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Posted by Nate Smith.

Other on team #66, GM Powertrain/Willow Run HS, from Eastern Michigan University and GM Powertrain.

Posted on 4/13/2000 8:24 AM MST


In Reply to: 'My Favorite Part was.....' posted by Erin on 4/12/2000 11:59 AM MST:



Well, I just need to start off by saying that this has been an AWESOME year, probably my best yet. Which, of course, makes it very hard to decide on a single favorite part, or even a few, but there are a couple experiences that come to mind...

- Back before kickoff, I got the idea, after NASA announced they were going to broadcast the kickoff on the Internet, that there should be a central location for kickoff information, with links to the broadcast, an easy way to see if the FIRST web page had been updated, and a way for the various people watching the webcast to communicate with each other. Because of those ideas, the FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff Central site was born. With a script that would automatically check the FIRST site for updates every 5 minutes, direct links to any stream of the webcast, and a Java chat room, I started the site, not sure of how many people would actually show up. I was amazed when, by the end of the day, the counter rolled well over 1000. Also, some of the people that I talked to in chat that day became friends that I kept in touch with throughout the competition, some that I didn't actually meet in person until Florida.

- And that leads me into my next point, the friendships that I developed this year. In my last two years with this program, there have been a few people that I've met and hung around with down in Florida, but it didn't seem to go much beyond that. This year, for some reason, was exactly the opposite. I, mainly through this site and the RAMBOTS chat, got to know quite a few people, and from the reports that I got from my team in the pits, just about all of them must have come looking for me at some point. One of my team members said that just about as many people came looking for me as they did to look at our robot! Just a few highlights:
- Lora(Team 69): Somebody from back at that first day in Kickoff Central, that I've talked to about just about anything since then, and finally met the first day of the National Competition.
- Erin(Team 1) : Someone who I could easily see as being involved with FIRST her entire life. I don't exactly remember when I first started talking to her, but we've definitely become good friends through all of this, even to the point that I was invited to a meeting of team 1 before we had ever actually met in person(and I've got a Juggy hat to prove it! =)
- My Entire Team(Team 66): While it took some time at first for me to make the transition from student to mentor, team 66 as a whole took a chance on somebody who they knew very little about, and helped me feel, by the end of the season, that I wasn't just somebody coming in to help out, but was actually a part of the team.
- Ken & Martin(Team 65): Out of all the people I've worked with this year, these two probably had the hardest job out of all of them..putting up with my crazy ideas and slightly strange way that my mind works as we worked to make the GMCIA this year a success, despite the few glitches that we ran across. Working through them will only help to make the 2001 season better!

And finally, my favorite memory on the field:
During one of our matches on Friday, our ally was on the field, but had drive train problems that prevented them from moving once the match started. Our human player dropped in our 5pt ball, then our machine shot across the field to grab one other 5pt ball and 3 1pt balls before the other team had a chance to get to them. We then dumped all 13 points into our goal, and then executed a perfect hang maneuver, lifting us off the ground with time to spare, and securing a 23-6 victory.

I'm sure I could go on for a lot longer, but I'm not sure how much space Brandon would want me taking up on his web server for this =) See everybody next year(or at the WMRC!)

nate