2003 Regional Schedule
 

Just wanted everyone to know the 2003 schedule has been posted!

http://www.usfirst.org/frc/public/FM...s.htm&-findany

Start planning!:)

NOOOOO
 

Why did they make the SBPLI Long Island Regional and New York City Regional on the same weekend? Now my team only has one sure competition we can go to. Oh well, we will have to see what we can do. Any others teams have this problem?

EVILNESS!!!!!!!!!!!

/me goes and cries in the corner...

we have to go to SBPLI, only because it's 10 minutes away. we also want to go to NYC, because it was a great regional, lots of cool teams, and of course, the crazy britains. i think that FIRST should've thought better, and planned them on seperate dates. the two locations are so close, that we were able to go to both without sleeping over, saving the team a huge amount of money. the rate we're going, we might as well go to the Central Florida Regional or the San Jose Regional. grr, i'm angry now...

I noticed that the only event that did not have a location listed was the MidAtlantic Regional. I wonder if we may be getting a larger venue this year? Perhaps big enough to accommidate all team members.

Well, i guess the TWO LI teams that went to the NYC regional figured greatly into their decision. :mad: If more LI teams had gone to the NYC regionals, then thy might have scheduled the NYC regional and the SBPLI Regional seperate from each other.:( But still this sucks, now we dont have two easy choices for regionals that we thought we would.:(

Be lucky that at some time you at least had the opportunity to go to two Regionals. And Mid-Atlantic isn't that far from NYC is it? Or Philly? Or maybe others nearby? We have to travel 4 hours for the closest Regional, and will never be able to attend two of them.

why..... why is long island and nyc on the same weekend....why!!!!!

well, looks like were going to sbpli and utc new england now

They made the NY on the same weekend, but they also added a NH regional. It's not that far from you.

Did anyone notice the Sunday/Monday/Tuesday Regional?????
Possible Type error.....

Yup! I think someone goofed because at the Forum they said they were keeping the Thursday, Friday, Saturday format.

it is interesting that even though all you new hampshire people where saying that the NE regional was to be moved to NH. But instead a Manchester regional was added and UTC still has the NE regional in Connecticut. Plus i wonder if this may mean that some Northeastern teams will be able to go to 3 or more regionals this year. Especially teams in Mass, CT, and RI.:D

Hey, if you are a team that can do that, power to you! Share some of the wealth if you get a chance.

does anyone know if there is still going to be the unofficial 3 event limit? or will they not frown uppon signing up for 4 now? ie. 3 regionals and nationals

didnt think about either of the above mention things when making my original post but it would be a nice dream wouldnt it

is there any possibility that they will change NYC or LI to a different weekend?


i wonder... if we build 2 identical robots again next year, would we be able to do both NYC and LI?

You had two robots this year? Both for this years game?

a lot of teams do one for shipping and competition and the other for weeks of practice

yep, we built 2 identical robots. 1 to compete with and 1 to practice with.

rage does the same thing we call our spare the "evil twin" becuase besides not having all the stickers it is identical to the comp bot

i thought rage has something like 4 or 5 identical robots that were built over the years

i think what your talking about is that each robot over the past 4 years of thiers have had the same body and drive system, and their 2000 bot was the same with the exception of a telescopic arm. but i believe they have 2 identical ones for every year as well....

2000 robot (firstrobotics.net)
2001 robot (CD gallery)
2002 practice robot (CD gallery)
2002 robot (CD gallery)

We have our 2000-2002 robots and the practice robot. The 2000 robot was revived shortly after the game was revealed (maybe before, not sure) and its purpose was to allow team members to get the "feel" of driving. The 2001 robot managed to stay alive and was used by a parent to test the prototype of our latch. The 2002 robots were obviously used to compete in the 2002 season and to practice. I don't know if the 2000 and 2001 machines work anymore, but they were helpful early in the season. If you ever have problems finding RAGE's robot at a competition, just look for the red wooden base.

PS. Yes, the 2000 and 2002 robots are alike.

2003 Schedule
 

Well,

I kinda like the fact they didn't move the NYC regional all that much. It's the other regionals that we might want to attend that might give us a problem. Like Canada WE would like to go there but.... Money could be a problem for the traveling, hotel accomodations, extra parts, to ship those parts etc... plus trying to get some more days off from school for traveling and competition days. Guess it's time to start kissing some principals butt let alone the chancellor of NYC. Hehehe

Don't forget about the exchange rate in Canada. This will lower the costs of those hotel accomodations.

