Re: 2010 Boston Regional
 

It was great to see 2888 out there and running smooth after diagnosing a number of control system and electrical/mechanical woes over the competition. What was inspiring to me was their kids NEVER got frustrated over their robot not working, and were always positive about trying a new configuration to determine what the problem was.

Mike, if you were the fellow I met and chatted about gate drivers and Jaguars, thanks for lending some expertise to 2888. Boston was definitely busy from a tech support standpoint, especially without taking into account some of the truly oddball problems I saw both on and off the field.

Speaking of shout-outs, big props to the Nu-Trons team 125. The Ask an Engineer desk was definitely busy all 3 days, answering questions and handing out tools/parts that the Spares Desk often couldn't provide. A major benefit of coming to Boston!

--Eric

Re: 2010 Boston Regional
 

Ohhh, the other thing.

The MC and game announcers- SO GOOD. Every single match was brilliantly announced and the commentary was always so enthusiastic and exciting.

Awesome regional.

Re: 2010 Boston Regional
 

Yep. Seconded.

Just want to say Andy Grady makes every event he announces amazing! Everything he announces is just more exciting than it would be otherwise. I've watched a lot of regionals with a lot of announcers, but Andy grady is the best aound.

Re: 2010 Boston Regional
 

Thanks! Thats what we are there for. I hope you guys come back to Boston soon.

Re: 2010 Boston Regional
 

Thanks Chris, we have had a great time so far this season going to Atlanta will be a great.

Our drivers have been the key to our success, they are talented kids. The best thing is we have no Seniors and only two Juniors on the team. The entire drive team is made up of Sophomores.

We would like to thank JC Penny for all of their support, they sent representatives to the competition this weekend, gave the team some free gifts, and when we won our awards they offered to cover our entry fees for Atlanta.

Re: 2010 Boston Regional
 

Thanks for making it such a welcoming regional for us Brandon, and the rest of 125.

1511- thank you for spare parts when we really needed them

1511, 229 and 1153- it was a pleasure learning so much from your wonderful machines in the pits.

Re: 2010 Boston Regional
 

All around 1511 cleaned up in Beantown with the Chairmans and finalist awards as well as coopetition, had an awesome time and were very impressed with the teams there. There were a number of good hangers (ours included after some significant reengineering) and many robots that started a little rough on practice day were up and running well by the end of competition. Thanks to our alliance partners and some awesome competition the finals ended up being high scoring events decided by just a point in each case.

The other teams, the volunteers, the judges and the event crew were all phenomenal. I especially want to thank the Judges, Woodie and Dean for showing up and being so gracious and nice to our team members. I know that just being there made at least some of our parent mentors (parentors) lifetime supporters. One of our parents who had never been on an away trip with her son said to me "Wow, I had no idea. Now I get it. Now I understand...."

The areas for improvement include some issues with getting power to our laptops for scouting on the final day, and a slow startup due to field problems on Thursday morning, other than that the event went without a hitch.

I would like to note that the power issue was not universally enforced. At least one team (not naming names - and we didn't "blow them in" at the event) had power running from the central camera booth down to their scouting laptops the entire time - after it had been announced over the PA and we had specifically been told - no power from the top. It was an obvious cable and was taped down along the stairs - even a casual observation would have seen it. We were alternately told during the weekend it was alright if the top level booth people didn't complain and that it was absolutely forbidden and against the rules. Note I am not criticising the staff or volunteers, they did their best with what were obviously rules handed down to them by either FIRST or the Venue itself.

I think in general this is something that FIRST and the venues that FIRST is at should think about. More and more teams are wanting to use laptops in the stands to scout. Our particular scouting config consists of 6 laptops (one for each robot) and one host machine that gathers the data from the other 6. There isn't a laptop on the planet which can last from a single battery charge for hours of scouting - certainly not the low end inexpensive ones that teams can afford or get handed down to them.

Could there not be some OFFICIAL scouting area where teams could sign up to have up to say 7 seats (one for each robot, and one for a host machine) that has power run to it and it's LEGAL to setup a little network and laptops? Due to wifi restrictions (this DOES make sense - don't want to interfere with the field) we can't network wirelessly and position laptops in supposedly "legal" areas, so cabled networks are the only way to do a shared laptop system.

