Florida Rocks the World!

Posted on May 2, 2012 by tmw2010

SPAM under pressure!

Not much bowling but lots of lifting!

From FRC Team SPAM Robotics of Martin County, taking the top award in the FRC Championship as the Winning Alliance, and the Pink Team earning the Spirit Award,  to FTC Team Masquerade‘s signature role as a member of the Winning Alliance in the FTC Championship, along with FTC Team dent in the universe’s receipt of the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award, Florida made a powerful and memorable showing at the FIRST Championship!

Masquerade in FTC Winning Alliance

To spice things up, SPAM battled it out with fellow Floridateam

dent in the universe and Team Duct Tape

Pink, and the third attending FTC Team, Team Duct Tape, made it into the semi-finals finishing in the top ten.

Congratulations to all our great Florida teams!  More photos soon!

Filed under: FIRST Championship, FIRST events, FIRST in Florida, FIRST in the News, FRC, FTC | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

FIRST Championship – Making it LOUD & Mobile!

Posted on April 18, 2012 by tmw2010

FIRST has a NEW! Mobile-Friendly Website for the upcoming 2012 FIRST Championship!

The new Championship website will help visitors and spectators

  • find their way around the  event;
  • provide program descriptions and game overviews;
  • showcase St. Louis Visitor Information;
  • link to the NASA viewing site; and
  • enableeasy access to all FIRST social media links for timely, up-to-the minute information about the 2012 FIRST Championship events, happenings & excitement!

FIRST is Making it Loud! Help spread the word!

Check it out on your browser or device at http://championship2012.usfirst.org or scan the QR code:

 

 

Filed under: FIRST Championship, FIRST events, FIRST in the News, FIRST Resources, FRC, FTC | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Congrats to FTC Teams Heading to World Championship in April!

Posted on February 23, 2012 by tmw2010

Congratulations to FTC team 5454, dent in the universe, for their Inspire Award win at the Florida FTC State Championship this past weekend, and to team 4997, Masquerade, the Winning Alliance Captains, who move ahead to the FTC World Championship in April, in St. Louis.  FTC team 2845, Team Duct Tape, who won the Connect Award, also qualified for the World Championship as Inspire Award runners up.

The event was notable for many reasons – from having the highest number of competing teams ever, 32 – to generating the still

standing World Record high score in the Bowled Over game: 584!  (Check out video of the match here!) The event ran smoothly, with great energy, enormous fun and ridiculously high robot lifts!

Embry Riddle also gave out scholarships worth $20,000 each, over four years, to 12 FTC students.

Here’s the complete tournament results list, from the FIRST Tech Challenge Florida Championship held at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical

Pyramid o' Refs

University in Daytona Beach, Florida on February 18, 2012.

Winning Alliance

  • 4997 (Alliance Captain) Masquerade
  • 1369 Minotaur
  • 5454 dent in the universe

Finalist Alliance

  • 506  (Alliance Captain) Pandara
  • 3101 BoomBots
  • 516 Schrodinger’s Army

Judged Awards

  • Inspire Award – 5454 dent in the universe
  • Rockwell Collins Innovate Award – 1369 Minotaur
  • PTC Design Award – 516 Schrodinger’s Army
  • Think Award – 5018 Team Brick Buddies
  • Connect Award – 2845 Team Duct Tape
  • Motivate Award – 4997 Masquerade
  • Judges Award – 5070 N.U.T.S.

FTC Teams 2845, 4997, and 5454 qualified for the World Championship.

Congratulations to all the great teams who made it to the State Championship, and many many thanks to all the wonderful volunteers who made the event possible! See you in St. Louis!

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FTC Update: New High Score, Future Innovator Award, Latest Brandeis Study & More!

Posted on February 2, 2012 by tmw2010
Contents
  1. New High Score
  2. Future Innovator Award, presented by the Abbott Fund
  3. Travel Discounts
  4. FTC shines in latest Brandeis study
  5. 2012 FIRST Robotics Conference – call for proposals
  6. Share your curriculum ideas
  1. New high score set by teams 4240 and 4154 at the Diamond State FTC Tournament!  444 points.  Way to go!
  2. Applications are now being accepted for the Future Innovator Award, presented by the Abbott Fund.  Read more about it on Ken’s Blog or visit the official application page for more details!

