Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

I'm speaking from the perspective of a Michigan volunteer here:

Being the first year of Dean's List interviews, we expected challenges along the way. Overall, the interview process went well and allowed us to add extra depth to how we assess nominated students. It also gave these students a moment to shine. I have a feeling that FIRST won't be getting rid of this process anytime soon.

For improvements, I'm only aware of how Michigan events operated and what we need to do better. I already know we need to improve how we communicate to teams about what to expect, and where their students will interview. That's something we didn't have established prior to March, but is on our radar for next year.

Scheduling will likely be a persistent challenge. So many of these extraordinary students are drive team members, or Chairman's presenters, or have other responsibilities at the event. Most events adopted a flexible sign-up schedule to work around these issues, but we're looking into how to make it better.

Providing feedback, as simple as it seems, is a rather challenging process. It takes time and thought to write good feedback, and we don't want to "sound generic." Time was a challenge this year, with the Dean's List interviews and the addition of multiple-event Chairman's presentations. Again, this is something that we'll be better prepared for next year.

If you have additional feedback specific to this process, please PM me and let me know. I'm working with our Michigan volunteers to provide feedback to FIRST about how to make the Dean's List process stronger for next year, and would like to hear perspectives from other members of the FIRST community.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Good point. Maybe time for first to make their own webcast hub.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Please. Or at least make all of the streams mobile friendly not just the Nasa TV one which cut off in the middle of the most exciting part on Einstein...

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

And input the event audio instead of the camera's mic. The FiM steams have good video, but the audio is just terrible.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Considering that lawyers troll Youtube and have had some of the videos taken down for copyright infractions this might be a good thing.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Maybe just the MC'c mics then? So that people watching know what is going on.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

This is exactly what we did at the Lone Star regional. Go Pro on a painter's pole into a capture card, overlay from scoring table into a USB adapter, and open source broadcast software.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

A few people have said this, and I think it's a great idea: FIRST should bring in the various 72 hour robot groups to beta test the game. Give the GDC some very useful feedback from some very experienced people, and give the 72 hour robot teams time to produce nice polished videos, preferably about the brainstorming and prototyping process. Most teams struggle with those parts of the design process.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

I agree with the rest of you on the point of game play. I am a member on an FTC team, so I am not very intimate with AA, but I went to watch some matches at the STL regional, and honestly, even the finals matches weren't all that exciting. We left after watching about six of them.

But on the other hand, we had nothing to do before the finale, so our team watched the Einstein matches, and that was probably one of the most exciting things I've ever seen. Watching 254's 3 ball autonomous work flawlessly was an inspiration within itself. I was on the edge of my seat and yelling the whole time.

This game only works at high levels where everyone is capable of doing most everything on the field, but when that happens. God it's inspirational.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Early in my career I had a boss who liked to come into the lab and try to break the stuff that his engineers were working on -- he would drive our motors and circuits harder than we expected, to see how robust they were. Often he would find failure modes we had not anticipated.

FIRST could find some people like that in the FRC community, independent of the GDC, to try and break the game. I think Paul Copioli has already volunteered to do that for free.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

I've thought for years that the GDC should release the game to a few groups with prior FRC experience to develop the same questions that all teams do in the first two or three days of meetings.

At least half the Q&A issues could be addressed prior to release that way, and teams could get the manual as it would normally stand after the first update or two. It just stuns me that they released this years game with wording that made it possible to do stuff like truss and catch your own ball. How was that ever not identified as something every single team would identify as a possible sneaky tactic?

I think the GDC is just too close to the game as they develop it and can't/don't think of all the ways that teams will come up with to break it.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Twitch doesnt run ads, the streamer chooses to run the ads. Twitch is the perfect place to stream events.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

While sitting in the last rows of the first level of the seating on Einstein, the lights illuminating the audience pointed directly at our eyes, which was painful. I'm hoping that FIRST will choose a different method, of any, to accomplish the same task next year.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Crowd control could use a couple of dedicated traffic directors at specific spots in the pits. The robot paths to and from the fields were clearly marked, but the clear markings were on the floor and often couldn't be seen through people standing or walking nearby. FTC teams in particular kept wheeling their robots through the pedestrian walkway along the south wall.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

FTC won't be a traffic problem next year but additional big robots in the tunnel will cause gridlock.