Montana State University's web site. This is just a small sample of articles from one day, and there are seemingly lots of people writing about FIRST.

I'm looking for people, like myself, that blog about FIRST. Blogging is a way for anyone to report about anything, and may eventually change how news is reported. If you or your team has a blog, let me know; leave a comment. I'd like to read other blogs or online content that is more than just an introduction to a team and FIRST.

Team 904 on TV

I'm slipping on keep everyone up to date on FIRST in the News, even when it is with our own team. Yes, Team 904 was interviewed a couple weeks ago and the resulting show was aired at least 4 times on local TV.

If you saw the show, post a comment and let me know what you think. If you haven't seen it, you can see it here:
http://www.marandatv.com/2008/11/22/where-you-live-november-22-2008/

- then you can come back and leave a comment. :)

Just so you know, this is a half hour show that is devoted to science and technology. Team 904 enters the scene at about 6:30 into the broadcast.

Mythbusters on Science Education

Adam Savage from the hit TV show "Mythbusters" published this article in the September 2008 issue of Popular Mechanics. Adam points out 3 ways to fix science education in the United States, and guess what, FIRST is one of them. Let me quote his ways:

1. Let students get their hands dirty.

It’s really difficult to absorb things just by being told about them—I know I don’t learn well that way. If students could get their hands dirty in science class they’d be more likely to internalize information. You can lecture about the surface tension of water, but it’s not as effective as conducting an experiment with a needle and a single beam balance. Jamie and I are in touch with a lot of teachers from industrial engineering programs, and one of them told us he thinks our show has helped shift the emphasis from the strictly theoretical to a more hands-on approach. (For an example of kids doing down-and-dirty engineering, click here.)

2. Yes, spend more money on science.

We like to do things on the cheap at MythBusters, and we often find the most elegant solution is also the least expensive. But we still need significant resources. It drives me crazy that one of the first things to go when educational budgets get slashed is science supplies for kids to play with, so students end up just listening to explanations of scientific concepts. MythBusters is not a show where two guys read about stuff—it’s two guys doing stuff. When we need a valve to fire a baseball at nearly the speed of sound, we get it. Most of my friends who are grade school teachers pay for their own supplies. People say, “You can’t just throw money at the problem.” By all means throw money at the problem! Learning science by experi­mentation yields innovation, inspiration, intuition and fascination.

3. Celebrate mistakes.

A good scientist will tell you that being wrong can be just as interesting as being right. The same holds for our show. We love hearing from fans who challenge our conclusions—especially kids. We gave a talk at the Uni­versity of Florida, and a 12-year-old girl asked us why, when we tested whether elephants are afraid of mice, we only used white mice. She was right; we should have tested different­colored ones. For our fuel-efficiency myth, windows versus a/c, we drove two cars at 45 mph until they ran out of gas; our data showed that driving with the windows open was more efficient. But a fan pointed out that over a certain speed, open windows create so much drag that a/c is more efficient. We repeated the test at 55 mph—and the fan was right. Kids need to know that teachers and textbooks don’t have all the answers—and that’s okay. Sometimes, even a failed experiment can be a good learning experience.

That was a quote from the above mentioned article written by Adam Savage. If you didn't see the "click here" link in item 1, go back and click it. Popular Mechanics has an entire article devoted to how schools have been building robots for the FIRST Robotics Competition over the past years. There are even a couple video clips that explain more about FIRST; take a few minutes and watch them!

FIRST teams travel to jolly old England

This weekend there are a few FIRST Robotics teams that are working with FIRST UK to conduct robotics demonstrations at the Farnborough International Air Show.

2008 Philadelphia Regional winner Miss Daisy (team 341), NASA Knights (team 122), and the 2008 World Champion Thunderchickens (team 217) are all in Hampshire UK at the airshow helping spark interest in FIRST Robotics Competitions around the world. The air show is July 14 - 20, and there will robotics demonstrations through the weekend.

Unfortunately for the chaps in England, they'll not get to see the Thunderchikens primary competition robot, they'll be seeing it's twin instead. Many competitive teams build 2 robots, one that is shipped at the ship date, and the "twin" is used for practice. The Thunderchikens primary robot will be battling at IRI (Indiana Robotics Invitational) this weekend.