3.    Travel Discounts for FRC Regional Events and FIRST Championship: If you are booking tickets through American Airlines online, please read the following instructions:

The discount can be booked online atwww.aa.com/group for AA/AE flights only, without a ticketing charge. Please allow at least 1 business hour for AA.com loading.  Use the Authorization Number noted without the preceding A as the AA.com Promotion Code. Please note: this may not apply to some contracts.

4.    Brandeis University has released findings from research it conducted on FIRST programs!  Check out all the good stuff the researchers had to say about FTC by reading Ken’s Blog.

  1. FIRST is seeking presentation proposals for the ninth annual FIRST Robotics Conference. 45-minute workshops on topics of interest to FIRST Robotics (FRC), FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) and FIRST LEGO League (FLL) teams, coaches, mentors, students and prospective leaders will be accepted.  Deadline to submit is February 17th, 2012. For submission form, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/89vj2hm

 For full details, please visit:http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/firstplace/workshops-and-conferences

  1. Are you a teacher?  Do you use FTC in the classroom? Have you developed a curriculum for teaching your students? Now you can share your work with the rest of the FTC community by posting it in the Curriculum portion of the FTC Forum!

 

Ken, JoAnn, Nancy, Mary, Lorrie and Timm


Filed under: FIRST in the News, FTC, STEM news | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Bowled Over Build, Bake and Broil FTC Scrimmage – January 14th, Polk State College, Winter Haven

Posted on December 30, 2011 by tmw2010

Are you

Shivering at the thought of your upcoming tournament?

Frozen in your design process?

Chilled by the lack of access to game elements?

Then heat up your season with

The Polk State College

Bowled Over Build, Bake and Broil Scrimmage

On January 14th, 12-4PM

 In the Student Center on the campus of Polk State College Winter Haven, FL

Interact with bowling balls, ramps, and crates and on a Bowled Over Field!

  •  Participate in casual matches
  • Review rules with friendly referees (outside the box, no less)
  • Discuss strategy and scouting techniques with veteran FTC teams
  • Connect to a real Field Control System
  • Attend a workshop on Powerpole Wiring & receive a free crimping tool!

No Judges, No Interviews No Stress! Bring your robot, in whatever condition, we’ll get it going by the end of the day; Guaranteed!

Questions contact:  Paul Bresnan 863-646-9525      ftcrobot-first@yahoo.com

Pre-registration required. Send e-mail with name, contact info and team number to: ftcrobot-first@yahoo.com

Sponsored by FTC Teams 5232 and 2868, The Decepticons and Smoke and Mirrors

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FTC Email Blast for 11/11/11: Forum question downloads, Revised Game Manual, E-Watt Lightbulbs & More!

Posted on November 14, 2011 by tmw2010

E-blast contents:

1.    Forum Questions Answered Downloads available

2.    Revised Game Manual

3.    It’s not too late to register!

4.    Pre-order 2nd Generation e-watt light bulbs

5.    ’Like’ Drive

6.    RSS feed!

1.    The FTC Forum Questions Answered document is now available in Nook, Kindle and PDF format!  Find them on the FTC Game Page.

The FTC Forum Questions Answered document is a quick reference guide, for tournaments, with all of the questions asked of and answered by the game committee.  We recommend all teams have a copy of this document available at their tournaments.

The FTC Forum Questions Answered download is updated each Thursday.

2.    The latest Game Manual Revision is now available on the FTC Game Page.

Changes are highlighted on the revision history table in the front of the document.

3.      It’s not too late to register!  Log-in to TIMS and complete your registration today!

4.      Don’t forget to pre-order your 2nd Generation e-watt saver bulbs for your fundraising efforts!

5.      Help us get to 1,000 fans!  ‘Like’ us on Facebook

6.    Subscribe to our RSS feed to get this e-blast and other important FTC updates delivered in HTML (prettified) format

Have a great FTC week!

