Re: pic: All NASA Teams - 1997
 

I stand by my original statement. The team histories map out with the current Team 330 as the former Team 61 (as it was known in 1997, but then renumbered Team 82 in 1998 and Team 330 in 1999, before FIRST started to have teams keep the same team number). Hawthorne, Mira Costa and Redondo Union High Schools split off from 61 in 1998 and joined North High School and Levzinger High School to form Team 164. Redondo and Mira Costa High Schools then split off in 1999 to form Team 294, while Hawthorne joined with SMC Corporation to form Team 207. Some of the threads of continuity from 61 to 330 include the continous participation of Hope Chapel Academy as a participant, NASA as a sponsor, and the presence of mentors like Rob Steele all the way through.

-dave

Re: pic: All NASA Teams - 1997
 

From http://www.bcrobotics.org/archives/1997.htm

"The Southern California 'Circuit Breakers' was started in late 1996 by Rob Steele, a JPL engineer and Hope Chapel Academy parent. All the funding was provided by JPL, and Rob worked to get other South Bay schools involved. He contacted Redondo Union, Mira Costa, Hawthorne and Leuzinger high schools, and all joined, except for Leuzinger. The team got off to a rocky start, but somehow a working robot was finished just in time. We went to nationals, and lost every single match." -Joe Ross

The website from that year is located at http://www.frazmtn.com/~rsteele/beachbot97/homepage.htm

In 1998, Hope Chapel Academy decided to split off, and formed the Beachbots (Team 330). Hawthorne, Redondo Union, and Mira Costa stayed together and were sponsored by TRW and ADTECH and called the Vultures.

And Dale Hall has been a mentor with 294 the whole time, I believe.

Re: pic: All NASA Teams - 1997
 

OH...The memories.... I liked the nationals at Epcot. :]

Re: pic: All NASA Teams - 1997
 

All of the low-numbered teams, from #1 - #205 (approximately, I am not sure on this exact team #) were given their number in 1998 and they stuck from then on, not 1999. The new teams in '99 started at #205+1 and ended above 300. Teams were not renumbered in '99.

Andy B.

Re: pic: All NASA Teams - 1997
 

Andy is about right. I checked the rookie years of the low 200s on FIRSTwiki, and team 204 had a rookie year of 1998, the last year they did the team number shuffle. The next team listed (read: team that competed in 2004) is 207, whose rookie year was 1999. To get it any closer would take some fun with the Wayback Machine, which I'm just not motivated enough to do right now.

Re: pic: All NASA Teams - 1997
 

A total of 155 teams competed in the 1997 FIRST competition, and the highest team number was 155 (Motorola Inc. & Camelback High School - Phoenix, AZ).* Team numbers were assigned in 1997 primarily based on the alphabetical order of the team names, using the convention of "corporate sponsor name(s) / school name(s)" to determine precedence. This explains, for example, why there is a contiguous block of "NASA & xxx High School" teams with numbers 83-92 (which later became 114-122, except for Team 121 "Naval Undersea Warfare Center & Middletown High School" which got dropped in the middle because someone didn't know that "S" comes before "V"). There were a few minor variations due to some late registrations. As late teams registered, they were dropped into the "holes" in the numbering scheme, rather than being incrementally added to the end of the list.

A total of 199 teams competed in the 1998 FIRST competition, and the highest team number was 206 (MASSPEP, Inc./Boston Edison/Boston University & John D. Bryant School of Math & Science - Roxbury, MA).** Team numbers were reassigned in 1998, again primarily based on alphabetical order of the team names. Late registrants were tacked on to the end of the list (primarily team numbers 192-206). Most team numbers were frozen at that point, and carried forward into future years. As new teams registered, they were just added incrementally to the end of the list.

A total of 269 teams competed in the 1999 FIRST competition, and the highest team number was 336 (Robotics International - Chapter #303/Best Software & South Lakes High School - Reston VA [coincidently, this was one of the spin-off teams from Team 116, which moved from South Lakes HS to Herndon High School that year]). **

It is correct that in general teams kept their 1998 team numbers from that year forward. However, there were about a dozen exceptions to that rule. According to FIRST, some teams were renumbered between 1998 and 1999 because there was some uncertainty about team sponsors, school participation, physical location and/or contact information with some of the teams. FIRST included Team 82-330 in that set. But in their records, they considered the renumbered teams to be the "same team" (i.e. considered a veteran team, and not counted as a new rookie team).**** On that basis, I would make the case that Team 61-82-330 is the same team.

What any of this has to do with the original question of "which teams are in the photo?" I am not sure, but going through the history was fun! :)

-dave

* source: 1997 FIRST Annual Report, and 1997 FIRST Competition Program
** source: 1998 FIRST Annual Report, 1998 FIRST Web Site, 1998 FIRST Competition Program, and 1998 Executive Director's Presentation to the FIRST Board of Directors
*** source: 1999 FIRST Annual Report, 1999 FIRST Web Site
**** source: 1999 Executive Director's Presentation to the FIRST Board of Directors

Re: pic: All NASA Teams - 1997
 

Well, I was just kind of point out that we do in fact exist, as does 207. Just by the way that I look at it, all of the high schools mentioned on team 61 now have three teams (207, 294, and 330), so I would think that the three teams should be listed even though officially 330 may be considered the actual team 61. I know we still say we have been around since 1997 when we write up chairmans, because we did. That's all

And yes, FIRST history is fun. More fun than AP US history :)