Re: NYC Regional
 

my team just realized that we never got the chance to slow our gun down to the allowable speed so i was wondering if any of the teams who are going to be at NYC would be willing to let us borrow whatever radar gun or other means you used to measure the ball velocity so that we can slow that stuff down Thursday morning.

thanks
-Simon, 1155

Re: NYC Regional
 

Hey Simon,

According to FIRST, there will be an photogate speed trap at each regional for voluntary and requested speed testing.

Re: NYC Regional
 

Got a video camera? Take pictures of the ball coming out of the shooter (on the practice field, of course), with a clearly marked yard stick (a meter stick would be better) behind it. Each video frame is 1/30 of a second, so at 12 meters per second, you should see 12/30 = 0.4 meters per video frame.

Don

Re: NYC Regional
 

The above two answers are great. But if that fails go see Mike Siegel from Team 375. I hear he's got a custom velocity tester built into him: 375 Ball Velocity Tester
See you guys at Riverbank
-wayne

YES... The 2006 NYC Regional TEAM Social is ON !!!!
 

Dear 2006 NYC Regional Teams,
With the NYC Regional just one day away, I hope that everyone is
excited for some great robot action as well as stories to be heard and
shared.

On behalf of the NYC FIRST Planning Committee and Team 395,
2TrainRobotics, I would like to invite your teams to the NY Team
Social this Friday Evening immediately following the Award ceremony. I
apologize for this short notice, but we're doing everything that we can
for the betterment of the regional and for our students to enjoy
themselves and get to interact with one another.

At the team social we plan to offer “DINNER &a MOVIE” on the big
screen, pizza and soda, and movie choices are Short Circuit (featuring
Johnny 5) or Batteries Not Included, both family friendly movies about
robots. Following the movie we will have our, TEAM RELAY
RACES/GAMES, as well as SPOOF TEAM AWARDS tentatively titled the Magic
Smoke Awards: Best Secret Design Award, Most Poof Balls in Unintended
Places, Greatest Number of Volunteers Hit with Poof Balls during play,
Precision Engineering Award (best use of a hammer), Duct Tape is Not
the Answer Awards for example. **Thanks Evan of 1230 for the
suggestions. Events will be from ~ 5:30-8:00 PM.

What I need from you in an e-mail response ASAP so we can make
provision estimates. Forms and agenda will also be available on Thursday.
They will be collected by early afternoon by the PIT adminstrator.

==============================================
Team Information for NYC Social:

Team #: ______
Will your team be participating in the Team Social:_____
Total # of People Attending:_______
Ideas for Awards, inside jokes for your team, funny personal stories
about a team member/mentor:_____


==============================================
In addition we ask that participating teams:
-Get the information out to your teams
-Bring one (or more item to share), chips, cookies, pretzels, baked
goods, drinks, plates, cups, napkins, ice, coolers, etceteras. This
will be coordinated via e-mail after we get initial responses.
-Donate one Team Shirt (autographed if possible by the team) to be
given away as part of prizes.
-If you have a mentor that is driving a car, would he or she be willing
to help us pick up pizzas/other items prior to the event? It looks
like we'll be running to several different places so that we do not
overwhelm one pizza place.
-Students to help us cleanup afterwards

Please feel free to e-mail me with questions and let me know if your
team would like to take a more active role in assisting with the
Social. We're looking forward to a great Regional Competition both on
and off the field. See you at Riverbank!

Best,
Wayne Penn
wrp2003@columbia.edu

Re: YES... The 2006 NYC Regional TEAM Social is ON !!!!
 

Rich, it sounds like a great time will be had by all attending this event.

Unfortunately, for the first time in 4 years, I will not be at the NYC regional. I'm hopefully gonna go check out the Rookie Regional in Boston as long as I'm felling better.

Good luck to all attending NYC. I'm sure you will have fun!

Re: NYC Regional
 

well the social went great. However I still need to find a copy of johnny 5. :]

Re: NYC Regional
 

NYC, as always is awesome. I saw a lot of unexpectedly great bots today (always exciting), and TONS of positive energy!
We were at Hartford, and we saw that the energy was tied to shooting and pushing shooters, NYC is TOTALLY different, the most heated competition and what seems to sway matches the most is truly the fight for the ramp
Congratulations to Mike Siegel in winning the Woodie Flowers Award!!
Can't wait for tomorrow. I can see alliance selection being very crazy and tense to watch... all the better...(or worse?) :ahh:

Re: NYC Regional
 

Awesome everyone

Re: NYC Regional
 

I am sitting in the chase van following our bus home racing a rapidly dwindling laptop battery and moving in and out of cells so fast it is a miracle I am writing this at all, but here goes.