~Ken, JoAnn, Nancy, Mary, Lorrie and Timm

Facebook – Twitter – YouTube – Ken’s Blo

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FTC Build It Day Teams Send Grateful Shout-Out to Rockwell Collins!

Posted on October 24, 2011 by tmw2010

  Several Central Florida area FIRST Tech Challenge teams enjoyed some hands on time at the Middleton High School Build It Day this past Saturday.  Teams sat in on programming sessions, a very helpful presentation on using the Anderson Powerpole connectors , and a PTC Creo workshop

And thanks to the wonderful generosity of Rockwell-Collins,every team that came to the Build It Day went home with a fantastic goody bag that included things only FIRST teams could love –a way cool,high quality crimping tool,Anderson Powerpole connectors and the latest edition of Pope John XXIII High School FTC team’s great book FTC Robotics:Tips,Tricks,Strategies and Secrets .

Teams made this visual shout out at left, to Rockwell-Collins to say thank you!  Many thanks, to, to Middleton High School for a great event!

Filed under: FIRST events, FIRST in Florida, FTC | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

FTC Update: Senior Mentor Calls, FIRST Scholarship Info, FTC Events and more!

Posted on October 10, 2011 by tmw2010

FTC Team email blasts contain information that we believe will help your team to be successful.

  1. What’s New
  2. Social Media
  3. Senior Mentor Calls
  4. FIRST Scholarship Information
  5. FTC Events
  6. Communication Survey

1 What’s New This Week:

o Important Information about the Game Q&A Forum

§ To post to the game Q&A forum your team must be registered for the current FTC season

§ Your login and password can be found on the Team Summary page of the TIMS Registration System

§ We are currently experiencing a problem with the forum “What’s New”, “New Post” and “Search” features and are actively working to resolve the issue

o RSS Feed

§ Subscribe to our RSS feed and never miss another Team Email Blast, Ken’s Blog Post or Technical Bulletin. Just follow this link and click the RSS icon to subscribe:

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/ftc/emailblastarchive.aspx

2 Social Media – Did you know that FTC has a facebook page, a twitter account, a YouTube channel and a blog?

 3 Senior Mentor Calls – Each season FIRST’s dedicated team of Senior Mentors partner with program specialists to share helpful hints with teams. We have 2 calls scheduled for next week so be sure to mark your calendars. For the full list of Senior Mentor Calls, to listen to recorded calls or to download call materials in advance of the calls, please visit:

http://www3.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/ftc/senior_mentor_call_schedule

Samantha – Field Control Updates

Host: Steve Florence

Experts: John Peabody

Date: October 12, 2011 at 7pm Eastern Time

Dial in Toll Free #: 1-866-951-1151

Dial in Toll #: 1-201-590-2255

Conference Room #: 7052714

 

FTC Judging: What to Expect

Host: Heidi Lovett

Experts: Kevin Ross

Date: October 13, 2011 at 8pm Eastern Time

This session will be held on GoToMeeting. Please log in to the link below to participate:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/747909858

4 FIRST Scholarship Information – Announcing 2012 FIRST Scholarship Opportunities for FTC Students valued at over $9.4 million:

Find out more about the scholarship opportunities for 2012 and about the new search filters that will help students narrow their FIRST Scholarship search at: http://www.usfirst.org/sites/default/files/uploadedFiles/About_Us/Scholarships/2012_Assets/FIRST%20Scholarship%20News%2010-4-11.pdf

5 FTC Events – With a few exceptions, our current season event list is live on our web site. Follow this link to see what events are near you:

http://www3.usfirst.org/whatsgoingon

6 Communication Survey – If you haven’t completed our Communication Survey, please take a few moments to complete it now:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JT6NPNC

~Go Team!

FTC Support

Ken, JoAnn, Lorrie, Brian, Nancy and Timm

Like us on facebook, follow us on twitter, watch FTC Videos on YouTube, and don’t forget to check out Ken’s Blog!

 

FIRST ® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)

http://www.usfirst.org/ftc

 

“Being a Gracious Professional involves respecting yourself, your team, other teams, and everyone around you. It is a way of doing things with a competitive spirit, without making anyone feel like a loser. Gracious Professionalism is a way of interacting with other people respectfully, doing excellent work, and promoting teamwork and appreciation of others.”

