UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

In order for Regional events to grow and prosper, we must have feedback from teams who attended said regional.
Thus I ask of you the following:

Please comment on the following catagories pertaining to the UTC Regional that was played from 3-18-04 to 3-20-04.

This pertains to Competition Location, Seating, Pit Space, Car Parking, Food, etc.... Any comments about any of those listed below can also be posted here that way we keep everything in one thread. When you reply to this thread. In the Title Bar (if its editable) use 1 of the following this way teams looking here know what your talking about !

A: The Good The Bad and The Ugly
B: Team Social
C: Competition Comments - Logistics only, not specific team related
D: Suggested Improvements for 2005 and beyond

"Borrowed" from Rich Wong's Format for critiquing the NYC regional! Thanks Rich!! :)

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

A. I thought the competition ran awsome the judges were great and the refs. They were able to keep the competition moving along which gained everyone an extra practice round or 2 if they wanted to stay.

B. This was my first team Social and it was awsome! (we didnt have one in NYC last yr :confused: ) the comedian was alright and the hypnotist was phenominal! It was a great show and a great time. also the food wasnt that bad!

C. I dont really like the set up at UTC because it is difficult to see the field when its on stage. at the arenas and gymnasiums you can actually look down onto the field and see it well. Though they cant change this "obviously" im just sayint hats how i felt on that. Queing was awsome and the pits were kind of roomy except for the fact that all the traffic went trew a path that was about3 ft wide not even between the pits so at times it got really crowded.

D. Fixing Traffic in pits: The only way to fix this is to make the pits smaller or reroute all the traffic around the pits like it was last year. Or even have spectators go in through the yard and through the back of the Theater which would keep alot of traffic problems out of the pit area.

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

the ramp going from the pits to the stage was a little annoying. maybe in the future the ramp could start after the door, so as not to make the door height shorter. as it was, some teams could not fit their robots through while on their carts

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

A: The Good The Bad and The Ugly - great regional this year, very few complaints, everything seemed to move smoothly, field re-setting was terrific so we kept to the schedule!
B: Team Social - I have a food allergy and the caterers brought me chicken without sauce - I was so impressed! I enjoyed both the comedian and the hypnotist and wish I could be in the students' classes come Monday morning at 11 when they remember everything they did on stage!
C: Competition Comments - Logistics only, not specific team related - while it's a little difficult to see the playing field from the front of the arena, the raised platforms helped this year. Sitting higher gives a nice overall view. Teams have lots of areas to sit in and decorate and therefore it has much more of a party atmosphere (which means it's a lot more fun!). Food prices were kept reasonable (THANK YOU) and they did not check bags at the door to prevent you from entering with food. Pre-ordered lunches were good, although the orders were a little mixed up.All the volunteers I encountered were helpful. I liked the concept of the Student Host program. The event management were very accomodating for the tailgating party we hosted on Saturday morning in the parking lot.
D: Suggested Improvements for 2005 and beyond - if it snows, please try to clear the parking lot of snow a little sooner. Unloading cars in the snow was not fun. Traffic needed to be directed around the pits, esp. on Saturday. Visitors could have been given safety glasses upon entering the pits at either end.

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

Crowd control needs to be worked on.
The main entrance routed all the spectators through the pits. Made it really tight in the pits.
The entrance to the arena got very crowded with traffic in both directions.
Perhaps funneling the specators around the sides would help.

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

I have to say that I enjoyed the whole thing... the pits though I agree were packed (although i am thankfull they werent outside, like that one year with the flodding in the tents) and it was hard sometimes to get the robots to the staging area... the food was great... but the line... it might have helped if the caterers set up on different ends of the theater..but everything else was great.

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

1. The speed from match to match was excellent. Also the announcers, in my opinion where much better then a few of theother regionals. Everything happend on time, and if it didn't, we were ahead!

2. The team social was great this year. The only porblems i had with this was the following: Not a varity of food like in previous years. Also there was only one line. At lkast year there was four lines total and it was buffet side. The only other problem was, teams didnt really get a chance to "socialize" since everyone was sitting in their own area. Besides that the comedian and the hypnotist where great.