How does one become fortunate enough to attend more than one Regional? Is there something within FIRST (maybe a possible sponsor like NASA, J&J, etc.) that may sponsor you to go to their Regional?

Wow I get to go to the BAE regional then a week later go to the UTC regional Fun Fun I wonder what my teachers are going to say.

no it is just if you have enough money in your budg
t. Like rage went to the UTC NE regional and the SBPLI regional and had to pay for both even though rage is sponsored by UTC research center. But it helps if you have one that you can make day trips to like for Rage the UTC one so that you dont have to pay for hotels, buses, etc.

I know that part of the NASA grant is the $5000 to attend a NASA-sponsored regional, but that's about it for sponsors that give money for their regionals.

How do you beomce sponsored by NASA? Do you have to live near a NASA?

any idea of when Kick Off is. I know January bought any idea on a set date.

usually isnt it the first weekend of January?

Nope. There's a NASA grant available once the season starts... You fill out a 10-ish question survey thing and NASA looks at it and decided if your team should get the grant (I think this year it was given to thirty teams or something like that). There are a few catches (you only get the money if you attend a NASA sponsored regional, something about putting their name/logo first or something, etc.) But other than that it's cool. We were supposed to get it this year but we could not attend a NASA regional (by the time we found out, the regionals were all filled up). Oh well, maybe next year! :)

- Katie

ya but for a team from up in the NE area to attend a NASA sponsored event wouldnt they have to spend the ten grand just getting a team there between having airfare costs hotel costs and registration fees it all adds up quick

January 4th, 2003


- thanks for the info. about the grant

Kickoff Date
 

According to Sue, KC, and Hut at the MI forum, kickoff is Jan 4.

In 2003 NASA will be sponsoring or co-sponsoring regional competitions in:

- Annapolis
- Atlanta
- Cleveland
- Los Angeles
- Seattle
- St. Louis

For each of these events, we will be issuing 20 "challenge grants" of $6000 to teams attending the regionals (120 grants in total). To qualify for a grant, the requesting team is asked to submit a very short proposal (it is actually a brief questionaire) that describes their situation, why they want the grant, and that they are ready to participate in the FIRST competition. They are then screened, evaluated, and selected based on the merit of the proposal. The award of $6000 is used to fund the registration fee for the team to attend the regional competition ($5000) and $1000 to cover travel costs for a team member to attend the kick-off meeting, for local team travel to the regional, and/or parts and supplies to build the robot. In return, each funded team is asked to:

- guarantee that they will build a robot and participate in the selected regional competition (we have to do this due to a bad experience in the early years, when a team took our money and then never completed their robot or attended any event)

- have team members complete a brief survey before and after the competition, to help NASA and FIRST assess the impact of the program

- include NASA in the formal list of team sponsors (we don't insist on being listed first, but we do ask that we are listed somewhere as one of the team sponsors)

- provide a copy of the team's Chairman's Award submission to NASA, to help us assess the impact of the program and advocate the program to NASA partners (if the team does not submit a Chairman's Award nomination, we ask them to send in a brief two-page "story" of their team experiences)

Teams are eligable to receive a NASA Challenge Grant for up to two years. As the purpose of the NASA Challenge Grant program is to foster the growth of the FIRST program and the formation of new teams, grant selections are intentionally biased toward rookie teams. Veteran teams that are selected for a second year of funding are also asked to agree to mentor a rookie team (either by e-mail or telephone, if their partner team is not local), and to demonstrate that they have matching funds of at least $6000 from another source that will be available for continued financial support for the team once the two-year NASA funding is complete.

More details on the application process for teams wishing to apply for a NASA Challenge Grant for 2003 will be available in September. Watch the FIRST web site for an announcement of when the information is released.

-dave

Mult regionals
 

At the MI forum they announced that there will be a system for teams registering for multi regionals. Here is what I copied:
10/1 - register for Championship and 1st regional
11/3 - register for 2nd regional - based upon availability
11/17 - register for additional regionals based upon availability - unrestricted
12/6 registration closed
12/10 payment required
2/14 registration all events ( not sure what this means )

Space reserved for regional winning teams to go championship event.