 

Filed under: FIRST events, FIRST in Florida, FTC | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

FTC “Build-it” Day at Middleton High School, Oct 22

Posted on October 8, 2011 by tmw2010

Middleton High School will be hosting the 3rd annual Tampa Build-It Day on October 22, 2011 from 9am to 3pm. A full Bowled Over! field will be set-up in the Middleton cafeteria with plenty of tables and workspace for everyone to work on their robots. The Build-It Day event is an opportunity for FTC teams to have access to a practice field, exchange design ideas, help rookie teams with building their first robot, and attend workshops.

Some of the workshop topics we are planning to include are:

Middleton High School is located at 4801 N. 22nd Street, Tampa, FL.

Please Contact Michael Coleman at michael.coleman@flfirst.org for information on how to register for this shared building opportunity!

More useful information and updates in the complete October 7  FTC update at the Florida FTC Forum.

Filed under: FIRST in Florida, FTC | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

FIRST Tech Challenge Team Email Blast – September 30, 2011

Posted on September 30, 2011 by tmw2010
Hello FTC Teams!

FTC Team email blasts contain information that we believe will help your team to be successful.

1 What’s New
2 FTC Tutorials
3 Senior Mentor Calls
4 FTC Getting Started Guide
5 Communication Survey

1 What’s New This Week: Check out our website for new updates, including:

2 FTC Tutorials – Do you want to learn how to set up your Samantha Module? Are you interested in learning about how to protect your robot from Electro Static Discharge? Check out our new FTC YouTube Channel for these topics and more. http://www.youtube.com/user/FIRSTTechChallenge. Do you want to contribute content? Send an email to ftcteams@usfirst.org with VideoContent as the subject.
3 Senior Mentor Calls – Each season FIRST’s dedicated team of Senior Mentors partner with program specialists to share helpful hints with teams. We have 3 calls scheduled for next week so be sure to mark your calendars.

For all 3 calls the Dial in Numbers are:
Toll Free 1-866-951-1151
Toll Number 1-201-590-2255
Conference Room: 7052714

Teams in Transition: FLL to FTC – what to expect, changes, challenges and what’s different

Host: Dennis Skurulsky
Experts: Tim Ewers and Cathy Swider
Date: October 3, 2011 at 7pm Eastern Time

Build Strategy: What to consider as you build your robot
Experts: Ronald Howard and Ron Pittswood
Date: October 4, 2011 at 7pm Eastern Time

Software Basics: What to expect at an event, focusing on inspection and field control.
Host: Mike Henry
Expert: Mike Nicolai
Date: October 6, 2011 at 7pm Eastern Time

For the full list of Senior Mentor Calls, please check here: http://www3.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/ftc/senior_mentor_call_schedule

4 FTC Getting Started Guide – The New And Improved TETRIX Getting Started Guide is shipping now with Competition Kits. Using your kit from last year? Follow this link for the on-line version: http://www.tetrixrobotics.com/GettingStartedGuide/. After you’ve used the guide, go to our Curriculum and Classroom Resources Forum and tell us what you think.

5 Communication Survey – We’d love to know how best to reach you and your team. Please take a few moments to complete our communication survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JT6NPNC

~Go Team!
FTC Support
Ken, JoAnn, Lorrie, Brian, Nancy and Timm
Like us on facebook, follow us on twitter, watch FTC Videos on YouTube, and don’t forget to check out Ken’s Blog!

http://www.facebook.com/FTCTeams
http://twitter.com/#!/FTCTeams
http://www.youtube.com/firsttechchallenge
http://firsttechchallenge.blogspot.com/

FIRST ® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)
http://www.usfirst.org/ftc

“Being a Gracious Professional involves respecting yourself, your team, other teams, and everyone around you. It is a way of doing things with a competitive spirit, without making anyone feel like a loser. Gracious Professionalism is a way of interacting with other people respectfully, doing excellent work, and promoting teamwork and appreciation of others.”

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