If you place the scout area in an area that has reasonable view of the game so that scouters can see what is going on, and so that other spectators aren't standing up in the way of the scouters, tape it off and reserve it just for scouters, have the power run by an electrician so it's not a potential danger. Just an idea but one I think is worth considering. I think this would also remove some of the pressure involved with "getting the best seats" for scouting. If we KNOW we have reserved scout seats, then the teams can just pick a nice place to view from but don't have the "scramble" to get to it. This is a general idea for all events and I'd encourage input. I understand the concern for having "amateur run" power in the stands, but I also think that scouting and strategy are an important part of FIRST and it would be nice if we could come up with a solution that both protects the venues and participants, AND allows scouters to do their job.

On my perennial issue of sound both the FLR and Boston regionals seemed to forget the complaints of prior years. The music (especially the final day) was too loud much of the time - to the point of speaker distortion in some cases, the announcing and the field system buzzers were also too loud. Earplugs were a required accessory in the stands. A complaint at FLR resulted in a brief turning down of the volume for an hour or two then it went right back up - I didn't even bother in Beantown, it seems like a lost cause. Are we still measuring SPL levels and monitoring from the stands? Because that seemed to work well last year....

Re: 2010 Boston Regional
 

Thanks for the compliments from everyone. It is an honor and privlidge to call matches for the wonderful teams in this region and beyond. Big props to Dave Price who I feel is one of the best up comming emcees in the game and "Angry" Erik Eckhardt who was fantastic as an announcer to fill in for me so I could rest my ankle and voice here and there.

Big time congrats to the winners TJ, Ozram, and The Robochiefs. Double digit scores for each team in the final match is pretty incredible. Also a big congrats to team 1923 for winning EI and 1511 for Chairmans. It was great to see teams come from such distances to take part in the regional.

Re: 2010 Boston Regional
 

I'm the president of the regional planning committee in Boston. Thank you all for your kind words about our event -- we're very proud of it and we love putting it on for you all!

The feedback so far is great. I especially like the idea of an "official scouting area." We do have a challenge with the venue in Boston that we're not supposed to be plugging in to power or network drops that we don't have advance approval for (since most of that access requires additional payment). I and some other volunteers all had to ask students to unplug from some of the suite viewing areas, and the taped down power cords were also a continuing problem throughout the weekend. Many thanks to all the teams who were gracious enough to move their setups out of those areas -- I'm sorry we had to ask you to move, but we have our own responsibilities to our hosts at the Arena.

Team 61 worked with us in advance to set up a "sportscasting" area, and we were able to accommodate them. Similarly, with this scouting area idea, I think that's definitely something we could make work for next year since we have plenty of time to plan out what we'd need. Please feel free to email me directly -- mikell@bostonfirst.org -- if you have specific suggestions or requests for what an area like that would require.

Thank you all for attending this year! Keep the feedback coming!

Re: 2010 Boston Regional
 

Awesome! I hope other regionals can do this as well!

Re: 2010 Boston Regional
 

I've heard that Dean Kamen gave a speech about the Dean's List award. Did anyone record this? I'm really interested hearing what he had to say.

Re: 2010 Boston Regional
 

This was recorded. When it gets split out from the rest of the video, we'll put it online. :)

Re: 2010 Boston Regional
 

I must say, Boston was a blast for everyone on 229. thanks for all the teams who we competed with or against this weekend!

Does anyone know the name of the speaker who spoke about his prosthetic leg?

Re: 2010 Boston Regional
 

I believe you are looking for this guy, http://biomech.media.mit.edu/people/herr.htm

Re: 2010 Boston Regional
 

I was an inspector at Boston on Thursday and can't tell you how much fun I had! I wasn't able to attend for the rest of the weekend due to classes and work, but the time I did spend there was memorable to say the least. I would like to thank everyone from the Griffins(Team 1884) for their awesome display of hospitality. For all of you who don't know, they are from England(a 7 hour flight) and I'm from Connecticut(a 2 hour drive) and after all their struggles on Thursday, they accepted me into their group and invited me to dinner for helping them through their struggles. It is this sort of kindness that FIRST is all about and I will remember this event for a very long time.

-Fletch