Some regionals will have reserved spaces for rookie teams that will be released on 11/17 if not used.

When asked how many regionals a team could register for this was the answer given.

Anyone hear anything different?

Events
 

Hey! Did anyone notice the Championship event had TBD,

At the MI forum it was announced as May 1, 2, 3,

What do you think is up?

Re: Events
 

From what was posted here as to what was said at some of the other forum sites, it sounds like the May 1-3 date may have only been a tentative one...with as many regional sites still TBD as there are, it may be that FIRST is trying to determine which week in April will be the definite end of regionals, and base the Championship event weekend on that. If the 1st weekend of April(as the schedule stands now) ends up being the last one, then they could pull the Championship ahead a week or two, and have it fall on roughly the same weekend as last year. When I talked to someone at FIRST on Friday(not about this issue, but a few other things), it was mentioned that the schedule was near completion. So, I'm guessing we will know in a week, or two at the very most, how the schedule is going to fall.

Re: Mult regionals
 

Just to clear things up(hopefully)...if I remember correctly, this was actually the date by which payment for all events was due.

Yep...the typo was that it was supposed to say march 6-8, but somebody at FIRST goofed and put in April 6-8 instead....if you look at the page now http://www.usfirst.org/frc/public/FM...s.htm&-findany it's been corrected.

another thing they changed the date of the NYC regional to TBD

Just a hunch but I think since all the weeks in march april are taken up i think the first 4 regionals J&J Mid-Atlantic, NYC FIRST!, Pittsburg, and Sacramento Regionals will be held the weeks of Febuary 27 - March 1 and then The Championship will be either April 17 - 19 or April 10 - 12 or April 24 - 26. Could be wrong those dates seem pretty reasonable!

blah, I think FIRST enjoys screwing with our minds to much. They need to stop changing comps around. blah, they hate us all! That will be interesting if MidAtlantic is that early...it's usually St. Patty's Day weekend, or this year, it was the weekend past St. Patty's Day. Heheheh, that will be cool and pure evil if they put those 4 Regionals the last weekend of Feb. Let's see, kick-off is Jan. 4 and we ship out the Tuesday after President's Day, like the 18th... meaning that we just missed around 5 days of school to build, then the next full week we leave for a competition! :) Won't this cause issues with shipping?

For logistical reasons such as shipping(which has been previously discussed), I have a feeling that the remaining regionals will be scattered throughout the existing 5 week season...after all, the current schedule is as follows....

With only 3 events in weeks 2 and 3, they both seem to be good candidates to add another event or two...with only 4 events to fit in, if weeks 2 and 3 were both put to 5 event weekends, that would cover all of the scheduled regionals. Now, as to which events you would put when, that's another story...

hopefully Fed Ex will do free- shipping again. I doubt that it would cause problems. they'll just have to put some boxes express overnighters thats all. just charge teams for the express shipping for the back to back competitions that teams will be participating in.

There was talk before of FIRST holding the Championship in April, inistead of in the first week of May. If that is the case, how will this affect FIRST teams that have to qualify to go to the Championship? Let's say team A attends a regional during week one and qualifies to go. They will be fine for airfare prices, hotel reservations, etc. However, team B attends a regional during week five and qualifies to go to the Championship. If FIRST moves the Championship back into April ... how is Team B going to afford airfare and make hotel reservations on that short of a notice? This was an issue last year with some teams, when there were three weeks between the final week of regionals and Nationals. Just some food for thought...

- Katie

i say move nats to after APs and iBs. if i qualify, and can't go cause it coincides with an AP test, i know i would be pissed. the best thing to do is move either the APs/iBs (Which is impossible) or to move nats. sure, it's hotter (but it can only get so hot during the summer). it might cost a little more, but i'd pay the extra money. also, it makes nats much more fun. last year, i was worrying about the APs while i was driving a robot, not much fun. this year, i'd be much better if you don't have to worry, but instead can concentrate fully on having fun. besides, after APs, school is over for the most part. sure, there's regents or finals or whatnot, but those are easy, and no one pays attention to them. so, the best solution is to move nats to late may, after testing.

