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Unread 04-11-2003, 22:57
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dlavery dlavery is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by KevinB
Here in North Alabama, many schools are participating in a program called BEST (http://www.bestinc.org/). BEST is similar to FIRST in that students build a robot in six weeks, work with sponsors, try to mentor other teams, etc. except the competition is much smaller and resembles one of the "mini-regionals" you mentioned. Have you ever attended a BEST event? There's one coming up in Auburn, AL in two weeks. I guarantee you that if you attended it you would scrap the "mini-regional" idea instantly.

A team from my school participated in the program this year and I tagged along for the competition. It was terrible! None of the judges or field personnel had any experience (they were "local volunteers") and there was basically mass chaos.
Yes, I have attended a BEST event. I have also been to the BOTBALL competitions (regional and national), the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence robotics competitions, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence mobile robotics competition and exhibitions, and nearly a dozen others. I have been a judge at many of these events, a technical adviser to some others, am on the board of directors of two competition organizations, and have provided significant financial support for several of them. So I have some insight into how good - and bad - competition events are organized.

I am not sure that I follow the logic path from you seeing a single poorly-run BEST competition (out of the several BEST events that are run around the country) to the conclusion that all small events are terrible and the idea of mini-competitions should be scrapped.

I have re-read my post a few times now. I am pretty sure that nowhere in there did I say that a low-cost event had to be a low-quality event. To the contrary, I made a distinct analogy between the Mini-Regional concept and the better off-season, team-sponsored events that are currently held. Many of them are conducted in an extremely professional manner, have a very polished presentation, provide a wonderfully positive and supportive atmosphere, provide for high levels of competition, and do a great job to further the goals and message of FIRST. They provide the existence proof that, done properly, a small event with a small number of teams can be produced for a reasonable amount of funds and effort, and it can still have a very positive outcome. FIRST Lego League events - many of which are held in school gyms - do exactly the same thing.

So while it is possible to produce a bad competition event in a small venue (of course this is true, and I never said it wasn't), it is also possible to produce a very good one. Done properly, Mini-Regionals can work - things like Ramp Riot, Duel on the Delaware, Havoc on the Hill, California Robot Games and FLL prove it.

-dave
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Last edited by dlavery : 04-11-2003 at 23:25.