Thanks as always for your inspiring words Eric.
FIRST has without a doubt been the defining feature of my high school experience. The incredible collaborative attitude that I have experienced both on my team and at the regionals the past three years has been nothing short of amazing. It always makes me smile a little when I explain how I spent my regional helping other teams, and people at my school look at me strangely and ask why I would want to help my opponents. It's good to know that there is a worldwide community of people who "get it."
Over the past three years, I have worked closely with incredible mentors from Flow, Microsoft, Boeing and several other local companies. With their guidance, I have channeled my passion for science and technology and learning into three years embedded systems programming experience, great internships, acceptance into awesome college degree programs (UW CSE!), and most importantly, a way of looking at and solving problems that we call "engineering." Without a doubt, this will affect me for the rest of my life, and for that I am forever thankful to the FIRST robotics program.
When I saw that there were teams at the regional who were struggling, I felt that it was the least that I could do to help them out. By the end of Friday, I'm not sure how many teams I helped get their firmware up to date or their autonomous working, but it was quite a few. It is hard to describe, but it just felt so...right to help share my few years worth of experience with other teams. Getting to see their faces light up with happiness when the robot moved by itself, having teams come over and say how they hadn't lost a match since they got their autonomous working, it's just so amazing. Thank you to all of the teams who let me help you. If you learned something interesting, pass it on
-just some programmer from 1318
P.S. shout outs go to teams 945 and 2865 for being awesome alliance partners!