One thing to keep in mind with this scenario...some schools are already getting out in early to mid-May, and pushing the Championship back much later would run into issues with graduating seniors not being available. Having worked on quite a few different organizations during my high school career, I know that no matter how good people's intentions are, any school-related event taking place after the end of the school year will have a signifigantly lower attendance than one happening during the school year.

why does planning an event have to be so complicated? :p

Goooood question! :cool:

- Katie

Something I just noticed is that the UTC regional, according to the FIRST site, is going to be in Hartford again. Whether that means that it will be back at the Meadows Music Center or possibly somewhere else like the Hartford Civic Center(?) who knows but for all we know it could be back in New Haven again.

Only time will tell I guess.

I would definitely say FIRST should avoid having Nationals during AP time. Given the amount of high-level students in FIRST, having Nationals during the AP weeks would cause a significant problem for a good number of people. Teachers on teams could have problems with that, too. Really, for it to work, Nationals must either be late April or mid-May.

One of the teachers on our team is the AP Calculus teacher at our school, and she had to miss her first nationals because she couldn't leave her students with a sub for a week near the date of the AP test, thats a BIG disadvantage to having the championship at the end of April.

I also noticed, the SAT will be given on May 3rd, 2003. So if FIRST goes with the tenitive date of May 1st- May 3rd, many students won't be there because they can't miss the SAT, but the good news is there is another SAT at the beginning of June.


With more and more teams comming in, it makes things more difficult, FIRST can't push nationals up to the first week of april like in 2001 because they can't get all the regionals in. The only way I see they can do is have regionals from the last weekend in Febuary to the 2nd to last weekend in march and then just have several on a certain weekend, but that requires a lot of volunteers, referees, and judges.

What should FIRST do to deal with this? I have no idea :confused:

Bagh AP exams
 

No matter when FIRST schedules Nationals... there will be a conflict with somebody somewhere. It all comes down to what is your priority. Indeed, it may be more difficult for teachers and mentors do drop everything and go, but students... you're young and you do have a choice. When it comes to SAT's, schedule them for a different date. When it comes to AP's... if the test isn't absolutely necessary... don't take it. Where I come from (and this may apply to many who live in CT) you get automatic college credit from UCONN if you take certain AP courses, that credit transfers to nearly every university or college except Ivy league or MIT type schools. If you know what your major is and the AP test you are taking isn't even going to be in the curriculum, why take it? If your school is asking for a 4 or 5 on the exam in order to skip the class, and you are not incredibly strong in that topic... WHY TAKE IT? Your future school probably has a good reason for you to take their version of the class. Also, if you do get out of a class... schools are going to make you replace it with something else anyway. So you are really not saving time or money. You just might be able to take more electives or do a stronger minor. I'm saying all this because AP tests were a waste of time for me. I got a 2 in English... but because of UCONN credit I'm out of two sememsters of english in college. I got a 1 on the Calc AP exam too, and because of UCONN credit I had a choice to get out of Calc 1 + 2 next year. You see? AP tests are annoying, only take them if YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO! As for your teachers scheduling tests during Nats... just talk to them... most of them should be understanding. I might have a problem next year with having mid-term or final exams during competitions... I'll figure that out as I go. Oh yea... a friend of mine got a speeding ticket and his court date was during Nats. He just said 'forget it,' paid the ticket, and went to Nats. Sometimes sacrifices must be made... but C'mon! NOTHING beats Nats!

the problem is that many schools you must take the AP test if you take the class. we don't have a state college that will just take the credits. sure, if you get at least a 3, any state school will accept it (at least in NY), but you need to take the test. now, i took ap bio last year. i hated it. i don't want bio to have anything to do with my career when i get older. but, i took the ap bio coruse for a few reasons. one, to get away from the idiots who populate the regents classes, two, because i want to look well rounded to colleges, and three, i got a 4 on the test, so that means i can most likely get a semester of bio taken away in college (i don't really plan on going to a ivy league school). but, i need to take the ap bio test if i take the class, no exceptions. hell, i probably saved myself a few thousand dollars by taking bio in high school, instead of college.

also, you must remember, teachers of ap classes can't just leave for a week, the week before the test. even if they have tenure, it's pushing it. so, because AP testing is such a big problem for such a huge amount of FIRST, you can't really have nats during AP testing. iB testing i'm not familar with, but i'm sure there is a similar, just slightly smaller, problem. FIRST also needs to plan around the spring holidays (easter/passover). all these factors come together, and they're all equally important. FIRST can't just say, screw all AP students, nats is during AP testing. it goes against everything FIRST stands for (education and such).

i think i'm done rambling now... :D

I do know that FIRST's plan down the road is to send a minimum of actual FIRST staff to any given event, and have the majority of the event staff be local, mostly volunteer, but with a few paid local positions...

