Results
 

Post if you had someone uninvolved with FIRST come talk to you today about the special.

I had someone stop by my cubicle today because he remembered I sent out an e-mail in April that I was would be out of the office volunteering for a robotics competition in St. Louis.

This gave me the opportunity to show pictures of Exploding Bacon, invite him to the regional which is 5 minutes away, ask if he knew students interested in participating, and, oh by the way, we build the robot on location if a he knew any savvy engineers such as himself interested in stopping by. Finally, I asked him to talk to other people today to see if they had seen the special, and have them come to me if they wanted further information.

Re: "i.am.FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll" airs August 14th
 

His niece. He said that somewhere.

Folks, be sure brain is fully engaged before operating fingers.::safety::
I detect some animosity brewing; please maintain the high standards to which we are accustomed.

Re: "i.am.FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll" airs August 14th
 

I think that's part of what's great about FIRST. You see these people who are so put together, so professional, that sometimes it's hard to remember that they're 18 year old boys, much like any others. But you get Nick, Sides, Wiggles, Erik, whomever off that field, and they still get stressed and pull all-nighters and go to dances and eat junk food.

In the end, they inspire me, and I hope other members of my team, by being just like the rest of us.

(For those of you unfamiliar with the NASA house team structure, we share the same lab, the same machines, the same tables and occasionally the same food. I am very proud to call the people I mentioned above friends)

Re: "i.am.FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll" airs August 14th
 

I have no idea how you took a statement about the ubiquitousness of the internet (and Google) as a statement of elitism.

Give us rednecks more credit -- if we see it on TV and want to know more, we know how to look for it.

It was an oversight, to be sure, but at most it was a very small one.

Re: Results
 

We watched 79's talk on local TV (aired Sunday morning) followed by this in the software lab at work. We talked about FIRST. For casual friday I am debating between 33, 65, 217, 2337 or 3450 shirts. I also have my CD Webhug tshirt now. So many choices...

Re: "i.am.FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll" airs August 14th
 

I agree. For a program that was put to gether in a matter of months and one that got all those stars together, it was good! I'm sure if they had more time there would have been more footage of the team's and their experiences :D

Re: Results
 

Multiple people from our second demo from the ABC special on Sunday morning ask us about FIRST and how we got interested. We invited everyone to our events (TNT *September 16th and 17th 2011*, Media Night, and etc.) I believe that the I.am FIRST thing really benefited the whole FIRST community. Now everyone knows what it is, who we are, what we stand for, and etc, its an all win win situation. Today when I went to my high school, I had a lot of people ask what FIRST was and how to join the team. For the Freshman orientation we are setting up a demo for the new freshman to be introduced to this amazing event! Also please come to TNT at the University of Tampa!!! *September 16th and 17th*

Re: "i.am.FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll" airs August 14th
 

I completely agree with this. Will.i.am is known for his music, and he has used that to help FIRST more than i possibly could have imagined him doing.

I think having a similar program, however sports based would be awesome. Sporting events have a much more direct connection to FIRST than music does. A FIRST competition is really like a sports season, on a much smaller scale. Being on a team at competition is like being a player/manager/scout/or GM. I think showing Einstein on ESPN, with maybe Chris Berman announcing, would be huge for FIRST growth. People could see the excitement, and look to find out how they can be a part of the action. I'm sure there are many people like John and I out there, that would love being involved on a FIRST team.

Now that I think about it, Im sure many pro athletes would be interested in FIRST. Many for the same reasons as those on the show yesterday, because they like their gadgets. I think there may also be some that would be interested in the technical aspect. The NFL makes players go through 3 years of college. Not all, but some take engineering courses. I know that Gabe Carimi is an offensive lineman that was drafted in the 1st round this year, but he also graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a degree in civil engineering. A single player, making the NFL minimum salary, could be a pretty substantial sponsor to a team.

I cant wait to see where all of this goes in a few years.

Re: "i.am.FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll" airs August 14th
 

That being said, there are 8 (I think) competitions going on simultaneously. if they were to do a live mash up of the best matches, then they could get a continuous stream during regional. I almost think that CMP would be better suited to being on live TV because there are almost no dead bots, and it might be possible to show all the matches, from all the fields. If the TV ran through lunch to catch up, and they ended matches sooner and added another day to CMP, then it would definitely be possible.

Re: "i.am.FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll" airs August 14th
 

For everyone looking at the Nielsen's this is one of the areas that can be interpreted in a variety of ways. The one important factor here is that for a 6 PM Sunday night time slot against what is normally a 60 Minutes lock on the national ratings, the show did actually very well. If I was one of the producers, I would see the numbers as being a success. As a matter of fact, a claim could be made on some of the 60 Minutes crowd actually jumping ship to watch this show compared to previous weeks. As a potential sponsor, I might actually be interested in seeing another show. When you can steal from a big CBS production, you see victory.

Re: Results
 

A few folks stopped by yesterday. One guy has a lot of daughters. He said they were really impressed with "The Space Cookies".

Re: "i.am.FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll" airs August 14th
 

I had multiple people come up to me at work and mention the special. I think it's going to be incredibly interesting to see the ripple effect from this TV special. It'd be very interesting to see how many rookie teams in the next few years for FLL, FTC and FRC started because their teacher or mentor saw the program.

Re: "i.am.FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll" airs August 14th
 

i could definitely see a highlight reel of sorts for the regional/district competitions but for championships i still think that with four divisions going on simultaneously along with not necessarily amazing robots due to advanced payment would hinder TV airtime for the divisional qualifications but i could see an elimination special with maybe the finals or semis of each division and then Einstein play being a possible future TV special.

Re: "i.am.FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll" airs August 14th
 

Golf ran late on CBS and 60 Minutes didn't start until 7 cst. Stealing viewers from golf is either really easy because nobody's watching it, or really hard because it's really hard not to take a nap while watching it :rolleyes:

Re: "i.am.FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll" airs August 14th
 

Exactly.

Sometimes, we (falsely) think that teams and mentors who are our FRC rock stars - no longer deal with the every day emotions and wear and tear of build and competition. It's true that many of these teams have worked hard to establish a consistency in performance and a standard of excellence that the team strives for each season but - it's also nice to know that, in some ways, like being excited and nervous - they are just like the rest of us. :) Very inspiring.

The Space Cookies are setting a bar for many of us to reach up to, too. Very cool.

Jane