Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

With the Championships in St. Louis rapidly approaching, I'd like to remind teams of the FIRST Robotics Conference which will be taking place. At 4:00 PM on Wednesday evening, myself and Team 1114 will once again be delivering our seminar on Effective FIRST Strategies. This year, FIRST has graciously given us 2 hours to present on this topic, which will allow us to cover some topics at a much more in depth level than the past, as well as covering some entirely new topics.

Here are the threads discussing the last three editions of this seminar:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...05#post1054705
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=76778
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=84958

And the abstract:

Some specific topics that we plan on discussing that haven't been covered in detail in the past.

- Why "OPR" is a flawed indicator in Rebound Rumble
- Alliance selection strategy & the "Do Not Pick List"
- The "secrets" behind the accomplishments of the great teams

If there are any topics you'd like to discussed in detail, or questions you'd like answered, post them here and we'll be happy to address them during the presentation.

If you're really into FIRST strategy, looking to improve your team, curious what it means to "ball so hard", or just looking for some good FIRST related laughs, this is a presentation you won't want to miss.

For information on how to register please visit the following link:

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...ics-conference

I hope to see all of you there!

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I know i will be there! I love Karthik's talks!

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Honestly, that's just crazy. Sadly no one will find me in St. Louis this year.

Hoping to see/hear a recording of this :) Pretty please Rolls-Royce?

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Only question I have is...

WHAT SHE ORDER?

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Webcast of the presentation? :D

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Team 1114 will be recording this presentation and putting up on our website as part of the Textbook for Success after Championship. If all goes well, it may included on the Simbot mobile app, Simphone.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I've wanted to see this first hand for years! Guess I'll have to wait a little longer...

I'm glad 1114 is recording it this year though! I can't wait to see it!!

Thank you for everything you do Karthik! You and 1114 are truly role-models in FIRST.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I will be buying a conference pass just to go to this presentation.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Finally, they gave the presentation the amount of time it deserves.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Sounds like it will be a great presentation. Question ~ the FIRST link shows a price for a "single session pass" for a 45 minute conference session. I'm assuming this would still count as a single session even though it will be 2 hours?

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

HOT Team mentors are registered. Now we just have to leave early enough to get there in time.

Last years presentation was good, but cut short before we got to the good stuff. Hopefully, this year we can cover the more advanced topics.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Thanks for doing this Karthik, looking forward to this year's presentation...

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

If I were going to the Championship, I would so be there. Guess I have to settle for watching it online afterward.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

FISH FILET!!!!!!

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I would be interested in a nice little talk about practice. Oh yes, I said PRACTICE.PRACTICE.

The benefits of doing specific skills drills vs. 2 minute match formats.

Full field vs. 1/2 court.

I have had the privelege of watching a few top notch teams practice, and I was impressed with some of the things I saw. I have observed some of the benefits of drills with my own team in 2007, 2010, and 2011.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I'm very happy to see the presentation will be available to us plebians who will not be able to attend. Thanks much for that!

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

The conference registration page says that the single/individual passes are for 45 minute presentations. Was this just an oversight by FIRST, or do we need a different pass to attend your conference?

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I have never been able to catch this presentation. But this year I have booked my flight so that I can get to St. Louis in time to see it. Who needs to go to Wednesday classes when you can go to a lecture presented by Karthik?

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I'm assuming it was an oversight, but to be certain you'll have to check with FIRST.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Can we go to this if we live in the area but are not going to champs?

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I'll be there! Karthik and 1114 always manage to have a fantastic presentation. Informative, helpful for people of all experience levels, and hilarious! I'm glad it will be recorded this year so I can pass it on to FIRST friends who aren't there.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Yes, even if your team didn't qualify/isn't going doesn't mean you can't! You can come and watch the whole weekend. Besides the matches and competition, there's FTC and FLL and JFLL to check out, lots of display areas from companys, display areas from colleges, and the ceminars. Besides the ceminars and the FIRST Finale champs is free.

Can't wait to hear the presentation Karthik!

-Nick

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I land as this is ending... $@#$@#$@#$@#. I thoroughly enjoyed it in 2010.

This is an interesting question that I hadn't really thought much about. I can only guess it has something to do with the highly "inseparable" nature of the bridge, as well as the Coopertition Bridge. I think a Hybrid-only OPR and a Teleop ball scoring OPR would probably be more useful than general OPR this year - an option not present in the past but now available via Twitter.

Actually, in the past it's cost $10. But the Black Eyed Peas concert was free!

