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Practice Fields at Championship – We Hear You
Posted On:
Mon, 04/22/2013 - 13:02

We’re seeing lots of activity on the forums over our release of the Practice Field policy for Championship.  I’m going to try to clarify some things, and let you know about changes we’re making.

Our primary concern with the practice fields is safety. With this year’s game, we feel that the only safe way to run the Formal Practice Fields, where robots may be driving and shooting over long distances and at high velocities, is with no humans on the field. The match play timing structure and use of FMS were a result of the desire to make sure that all robots are enabled and...

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Share your FIRST Story, and *Preliminary* Championship Match Schedules
Posted On:
Mon, 04/22/2013 - 09:47


Share Your FIRST Story at Championship!

One of the best parts of our jobs is the opportunity to see how someone’s life may have been positively impacted by participating in a FIRST program. We love to receive letters, meet people at events and read about our alumni in the news. This year, we’re going to take this one step further and capture some of these testimonials on video. In St. Louis, you might encounter a video crew interviewing folks for personal stories about the FIRST experience. Some will be planned, some will be more impromptu. In the...

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Wireless at Championship, Two Award Winners and Real-Life Mario Kart!
Posted On:
Thu, 04/18/2013 - 10:51

Wireless at Championship

There’s no question that all eyes will be on Einstein next week to make sure we don’t have a repeat of the communications issues we had last year.  We’re working hard to make sure things run smoothly.  We have several changes already in place and a few more steps we’re taking that I wanted to mention today.

First, all Divisional Winners will be brought out to Einstein at least one hour in advance of the big show to allow the teams to calibrate their cameras and run a practice match.  This will give us a chance to catch...

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Boston
Posted On:
Tue, 04/16/2013 - 08:30

The thoughts of the FRC Staff are with the Boston bombing victims and their families and friends. 

I encourage anyone having sentiments they would like to express to add them to the comments section below.

Frank

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SpaceX Internships
Posted On:
Fri, 04/12/2013 - 14:33

SpaceX Internships

I hope the students on our FRC teams are thinking about college and careers in science and technology. I recently blogged about the internship opportunity that SpaceX is offering FRC and FTC students.

If you are a High School Senior, you should seriously consider putting in an application. Participating in an internship is a great way to stand out in a competitive job market. And how cool would it be to tell your friends and family that you are interning at SpaceX?...

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Community Awards, the Dean’s List Finalist that Got Away, and Season Over?
Posted On:
Wed, 04/10/2013 - 11:39

Community Awards

Do you ever think to yourself “FRC should have an award for….(fill in the blank)”?  We sometimes get suggestions for new awards here at FIRST Headquarters.  It’s hard for us to accommodate these, as our current awards slate is very full, and fitting in and judging the awards we currently have is already a challenge.  However, this doesn’t mean those suggested awards don’t have merit!

Next season, our intention is to try a new ‘Community Awards’ concept.  Community Awards would be created, judged, and presented...

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SpaceX Internships, our own Mission Control
Posted On:
Wed, 04/03/2013 - 18:24

SpaceX Internships

Did you see the last email blast? SpaceX is offering exclusive internship opportunities to students in FIRST!  If you are a senior this year, and participating in FRC or FTC, you can apply for an internship that would likely take place after you complete your sophomore year in college.  It took us some time to put this together, and we want to select winners by Championship, so the clock is ticking...

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Doing the Right Thing
Posted On:
Tue, 03/26/2013 - 13:06

Over the weekend I attended the Central Washington Regional at Central Washington University in Ellensburg.   My experience up until the final round was wonderful.  Folks were having fun, the volunteers were great, matches for the most part were running smoothly, I saw some terrific robots, and, I think, I made some new friends.  Things did not go as expected in the final round, though, and it caused some significant pain for many present.  I’d like to talk about this.

The final rounds were between two very closely matched alliances.  The blue...

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The Action, The Media and Technology Innovation Award and The Video Game
Posted On:
Fri, 03/15/2013 - 13:50

The Action

Stuck at home this weekend but still want to catch some FRC action?  Check out the links below for live broadcasts.

Note:  These sites are independently run.  FIRST is responsible for...

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‘Hockey State’? Not so fast….
Posted On:
Mon, 03/11/2013 - 17:27

I had the pleasure of visiting the double event in Duluth, MN over the weekend. The Duluth Entertainment Convention Center hosted two simultaneous Regionals under one roof – Lake Superior & Northern Lights Regionals – and it was fantastic.  These events were exactly what folks like to see – exciting gameplay, passionate, friendly and hard-working teams, committed volunteers and engaged sponsors, with everything running on schedule.  Also, having had the honor of shaking hands and high-fiving awards winners on the field at...

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Week 1 and What…No Hugs?
Posted On:
Wed, 03/06/2013 - 11:58

Week 1 Manchester Granite State Regional (Manchester, NH) 

Photo by Lipofsky.com (c) 2013, courtesy of BAE Systems

Week 1

I hope that teams who...

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Practice Day and Pins, Medallions, and Trophies
Posted On:
Fri, 03/01/2013 - 10:35

Week 0 Scrimmage (Nashua, NH)

"Week 0 Scrimmage in Nashua" Photo by Steve Lipofsky (c) 2013

Practice Day

I was at the BAE Systems Granite State Regional Thursday for practice day, and saw some great robots.  I’m really looking...

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Disc Counting System
Posted On:
Wed, 02/27/2013 - 14:16

I thought you might like to know a little about how the scoring system will work this year.  For this year’s game, we created a system that weighs the goals to determine the number of discs they contain. Our testing over the past several months has shown that this scoring system is accurate most of the time, but because of the number of variables involved, the reported number of discs may be off by a disc or two from time to time.  We know how important it is that the scores are correct, so we will be verifying disc counts manually at the end of the autonomous period, and...

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Wild Cards 2013 and the Harlem Shake
Posted On:
Mon, 02/25/2013 - 16:07

Hello Teams,

I hope everyone caught up on some sleep over the weekend.  Only a few more days until our first official events of the season, and as we say up here, I am ‘wicked’ excited!

Hey, remember Wild Cards?  I talked about them in the FRC Blog way back in September.  Teams can earn Wild Card Slots as described on the ...

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FIRST Future Innovator Award sponsored by the Abbott Fund
Posted On:
Wed, 02/20/2013 - 16:50

I hope everyone had a great Stop Build Day!

Now that you may have at least a little more time on your hands, how about applying for the FIRST Future Innovator Award?  This award goes to an individual student or students, rather than an entire team, and will be presented on stage at Championship.  The team does not need to be present at Championship for students associated with the team to win.  To encourage greater participation, we are extending the submission deadline for this award to Noon Eastern Time on...

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