[petek]

I think I can say that I agree with virtually every point that Ben made. From my perspective, the overarching reasons for the success of FVC/FTC has been the accessibility, flexibility and user-friendliness of the Vex system. Vex's intimidation factor is about as close to zero as you can get, yet (or maybe partly because of that) creative students are able to conceptualize and perfect incredibly complex designs using just hand tools and bright minds.

Since I've taken on the FTA role in FRC I had to give up mentoring (it was that or get a good divorce lawyer), but I still squeeze in the opportunity to help students compete by refing at the Delaware FTC event each year. I come away from those events convinced that FTC puts technology development in the hands of a greater proportion of the series' particpants than FRC, and that these students are every bit as inspired and passionate about their endeavors. All that for a fraction of the capital and human cost of FRC.

Don't get me wrong: I love FRC. I think it is a great program and expect to continue to devote myself to furthering it for years to come. But FRC is not user-friendly. FRC is very hard work for everyone involved. FRC is downright intimidating. That is where FTC has stepped in and filled a huge void: schools that cannot afford the cost or provide insanely dedicated leadership. Schools and home-schools without much in the way of resources and meeting just a few hours a week can provide an FTC program. Schools that FRC scares away, whether because of cost, resources, mentors, facilities or what have you have jumped on board with FTC and provided a program that really does inspire their students.

The very little that has been revealed about the new FTC platform worries me. Looking at the pictures and reading Ken's words don't give me a warm, furry feeling about the user-friendliness, cost-effectiveness or accessibility of the new system. Heavier-duty aluminum parts sound nice at first, but what the pictures revealed didn't look as well-designed as Vex's plastic and bent-sheetmetal components.

A more powerful controller in nice, but is it really needed for the typesof games FTC presents? One of the nice parts about the Vex controller was the similarity to the FRC RC, facilitating cross-over between these series. I used my Vex kit to learn how to use the CMUcam to better understand how it works in the "real world" of a FIRST venue. Will this be possible next year?

I hope that in retrospect we will feel that FIRST made a good decision to change from the proven Vex platform, but the new one will have to be awfully good to compensate all the "early-adopters" for their lost investment and, if it isn't as accessible as Vex, for the number of teams that are likely to go elsewhere.