Glad to see there is so much interest on this topic!
We are really excited for the sustaining and growing support of robotics at WPI! FIRST and WPI have been in partnership since the beginning of the program in 1992, and this partnership, among other things, has significantly fueled the creation of our undergraduate, graduate, and PHD degrees in robotics!
As for the new Sports & Recreation Center, hopefully this will allow our ever growing competition robot events to expand. The Robotics staff was part of the development group, which made way for some of the features Nick mentioned including level access to Harrington and a power layout conducive to the FIRST pit sizes.
Given it's anticipated completion date of the
Fall of 2012, our first event that may be able to make use of this space is our Massachusetts FLL Championship in December of 2012. The first events that would see the real benefit of this site will be the potential
2013 WPI Regional and
BattleCry@WPI 14. With these events, we would likely expand to double-sided bleachers to maximize spectator viewing space and utilize the pit space in the Rec center. Hopefully this will allow us to consider such expansions as hosting more teams at our regional and a full-size practice area!
The array of robotics competitions, camps, and other activities hosted by WPI is more expansive than many people realize and those opportunities should only be enhanced by this addition to campus.
As for parking... in any city this will always be a challenge. This year, teams utilized on-campus parking lots and we offered shuttles to the Crowne Plaza. For future events, we will continue to expand this shuttle service from on-campus or city lots as necessary to ensure everyone can attend the event!
The ground-breaking will take place one week after BattleCry@WPI 11 and should be the start of some great things for WPI FIRST.
Thanks!
Colleen