Regional Competitions
 

Re: SAT & AP Exams. Is it possible that the exams could be rescheduled because of the Competition? ETS allows exams to be reschueduled for individual students because of athletic competitions. Would they allow the exams to be on a different date for students taking part in this academic competition?

Yea, I'm certain that the importance of AP Exams differ from state to state. Unfortunately I'm only speaking in my point of view as a Connecticut resident. I honestly hope they push Nats back into April anyway because May is getting late... but if they do keep them in May, you may luck out that your exam isn't even during a Nats day (you may only have to worry about that Friday and Monday.) And if you say that they'll re-schedule exams for athletic events... then they will probably do the same for robotics. Stinks that you'll have to worry about studying though. Do those classes treat AP exams as part of the course grade, like a final or something?

Re: Regional Competitions
 

AP tests cannot be rescheduled. Every student taking a certain test must take it at the same time, on the same date. The concern is, that, if the test is given to one student even and hour before another, the information and questions on the test would get out to the students who have yet to take it. So to ask that an AP test date be changed would not only affect the students in FIRST taking the test, it would affect every student in the country taking it. I took AP World History this past year (didn't take the test, just the class) and I remember our teacher telling us that he took his AP class on a field trip to Washington DC a few years back. They were in DC on the day of their AP exam so he had to take them to some facility where the test could be administered while they were in DC. He asked that the studnets be able to take the test before or after they got back from their trip ... but the answer was "no" - just because the AP system is that strict. About taking the SATs... I know that (here at least) there is a time you can take your SAT every two months or so, starting in October. If you were planning on taking the SAT on May 3rd, you can take it sometime before (October-March) or on the June date. Again, like Erin said before ... whenever Nationals is scheduled, it will be an inconvenience for someone.

- Katie

Regional Schedule
 

There are alternate test dates and alternate exams for both AP and SATs. One of my students became ill last year and had to do an alternate date for an AP exam. The big IF is if ETS will reschedule. It all depends on ETS's point of view concerning this competition.

There are alternative dates for AP exams. Two of my AP CS students had a conflict with two AP exams set for the same day. The makeup days are generally the week after the actual exam. You should know that the alternate date exam is not the same exam as given on the main day. This is so students can't get information about the questions from people who took it on time.

There are actually two problems with trying for the alternate date. One is getting the AP people to agree that your reason for taking the second test is good. The second is getting the school to pay for the additional proctor time. Someone, actually two someones, have to proctor the exam. That means an additional cost to the school. At the very least someone has to substitute for the proctors. So it's a difficult thing.

yea it is correct
 

jk2005,

it will be at the meadows Music center again. as i remember it is possibly the best arena i have been to. the seating is best because every seat has a view of the stage. Although, the pits are crowded as all hell. 2001, 10+ teams were outside in a tent.

but i am concerned about th NH regional, and the UTC regional. they are only a week apart. now i live 25 minutes from the manchester regional. do we still have to ship the bot or can we bring it ourselves, but i know we have to ship it to UTC.
2001 we brought our bot to the regional, i am confuzzled please let me know!!!!


Badjokeguy

I would expect most NH teams to drop their robots off at the drayage company by the shipping deadline rather than using FedEx. From what they said at the team meeting, FedEx was not too happy about using their expensive (to them) free shipping to move robots short distances. The good news is that if things are like last year that would give NH teams free shipping to a second regional.
With Manchester and UTC so close in time, one would hope, some thought is being given to shipping for teams that want to attend both. I'd like to thing that someone in the FIRST organization has been charged with figuring a way to make this work. Perhaps a deal with the drayage company and/or FedEx.
It would have been easier if hte dates were more apart but there are probably valid reasons why they are scheduled when they are. Those arenas schedule lots of events years in advance and those things are not easily moved.