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Wait, just to go see the matches? Last year you could just walk into the America Center...

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I am lobbying to get some of our team members into this particular seminar..and I see a few others that look really interesting.

Just wondering why FIRST is charging such a high cost? Rental of the facility? Presenters fees? :confused:

Our team had a hard enough time scraping together the money to get to St. Louis. Would love to have a dozen or more of the team attend some of these... but we're talking several hundred more dollars that we don't have. You think they could give a discount to Regional Winners? ;)

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

It has never cost money to watch the matches.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I was referring to conferences like this one, which have at least in the past cost money to attend.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I can assure you, this presenter and all others, are receiving no compensation for their presentations.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I didn't think so either. :confused:

It would be nice if they had more of a discount for multiple team members or student discounts?

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I asked FIRST about the fees in the past. The fees help offset the costs of the rooms the av the sound etc. none of that is cheap.

The fee is small. And it also has a side benefit in that teams will limit how many attend. This way the room is full with 4 people from 50 teams instead of 50 people from 4 teams. More teams get the info and can share it.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

The hybrid and teleop-only stuff is available simply because it's in the team standings page. As long as FIRST breaks out individual stats in the standings page, you can do the same regression math and get bridge/hybrid/teleop ratings.

My own thoughts on why it's not as effective this year as past:
-The 1 CP = 5 points hack isn't perfect
-Many top-end teams (including 1114) sacrifice a ton of potential offensive points by sitting on the CP bridge at the end of a qual match waiting for a cooperating robot. This means their OPR will underestimate their 'true' offensive value
-Teams like 1114 that hop on the co-op bridge early and get rejected (or fail to balance) will have sacrificed lots of offensive scoring and gained nothing for it. Result: elite team with a depressed OPR.
-Seeding high in this game depends on CPs (depends on bridge ability and luck) and match wins (depends on offensive power, bridge ability, and luck). A 1-dimensional measure of a team isn't going to predict a high seed.
-Success in eliminations depends on offensive power, robot shape, centres of gravity, and bridge ability. Again, it won't be captured in a 1-dimensional measure like OPR
-Fouls will elevate a team's opponents' OPR rather than depressing their OPR like penalties used to. Result: a team that causes lots of fouls (and thus contributes lots to their opponents' OPRs) won't get detected
-For bridge power, a team that spends 2 minutes to balance will be rated about the same as a team that spends 10 seconds to balance, assuming they balance about the same # of times

All that said, the correlations between OPR and qualification match win rate are pretty good this year. In 2007 and 2009 it was useless because of the exponential scoring and human scoring respectively. However, it's usefulness as a predictor of who would be best for a team to draft for elims is much reduced. Elimination success this year depends on less-measurable qualities like robot shape and CG and how well the robots work together.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Minor quibble: Chris said Teleop ball scoring OPR. This is available only from the Twitter data, because the Team Standings data folds Foul Points in the TeleOp sum, and doesn't provide a column for Foul Points to let you subtract it out.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Where do we get our passes to attend this event? I have bought mine, I just don't know where to pick up the pass.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Karthik - I would really love to attend this in person. Unfortunately, as an inspector I suspect I'll be just a tiny bit busy Wednesday night. I'll look forward to the update on SimPhone though.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

From the registration webpage:

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Thanks to everyone who came out and attended this presentation. I was really energized by the standing room only audience that was present, and I'm confident in saying it was the best session I've ever delivered. Our team did tape the entire session and we hope to have it hosted online shortly. Links will be posted in this thread as well as on the various 1114 social media accounts. We'll also be adding this presentation to the SimPhone App.

Special thanks to Colleen Shaver and Nick Skripsky for all their hard work in making the FIRST Robotics Conferences possible.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I hope it'll be up soon. I really really wanted to attend, but my team desperately needed to pass inspection Wednesday night, and there's where being a valuable Pit team member has it's downfalls. Thank you Karthik for all you do for FIRST, Simbotics, and changing the world.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

As someone who attended your presentation I must say that it was simply outstanding. I found it thoroughly interesting and informative. I am planning on showing this to all new members of our team next year and possibly the teams we may end up mentoring.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I'm so happy this was recorded! Like many others this presentation has been at the top of my list since I was a freshman, and have never been able to attend. 1114 is an amazing team, and I hope to be able to show my team this presentation and hope that they can benefit from it.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Karthik, will this seminar be available soon... we're chomping-at-the-bit to learn from Simbotics! ;-) THANKS!