FIRST lands in New Zealand

FIRST has set foot in New Zealand in preparation for that county's inaugural FIRST Robotics Competition regional event. FIRST has kicked off a series of boot-camps using the standard VEX platform to give the kiwi kids a taste of competitive robotics.

NASA engineer Mark Leon and instructor Nancy McIntyre are featured in this video as they describe the concepts behind FIRST and what the kids will be doing during their boot-camps and how they'll proceed into the FIRST Robotics Competition in the coming months.

It is great to see FIRST expanding into other countries, at the same time it frustrates me to hear about apathetic and lazy teachers and administrators right here in my own town.

Wake up people, it's time for your school to start a FIRST team.

Team Leadership

Today I read this article that I found on mlive.com from the Grand Rapids Press.

Apparently the FIRST team at Grandville High School (RoboDawgs, Team #288) in Grandville Michigan is having an issue with leadership of their team. The article makes the claim that certain people feel the need to have Team 288 directed by administrators, their team boosters and corporate sponsors. Apparently a group of people feel that because the RoboDawgs didn't have a winning season, they need to change their leadership...

This is interesting to me since my team (904) worked closely all of this season with the Grandville team. The RoboDawgs are such a great group of people and the parents, mentors and students were all incredibly helpful to our team. They worked great together and I was very thankful that they allowed us to work with them and test our machine at their facility.

It is simply astounding to me to think that someone wants to change their leadership simply based on their performance this year. That is NOT what FIRST is about. It's NOT about winning and it’s NOT even about building robots... It is about giving students the opportunity to solve unique and interesting problems in a short amount of time while keeping within a limited budget. These are experiences that professional engineers face every day.

The companies that sponsor FIRST teams do NOT do it because they want "air time" with their logo in people's faces while their robot is winning. They do it because they value our young people, and hope that given the right circumstances, they'll go to college to study engineering, science and technology and be able to return to the community to help these companies grow.

The article also claims that Grandville's Robotics Team Booster Organization was formed to help the team through tough times. Running a FIRST robotics team is a lot like running a business. There is ALWAYS money problems and lack of adults that provide the guidance every team needs. I find it appalling that the RoboDawgs are chasing away a good group of caring adults that have provided leadership to their team for several years. I sincerely hope they can work through their differences and return as a whole cohesive team for 2009.

Dean Kamen on ABC News

A couple of days ago ABC News interviewed FIRST founder Dean Kamen.

His very inspiring interview can be seen by following this link:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4729231&affil=wabc

If you are unfamiliar with FIRST, please take 6 minutes and watch this interview. Because, "it is working".

Please post any comments or questions.

NPR Coverage of FIRST

Yesterday the NPR talk show "Talk of the Nation - Science Friday" did a story about robotics. They included a great interview with Dean Kamen (the founder of FIRST) and one of the members of the "Thunder Chickens" (one of the winning teams from Atlanta). They also had on the show other computer and robotics professionals. It turned out to be a great discussion.

You can hear the entire interview by following this link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89942783

Science Friday is a great show, I've been a listener for many years now. It was about 6 months ago when they asked for listeners to add their own videos to the Science Friday website. My daughter had just created an outstanding video about FIRST, which you can view on my YouTube site if you follow this link. We submitted it to Sci Fri and it took them about 3 months to actually post the video online. Even though it took them forever, in the end I was extremely happy about having her video on their site. I heard via email from the Science Friday staff that they liked our video and were happy to have it on their site.

Apparently they liked FIRST a lot because they've created their own video. Unfortunately, it looks as though they've removed our video and replaced it with theirs. At any rate, they did an excellent job. You can watch the NPR video at this link: http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10100

Anything that will keep FIRST in the news is a good thing in my book.

News and Announcements

Tomorrow, April 17, 2008 is the beginning of the FIRST Championship in Atlanta. There will be webcast coverage for those wishing to view online and also NASA TV will be covering the competitions on Friday and Saturday. You can view the webcasts by following this link: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/robotics/first/atlanta-finals-2008/

Tomorrow morning FIRST is also announcing the new FRC control system. Follow this link: http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=8976 after 9am EST.

For any FRC team heading to Atlanta, if you'd like a jump start on your scouting, check out the data on http://www.firstobjective.org. Go to http://www.firstobjective.org/myteam and pick on 2008 Scouting Data. This will give you a spreadsheet of data for every team in every division in the Championship.

Good luck to all teams participating in the Championship!