NYC is a great event. I was impressed by the level of student involvment with the robots. I was at a Florida regional last year and it was amazing with many great teams, but I was far more impressed by what I saw at NYC.

2train should be the first poster team. WOW, what an all around class act.
They won and deserved it. One of their kids went over and worked with a team in need of some help for well over and hour. I think everyone could learn a lot from them.

The I in FIRST is for inspiration and it was inspiring. This event IS FIRST. We will be back.

Thanks to everyone who made that happen, it was an absolute pleasure.

Re: NYC Regional
 

NYC FIRST love having you and your team visit our town.
Teams like 2Train is one of the great teams in FIRST that inspires
many of us too.

Have a save trip home.
:)

Re: NYC Regional
 

Many many many congratulations to team 1880, the rookies from Central Park East!
Highest Seeded Rookie
Rookie All Star Award
Regional Winners
wow... just wow.
They totally pulled themselves together like I have never seen before in a rookie team, major props to Kris Breton. In the three and a half months since their first official meeting, they have done so many great things-- events and the like!
I would say they're destined for greatness, but I realize that they've already achieved greatness. Well, I can say that there is much more to come!

Re: NYC Regional
 

Today was great hope to see everyone again next year. I was particularly surprised with how well we did.
The top eight seeds kept selecting within themselves until our team (at 14 place) became the eighth alliance. We then won against the the first seed's alliance. And lost a very suspenseful game against Systematic, Stuyvesant and an other team (which I can't recall).
The first match against them, we won easily playing much defence. In the second match however, we got DQed because apparently 369's autonomous interfered with the opponent's autonomous, so that was counted as a loss.
Then in the last match the opponents autonomous caused 369's operator board to fall and was totaled. The IFI representative was gracious enough to fix it up. (That incident didn't constitute a DQ however.)
So we're disillusioned with FIRST, 369's operation is questionable and we have to win if we want to go to the finals. In our final match we tip over and yet our alliance loses 47 to 49 in their favor. (It was so close you could taste it. :( )
Congratulations to the winners, they deserve it.
It was still fun working at the safety glass station. I got to meet many people and had much fun. I'm the guy at the safety glass station.
We won a safety award. :]

Remember: Decisions are made at the judge's discretion.

See you all next year :]
______________________________________________
If anyone has footage of the playoffs I'd really appreciate a copy or download location. :)

Re: NYC Regional
 

Systemetric, Stuypulse and our ally was 421, who I think are The Warriors?

Systemetrics 'Safety Captain' did see your station and was very impressed, a very well deserved safety award 1597. Overall the Refs did a good job, especially given the amount of action going on. Our robot alone toppled/got pushed over 3 times today and I know others were pushed about a lot as well. The technical hitches (e.g. scoreboards, team numbers, our national anthem yesterday...) didn't help.

I was very impressed by the Brazilians and have told them as such. From what I've seen, their robot was far better than their position at the end of the qualifiers would suggest, and I hope all the best to them in the future. 348 had a neat looking robot which deservedly got an award for engineering. However I am only singling out a couple here, I could type all night about how good EVERYONE's robots and teams were.

As for a moment that will stick in my head? Our second semi-final heat... we had lost, so everyone was resigned to the fact we were out of the competition, fairly down until the announcement of the other sides disqualification, at which point I was surrounded (and involved in) one of the loudest cheers I have ever heard :D

Thank you so much to everyone for a great few days, all the teams, judges, refs, sponsors, volunteers and anyone else who has helped towrds the organization and running of a great few days. Although I'm off to Uni next year, I hope I shall return for a future NYC Regional soon, the last few days have been brilliant.


Oh, and 694... Ollie was still wearing your team shirt and his medal when we went for our team dinner this evening :) We hope to hear from you soon.

Re: NYC Regional
 

I'm actually surprised at how quiet the crowd is. Aside from a few teams, there is hardly any excitement at all. It wasn't until the Semis and the Finals that the crowd really got into it ( and boy did they)...although the one match where I introduced team 752 and fell flat on my back seemed to get a response, so I guess it wasn't all for naught.

All in all, an extremely well run event (minus the technical problems that arouse, which unfortunately couldn't be avoided)...

Congrats to 395, 375, and 1880...I know Wayne personally, and all this success couldn't have happened to a more upstanding guy.