3. The seating was alot more team friendly. Many teams decorated their seating areas and their boxes. Also when you walk through the center aisles, teams would hand you buttons from their team and many other things such as that. The feild was still a pain to see, but the video helped alot. The only thing about that was, there was not much camera to team acction, as in teams in stands cheering on camera. The pit congestion was also a problem, but that can be easily fixed.

4. I have one main improvment. Show a list on the screen while alliance selections are going on with the teams that are already allianced, and the teams who havnt been picked yet. This would have cleared up many problems that happened while on stage and the teams that were forgotten. Get better food selection for the social. Thats all.

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

1) It was very awesome..
2) This years social was a lot better then last years
3) I would like to see a camera mounted somewhere on the field - like under the balls, or from the projector
4)I would have liked more of the screens displaying the scores in the stands.
Maybe turn the music down a bit.. it was hard to talk to people next to you if you were anywhere near the speakers

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

Traffic control was actually pretty impressive this year. I know that the Meadows people put a lot of pressure on the volunteers to make sure the aisles are clear and the volunteers than put that pressure on the teams to move quickly. The volunteers doing traffic control were occasionally nasty, but they were very effective, this was a lot better than in past years.

However, I think FIRST needs to get out of the Meadows, its a terrible site for the competition, the pits are cramped and having the playing field on a raised stage just doesn't work. I wish we could get the civic center of Gampel pavilion at UCONN but I think the NCAA gets preference over those sites. At least its better than the New Haven Colliseum where they won't let you move a table but the meadows is a lousy site.

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

Oh and the Meadows vendors were terrible! $2.00 for a Mountain Dew that expired in 2001!?

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

Yea, I got a pepsi that expired in 2001.. but I didn't notice until I finished it, so I couldn't do much.. but I did check the other sodas I got after that..
I remember getting an expired one last year, so this wasn't a one time thing

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

I didn't bother to check... but I'm not dying so I'll asume the sodas were fine... I hope...

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

with the congestion in the pits, they should do like what they did 4 yearsago, and just move some of the teams outside (under tents). anyone who was there should remember the flooding, but that was the rains fault,not the set up. pits half outside made a lot of room for people and robots to move around in

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

I remember that, it was quite nice. :D Not only was there plenty of room to move around when walking through and looking at other robots, the pits weren't squished together. We had a little more room to spread out. I dont remember flooding exactly, more of just the ground was a little damp. You wouldnt want to throw your coat on the ground but it wasnt a problem for most of the equipment used in the pits.

Edit: and on another note i kinda thought the music wasnt loud enough.

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

Apparently the "Best if Used By" dates are an indication of quality, not food safety. I am annoyed that they were continuing to sell the outdated soda even on Saturday, after being alerted to it on Thursday and Friday. But that is a vendor issue, not a FIRST issue.

And the food was reasonable in price compared to other regionals.

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

A 3.25 chicken basket was definately a better deal than BAE's 8.00 chicken baskets were, but the quality was a little worse. Both sodas I got were from 2003 also. Oh well, I'm alive.

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

the flooding was pretty bad on one of the days, and the team party was great. where you there till the end for the wet t-shirt part?

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

Ill say. At NJ though i think the Chicken was 6$ but the meadows def had cheaper food all around. As for the soda i didnt even notice it was that old lol but its not the end of the world it still tasted good :D because Mt. Dew never tastes bad! :yikes:

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

In NJ we paid 4.50 for sodas that were very watered down with ice. Be glad that you got a good deal.

And all I have to say to you is, ARE YOU INSANE?? You were obviously not one of the teams that had to camp out in the flooded pits all weekend long like some of us had to. Some teams like 236 were relocated because of the water puddles in their pits. Water and robots do not go very well together in a FIRST environment.

That set-up totally sucked. Tell you what, if you want to have your pits outside next year, we can arrange for that. But as for my team, we are staying in the lobby. (even though it was pretty warm in there compared to the stands) But better than 2001 in the flooded pits.

I remember we had signs in the doorways that said "Welcome to Florida" when going into the lobby, and "Welcome to CT" going into the tents....

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

we were positioned outside that year. maybe we didnt have a problem because we werent far from the door, only about 20 ft outside i would say. also are robot wasnt very tall so we kept it up on the cart, so no problems there. i didnt realize other teams had problems, oops.

