FIRST season; almost

I heard through the grapevine yesterday that our FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team will have their first meeting on Friday. I'm not sure if this is official, but it's time for us to start getting back together.

Our team (904) is co-hosting the West Michigan Regional Invitational with 3 other area teams. This is the first time West Michigan has had an off-season event, and it should be a lot of fun. This event will be Saturday October 25 at Grandville High School. We will be using our machines that we built for the 2008 season (FIRST Overdrive). It's time to start charging up the batteries and getting some kids driving the robot.

We are now 101 days away from the official start of FIRST season; that is the 2009 kick-off. Last year we had weekly meetings during the fall to learn and build our team. Hopefully we will be doing something similar this year. Last year FIRST posted clues in December. These clues were supposedly leading us to some early knowledge of what the game would be for the year. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out their meaning, and got nowhere with it. Even after kick-off I still didn't understand the clues.

Anyhow, summer is over, school is back in session and it's almost FIRST season.

FIRST Objective 2.0

Okay, it's time to get back to blogging again.

Over the summer I have taken some time to give my website www.firstobjective.org a new look. I've had some people suggest that I spruce up the colors and make the front end a bit more simple.

So, I've tried to do just that. I've also added a nifty Google Lively chat room for anyone interested in chatting about FIRST in a virtual world (similar to Second Life).

There is also a Google map that will allow teams and students to place a marker and some info. Hopefully teams that would welcome outside students can be matched up with students in an area that are looking for a team.

I've also started the bare bones of a FIRST wiki that is intended to explain FIRST to people that are learning about it for the first time.

Anyhow, if you haven't been to FIRST Objective in a while, go check it out.

www.firstobjective.org

Do the Math

For anyone that reads my blog, you'll know that I primarily write about FIRST Robotics Competition. Avid readers will also know that I occasionally get side-tracked, which is what I am right now.

Everyone knows that this is "politics season", and I promise I will not blog about politics. But one thing is being said over and over again, we (the United States) are spending 10 billion dollars a month in Iraq. No matter how you feel about the war, that is a lot of dough. So I got to thinking...

One thing that is always said in FIRST is "That's why we do the math", and I can to do simple math, so I gave it a whirl.

I started wondering how many new jobs could be created with that kind of money. Take a wild guess at how many really good jobs 10 billion dollars a month could sustain. 10,000?, 50,000? 500,000? Nope, over 1.5 million! At a salary of $80,000 / year! AND Uncle Sam would be collecting taxes on that too!

That could be 1.5 million new jobs searching for ways to sever our dependence on foreign oil. These could be high-tech jobs in energy, robotics, medicine; solving the major problems that we are facing today.

FIRST is all about solving problems.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that some of the 10 billion is benefiting the United States. We're paying companies here at home to make guns, tanks, trucks, etc... We are also funding companies such as Haliburton and Blackwater (maybe not anymore, I'm not sure). My point is, the money is not being spent to solve our energy problems, but on war to make sure we get the oil we depend on. One day, the oil will run out, I promise.

One of my favorite quotes:
"The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them."
-Albert Einstein

More about FIRST next time.

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 needs to be a part of this

Aside from the fact that I am a FIRST activist, I am also a computer geek. My training / background is in software engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, design, drafing, CAD, and web development.

I've felt strongly about the growth of the Internet and have been developing web 2.0 websites for a while now. My site: www.firstobjective.org is a web 2.0 community that is intended to get more people involved in FIRST.

So, I just found out today who will be speaking at the "Web 2.0 Summit", November 5-7 in San Francisco. Amazingly the list contains a lot of people that I highly admire.

First on the list is Elon Musk. Elon is the primary funding source for Tesla Motors, producing wickedly cool electric vehicles. Elon is also the founder and owner of SpaceX that is independently attempting to launch vehicles into low Earth orbit. I eagerly watch every launch from SpaceX and root for their team every time they attempt to beat the evil gravity.

Also on the list is Al Gore (former Vice President of the United States). Mr. Gore has been at the leading edge regarding our issues with climate change and he also won a Nobel prize for his movie "An Inconvenient Truth". An Inconvenient Truth was one of my favorite movies. I hope everyone sees it and listens.

Even still on the list is Lance Armstrong. I have been a huge bicycle racing fan long before Lance was on the scene (and even before Greg Lemond was on the scene), nevertheless Lance is someone I greatly admire. After surviving cancer, Lance won 7 Tours de France, more than anyone, ever. Lance understands how to get past things that seem insurmountable, cancer, L'Alpe Duez, etc. He knows how to get to tomorrow, which most of us just wait for it...

There are many other speakers at the Web 2.0 Summit that have impressive credentials, however my final person that I admire is Marc Hodosh. Marc is the leader of the Archon X PRIZE for Genomics. He has also been a consultant to Dean Kamen at DEKA Research & Development and is also Chairman of Dean’s FIRST Robotics competition in Boston.

Many years ago I heard Dean speak about FIRST, and that was my first real dose of FIRST. I hope that Marc can do the same at Web 2.0 and inspire more people in the way that I was inspired.

It's time for the world to embrace the Internet as a community rather than the "Information Super-Highway". We need to slow down a bit and everyone find their own community, whether it's Facebook (oh ya, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook is also a speaker @ Web2.0), or MySpace or FIRST Objective. Web 2.0 is here and FIRST needs to be a part of it.

GeekAid

Several days ago I heard about a new event to be held in Grand Rapids called GeekAid. Check out their website. I heard this on the radio, and when I heard the word Geek, of course I had to listen. What I gathered from the radio, is that this is supposed to be an art festival with profits going to scholarships for students going to college to study science and technology. I thought that was very cool! I put it in the back of my mind that it was happening on Saturday August 16.

So, a few days ago I decided to Google GeekAid to find out all the details; time, location, etc. Much to my surprise, the GeekAid website proclaimed it to be a Music and Arts festival with other vendors providing food and drink. It sounded like a big deal and as the rusty gears in my head started to turn, I thought this would be a perfect venue to promote FIRST and FRC Team 904.

On Friday morning I hit the contact page on the GeekAid website and shot them an email explaining who we are and what we do, and why it might be a good idea for us to be there. By early afternoon I had an email back inviting our team to be a part of the fun. WhoooHooo! So, bang, I shot out emails to all of our team in hopes to have some support, and I got back some emails confirming their attendance.

Friday evening and Saturday morning I gathered some business cards, our display board and some pamphlets explaining FIRST. We packed up the car and headed to the park for the kick off at noon.

We were warmly welcomed by the GeekAid crew and given a nice spot in the shade to set up, that soon became a spot in the sun... Nevertheless we had a great time talking about robots to anyone that slowed down as they passed our table. We had several people genuinely interested in helping out through donations. We also had some teachers and parents that just thought it was really cool what FIRST is doing.Aside from our participation, GeekAid was a blast. They had great bands that played all day, and they even had a guy playing guitar in between bands, so there was never a lull in the music. They had art auctions to raise money and had a variety of food and drinks as well.

Anyhow, I think GeekAid should be a permanent date on our calendar. The GeekAid folks plan to do the same thing again next year back at the same park around the middle of August. We're hoping to have a couple robots there next year and have people give them a test drive.

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?