Helping Minnesota teams prepare
A six-week clock starts ticking for every FIRST Robotics team the first weekend in January, when FIRST unveils the year’s challenge at the Kickoff. During that intensive six-week period, teams must learn the game strategy and design and fabricate a robot capable of playing FIRST’s game of the year. To assist rookie teams in preparing for the intensive six-week build, the Green Machine suggested, developed, and helped to host a first-ever Minnesota Regional pre-season event, the Minnesota Splash! on December 8, 2007. This pre-kickoff experience, held at the Lockheed Martin facility in Eagan, MN, allowed new FIRST Robotics teams a chance to dip their feet into what comprises an FRC build. About 350 FIRST Robotics team members, mentors, and volunteers gathered for presentations, workshops, and seminars covering topics that new FIRST Robotics teams need to know before opening the common kit of parts handed out to all teams. Many Team 1816 members and mentors were involved in presenting workshops, ranging from how to put “safety first” in the workshop, to preparing a Chairman’s Award presentation, to writing computer programs able to direct a robot through multiple tasks. Presentations from Minnesota Splash have been posted on the Minnesota Regional web site.
Kickoff
On January 5, 2008, more than 700 students and mentors from teams throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and North Dakota gathered for the FIRST Kickoff at Coffman Memorial Union at the University of Minnesota. The Kickoff is when FIRST announced the rules of the 2008 game, FIRST Overdrive. The 90-minute satellite broadcast, sponsored by NASA TV, beamed to Coffman Union and similar venues across the U.S. and in seven other nations. Each registered team received an official kit of parts at the Kickoff meeting; many had an opportunity to see a partial mock up of the 2008 Overpass, a critical part of the 2008 game challenge.
Build and competition season
Immediately after the Kickoff, Team 1816 convened to begin discussing design and strategy. During six-week build period, the team will be designing, building, testing, programming, and finally preparing our robot for shipment. On February 19, the Federal Express truck will come to the loading dock of Edina High School and take our robot to the FIRST Wisconsin Regional Competition, which will take place March 13-15, 2008, in Milwaukee. After the Wisconsin Regional, Team 1816 will regroup, re-strategize, and recharge its batteries to compete in the first-ever FIRST Minnesota Regional in Minneapolis, March 27-29, 2008.
Pre- and Post-competition season activities
When a FIRST Robotics team is not building the robot, there is still plenty of work to be done! One of the key responsibilities of every FIRST team is outreach, to connect with the community in a meaningful way. One of our team's goals has been to spread the word about FIRST Robotics and encourage the formation of other teams. Not only has our team been in contact with rookie and second-year teams around Minnesota, but we also have been in contact with an FRC Team in Israel. Team 2230, Zcharia’s Angels, Herzliya, Israel, requested permission to translate our team’s 2007 marketing video into Hebrew, and use the video as an example of how FIRST can impact the lives of today’s high school students.
Corporate sponsorship is an integral part of staging a FIRST team. In fall 2007, we contacted our 2007 sponsors and other corporations to seek funding for the 2008 season. The link between corporations and FIRST Teams is essential. Corporate sponsors provide not only funding, but also mentors. For many team members, meeting with corporate sponsors and mentors is their first contact with "real world" applications of math, science, and technology opportunities for future careers in these vital industries.
In fall 2007, The Green Machine welcomed many new team members, including a handful of veterans from FIRST Lego League. Heading into competition, the team has a total of 31 students, Grades 9 – 12, listed as active participants. This year, the team has been more formally divided into subteams, including groups dedicated to computer-aided design (CAD) prototyping and fabricating, and media, including Autodesk’s 3-D animation.
Helping FIRST help rookie teams
One of the most difficult things about starting up – and sustaining -- a new FIRST Robotics team is figuring out not only how to build a robot in six weeks, but how to find mentors and corporate sponsors, and what to expect when your team arrives at a regional competition. To answer these and other pressing questions, FIRST turned to the best resource it could find: its own teams! This year, The Green Machine was one of 20 teams named to participate in a new initiative called the FIRST President’s Circle. These teams worked for six months alongside FIRST to identify the best-known resources for rookie teams to grow into successful, long-term robotics teams. Their recommendations can be found on the FIRST website in the President’s Circle section. Included are listings of the top websites new FIRST teams should visit, suggestions on where teams can begin the search for financial support, and a catalog of “must have” resources. Among The Green Machine’s contributions to this project: its 2007 team handbook is listed in the top ten FIRST team manuals, and the team’s webmaster was tapped by FIRST to help design, format, and post President’s Circle web content.
Participants in the President’s Circle were selected after submitting a two-minute video aimed at inspiring, recruiting, and mentoring new teams. The Green Machine was the first team to upload a President’s Circle submission video to the FIRST Channel on YouTube in May. This video, produced and edited by team members, illustrated The Green Machine’s involvement with the start-up of seven rookie teams in 2007. To see all of the submissions, including The Green Machine's entry, click. http://www.youtube.com/video_response_view_all?v=YI6OdKdileg.
Joining our team in the President's Circle this year are: Raider Robotix, Team 25; Team RUSH, Team 27; TeknoKats, Team 45; Team Hammond, Team 71; The Navigators, Team 79; Pink Team, Team 233; Techno Ticks, Team 236; The CIA, Team 291; Starbot, Team 337; Churchville-Chili FIRST, Team 340; Miss Daisy, Team 341; MOE, Team 365; Midnight Mechanics, Team 812; Falcon Robotics, Team 842; Simbots, Team 1114; Eagle Engineering, Team 1138; Xaviermania, Team 1846; Apple Pi, Team 2067; and Panteras, Team 2283.