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

My suggestion:

The cue-ers were nazis! Why were they cueing robots 5 matches in advance? That means that at any given time, more than 52% of all the robots there were on stage! Ridiculous! IMHO, you don't need to cue more than 3 matches ahead....

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

actually, this was a good thing. No one was ever late for a match. Every match was on schedule. And even if you got nothing else out of this, you got an extra 10 minutes to strategize with allaince partners.

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

Maybe that was a good thing for the drive team, but it means the pit crew loses 10 minutes to work on the robot.... :mad:

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

you do have a point tom but Tom there was one time where we were in match 47 and 50... we need to change the battery, and reset the hook and tehter our arms back to starting position... SO... we had to run back and forth up and down the ramp to get 2 of our pit crew onto the stage to fix it... we also ran out the "interviews and guests only" door a few times because its convient to run out of to get to the pits rather the other way... LUCKILY... one of the 157 guys gave our pit crew member his badge which cause another problem!!! lol... the stage crew thought we had 5 members up (which we did but with one 157 badge) so we got yelled at for that too!!! UGH!!!

so then we had to find our 2 members of our team to give them back thier badges before match 49 ended to get on the field and find the 157 driver!!! so then i ran through the door again we aren't suppose to so i got yelled at for a good mintue plus and this was when they were starting to reset the field so i had to run back down and around the staging to get to the field and set up the robot, then was kind of yelled at to hurry up on the field =( oh well... i think there needs to be AT LEAST a 6 match diffrence between every match to at least give teams 1 match in the pits to reset and make the robot up and running for the next match... but thats scheduling so oh well =(

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

Yes, that was horrible. I remember flipping out at Goulart (sp?) over that. We were running circles looking for eachother. I ran out the "VIP" door, just as he ran up the ramp, so then I ran up the ramp just as he ran out the "VIP" door... =P Yeah, more time would've been very nice. I also got yelled at by the door nazis...

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

I was helping que on Thursday becuase I was working with the student host program, they were just trying to get the teams up and ready so they didn't miss matches or get behind schedule becuase you would just be complaining about that anyways. Also if your drive team doesn't know how to basic maintenence on your bot that is your own fault not the que people, they had a job to do and they were just doing it, you also have to remember that these people are volunteering 3 days to help you out so watch what you say becuase the regionals are volunteer driven.

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

Yeah, a few people from my team bought some ancient sodas, but I didn't buy anything in the meadows, so I don't know how the food they sold was. The food at the social wasn't too bad, though.

The entertainment at the social was awesome, but at both of the regionals I've been to (BAE and UTC) I was kinda disappointed that there wasn't much time for socialization between the teams. Before the comedian started, the Aztechs, team 1027, a couple members of Gael Force (I think), and possibly a few people from other teams had fun dancing up on stage together, but it would've been nice to have more socialization time. (BTW, I was the blue-haired hippie)

The meadows is a difficult venue for viewing the competition. It's kinda tough to have to try to look up at the stage to see the field. The Aztechs missed the aluminum temporary seating from the Verizon Wireless Arena at BAE because you can make a lot more noise on aluminum then cement ;) . On friday, we had one of the longest conga lines I've ever seen, but it got a bit difficult on the stairs.

I thought that the competition itself was much better at UTC than BAE, though, because a lot of teams probably had been to BAE or NJ to practice before coming to UTC, and there were a lot of very good matches. In our first match of the day on friday, we won with the highest score I had ever seen until later in the UTC competition.

Overall, I thought UTC was awesome, apart from a few viewing/venue issues.

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

In the meetings we had Wednesday night, and Thursday morning, we chose to have 4 matches in the queue, in addition to the current match that was playing. The design of the meadows, and the tricky ramps make it very risky to queue any less. If we only queued two or three matches, by the time your "second call" came around, you would already be on deck.

If you think hte cue-ers were nazis, i suppose you are entitled to your opinion, but remember they were just doing their job, and that they were volunteers. From what i saw of the direction of these folks, they were doing it with a friendly attitude and a smile.

