[EricH]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

Back in MY day, we had full metal to metal contact. Not any of this wussy bumper stuff!

So you have the option to not use the cRIO (at least so far)?

Amen, Brother!

And, sorry, no, you have to use the cRIO (one of the versions) to control your robot. And, it takes a while to boot up the control system. Just a heads-up on that front--FRC rules the last couple of years.

BEP, or more correctly, will.i.am, sought out Dean Kamen and what eventually happened was:
-will.i.am appeared at Kickoff (the other special guests were the author and the primary subject of a book called The New Cool, about FRC1717).
-The BEP gave a concert at the Championship, moving 2 fields to the pits (causing a bit of annoyance--until it was discovered what the real purpose was. Keep reading.)
-8/14: An ABC special called i.am.FIRST: Science is Rock and Roll showed for the first time. Filmed at the Championship, it used the concert as a hook to get people interested in the show, then told them about the robots, teams, and people behind them. (If that purpose had been mentioned in March/April, the aforementioned annoyance would have been much less voiced.)

Oh, and Chief Delphi is no more. They joined forces with the Husky Brigade to form the Wings of Fire a couple years back. (47+65=51) This would explain the purple logo at the top left of each page instead of the old logo. They did leave the coloring of the site the same, and the team still helps run it.