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Hey Michael, our media team is working away on getting the video edited and integrating the slides into the product. It should be online in the next few weeks.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I hate to come across as nagging, but how's the video coming along? Or, if it's up, could someone direct a somewhat lost mustang to said video then?

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Still being worked on, but should be online soon. It will be publicized via the 1114 Twitter and Facebook accounts as soon as it's available.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Thanks Karthik. I can hear my parents now..."Cal, get off Facebook and do your summer assignments now!" "But mom, I am doing my Robotics summer homework; I'm studying 1114 so I can be a more effective Team Captain!"

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

C'mon, hurry up 1114!


just kidding :p

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

The presentation is now on Youtube. Enjoy!

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

For the hearing impaired, is there a version somewhere with less compression of the audio?

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Woohoo!! I finally get to see this presentation with my own eyes :D
Now hopefully one of these days I can see it in person.

Thanks to Karthik and 1114 for making this video available! It's not a wonder at all why 1114 is the newest inductee into the FIRST Hall of Fame!

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Is anybody else gonna be copying the Sim Bucks idea? I LOVE IT!

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Karthik, in the beginning of the presentation (the slide with Beatty 2002) there's two numbers, I think 133 and 134 referencing something in 2011 that you said would be brought up later in the presentation that never were. What are those two numbers?

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Probably unbeatable scores.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

The two hours I find to watch this will be the greatest two hours of my life.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

If you could guarantee yourself 1st and 2nd place in the Minibot race in 2011, the most points your opponent could score was 133; 108 for a perfect rack, 25 for the 3rd and 4th minibots. So you needed 134 to guarantee a win, 84 on the rack plus the 50 you've got with your 1st and 2nd minibots. 84 points on the rack was 3 Ubertubes, two logos up top and one logo mid.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Wohoo, I know what I'm going to do tonight. Staying up, grabbing a notebook, and studying this video.


Well, you were half right....:rolleyes:

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

And of course when I decide to watch it the sound on my computer just plain isn't working...

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Went to the presentation, just watched it again. Just so much great information for teams at any level of FRC.

No one is too good to learn something from this presentation. I bet even 1114 learns something from it, by just reminding themselves what has made them so successful.

After watching this presentation we implemented some currency for gambling between our scouts. I'm not sure it's the best thing for the wildness of championship but definitely has it's place on the regional level where there is tons of times between matches and matches can be pretty boring.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

We will deffinetly be implementing some form of sim bucks next year. Any chance we can get a more detailed description of how the bucks are used? Per say do you bet on alliances or teams or scores...etc.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

All of the above. As long as it's something quantitative to do with the match. The key is get/keep people interested in watching and analyzing what's happening on the field.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Thanks man. Sometimes our kids really struggle with strategy I think this will really help them out.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

HERE'S my reaction to this presentation...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8yr_StC3uw

THANKS, Karthik and Team Simbotics for sharing... ;-)

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

There are so many great things in this presentation! I'm editing it into lessons for our design students, scouts-strategies and drivers. Thank you very much for sharing.


The presentation mentions the opportunity to watch the 1114 Running a Team seminar. I found the (2007) slides for it on the Simbotics website. Is it recorded somewhere as well? Thanks again.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I took about 5 minutes to skim through the video, only to find it's so helpful and full of info that I needed to watch more. A great presentation so far! Time to pull out the notebook and study.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Dang, I wish I had gotten to see these in person when I was a student... If the B/G's club down the road gets a team, the (latest at the time) video's info will be part of the backbone and the video perhaps as required viewing. Heck some of the ideas have already seeped into a hypothetical team "constitution" I am writing.

Thanks Karthik for lots of great ideas!

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

An excellent and most helpful presentation, especially (for our team) the part about scouting. Thanks so much for taking the time and making the effort to do this!

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

Haven't watched much, but I watched the OPR segment over lunch. Not a false word in it. Also, I'm glad that I guessed most of the important flaws with it in my previous post.

Re: Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2012
 

I got a valid CD PM that this video I posted could be inappropriate for student CD members...

I APOLOGIZE for using it as I now see how it can misconstrued as to what is going on...

An explanation... the scene from a Chevy Chase movie, "Modern Problems", DOES NOT involve inhaling/snorting drugs... as I remember it, it involved the Chase character developing "powers" and becoming maniacally-funny and he cleaned a room containing ASH that was used in some ritual by inhaling it all in one big inhale through his mouth... like a "human vacuum cleaner"...

I can see how this could be misinterpreted as condoning something THAT I DO NOT CONDONE... and I again apologize for using this video... --Michael Blake