[rickliner]

Hi everybody - I am the faculty mentor for Pace team #3. We had a great time at the competition even though it was really tough. Thanks to all the other teams for their enthusiasm and help, and to all of the awesome volunteers and committee members who pulled off a great event.

Regarding the bots: the planning committee decided to make the ground vehicles optional this year, just because they weren't sure if teams would have the time and money resources to build two robots. But the games were designed for both air and ground to work together, and more than half of the teams did have both kinds. One very cool thing that was done during the elimination rounds was that alliances were expanded -- if your team had only an air vehicle working, you invited another team's ground robot to join you, or vice versa.

The rules on aerial vehicles were purposely very vague. Although everyone at the event had a quadcopter, teams were not forced to use that design. At the original "pitch" meeting with Dean Kamen and Chris Anderson last April, there was a lot of discussion about blimps (and a demo) as well. And there are plenty of other possibilities.

Why were so many teams from the midwest? I think it was almost certainly due to money. Our team spent twice as much on transportation of people and bots as we did on the robot parts themselves. Our team members flew the 1,000 miles to the event, but our team's hero was the friend who agreed to drive a car full of robots, parts, and tools for 15 hours each way. There were several other teams from the northeast who were involved during the season but ended up dropping out.

It would be great if this program could attract sponsorship for free or discounted shipping as FRC teams receive.

Rick