Beyond that, i just wanted to say that the teams were incredible in being where they were supposed to be at the right time. You guys sure made my job, and the jobs of the queueing people a heck of a lot easier than it could have been.

As it has been said in a few other threads-- all the teams at UTC were awesome, very competitive, but also very gracious. You guys rule.

Tom Schindler

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

hey life is life. you do what you are told and what you are told is usually for the better. Though it did become hectic it ran smoothly. the only big problem i saw was the conjestion in the pits with the spectators walking through and everyone else walking through the narrow paths :ahh:

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

It's alot better than $3 for warm water in NJ... Though, the coffee at the meadows, was definately not the best. I just wanted to wake up a little and to get some energy! We're lucky to have gotten what we did get.
(Also: The heat problem 237 encountered in NJ, wasn't there in UTC- so that made me happy. )

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

We had issues with our robot Friday evening to the point that we were sending the HP to stand in the que for us. We were treated very kindly by the Queing people. The one guy,sorry I forgot his name, would come by the pits and give a heads up 10 minutes before the first call and the ramp seemed to be always ready to hold traffic when we came through. A couple of times we arrived to the queing area and went immediately to the pre-on deck. Everyone treated us well except our HP who kept saying not to leave her alone for so long!

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

not to pick a fight just fyi... i can set up autonomous, reset the chain magazine, reset the chain rope, but i cant fix the hook mech when it bends in, and i cant change the battery w/o the battery =/ so it was more of a NEED of someone from pits, it was something i didnt want to mess up even more =/ was just a pain with the que'rs giving us a hard time... but eh! thats life =/

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

Jon, many drive teams know a lot about the robot and how to fix it, but not everything, much like you! (not to be insulting, but it is the truth) Most of the time, major matinence may be required or a lot like our engineers, they jsut might want to see the robot and check it, cuz they may see things that you may not. If you remember, when we had a close match, where they qued us immediatly after the other one (did everyone have one of those?) Even our engineers were asking repeatedly to check this or that. Drive team doesn't know everything, probably cuz they didn't build everything (and if they did, WOW)
We often pass pit stuff through volenteers that HAPPEN to be on our team and can go through those area forbidden to most FIRST-ers (we have enought people to do this) and although its kinda our advantage, you can always ask the que-ers to pass it to them, they said they'd do that in the begining (driver's meeting?) so you could have tried that, but shuffling people is hard. Did you tell them your bot was breaking? Sometimes they get soft when you tell them that....lol jk
Anyway, drive knowing the robot is essential, but we all need help :)

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

A: The Good The Bad and The Ugly
B: Team Social
C: Competition Comments - Logistics only, not specific team related
D: Suggested Improvements for 2005 and beyond

a: The good bad and the ugly: Id say it wus a great regional...but UTC always is because we have sum of the best known teams come to this regional. It always makes for a good show.

b. Team social: This wus my second team social at UTC as a member of a team (before i wus a sibling of a member on the team) and i hav 2 say this year was a huge improvment frum what they set up for us last year (the hypnotist wus awsome..and i hav 2 give huge props 2 ne1 who got involoved) but i still think it would be better if they gave us something we ALL could participate in, like dancing/music or games of some sort.

c. Competition Comments: The competition aspect was great, their were some really awsome matches.

d. Suggested improvements, i kno a few years, back they extended the pits (had a huge tent) to hold more teams, but maybe they should do that with the amount of teams they have now, just to give people some more space, b/c navigating through them this year was a nightmare, robots coming through in both directions bumping into 5 people while trying to get out of the way..Not GOOD!

as for the food aspect..u have to understand thats the way the meadows are...over priced and not very good..u think that wus bad try going to a concert their, the prices go high.. Our team actually walked over to Mcdonalds, & burger king which werent to far away...((thanks to team 500 the bears for giving us a lift back that one day)) considering the change in price, and the short distance, we found that much easier.

Cant wait to see wut nationals in Atlanta is like.....

Re: UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)
 

I am sorry for what I posted. I didn't mean for it to come off the way it did, and I didn't realize you meant serious breaking of the bot I though you were just talking simple things like replacing the battery. And yes it was hard to get back and forth some times but the regional still managed to move smoothely and ahead of schedule and for that I congradulate all the teams.