Beantown Blitz Registration Now Open!

[Erin Rapacki]

0019 Big Red Robotics Greenwich, CT
0038 Nonnebots Woodbury, CT
0059 Miami Coral Park H.S. Miami, FL
0061 Blackstone Valley Regional H.S.
0069 HYPER Quincy, MA
0088 TJ^2 Bridgewater, MA
0121 Rhode Warriors Middletown & Portsmouth RI
0125 NU-TRONS Boston, MA
0176 Aces High Windsor Locks, CT
0175 Buzz Robotics Enfield, CT
0178 The Enforcers Farmington, CT
0181 Birds of Prey (BOP) Harford, CT
0190 WPI, Gompei and the Herd Worcester, MA
0195 Cyber Knights Southington CT
0213 Dirty Birds Keene, NH
0228 GUS Meriden, CT
0237 Sie-H20-Bots / T.R.I.B.E. Watertown, CT
0348 Norwell Robotics Norwell, MA
0350 Timberlane Robotics Plaistow, NH
0447 Team Roboto Anderson, Indiana
0549 DevilDawgs Leominster, MA
0571 Team Paragon Windsor CT
0596 SciClones Hopkinton, MA
0663 Whitinsville Christian School/Umass Lowell Whitinsville, MA
0782 Kilowatts Hartford, CT
0839 Rosie Robotics Agawam, MA
1027 Machatronic Maniacs West Springfield, MA
1058 PVC Pirates Londonderry, NH
1071 Max Wolcott, CT
1073 Team Force Hollis-Brookline, NH
1099 LIONS Brookfield, CT
1100 Algonquin Regional HS/Rohm & Haas Northboro, MA
1277 GD Crusaders Groton, MA
1335 Nyprobrotics Raymond, NH
1474 Titans Tewksbury Memorial High School

[Elgin Clock]

Erin,
Team #348 is spelled wrong. they are called Norwell Robotics from Norwell MA.
Just drop the "M".
I just didn't want to see thier name wrong on a sign there or something.

That's all I have, see you all there!!!

[Tom Bottiglieri]

i was thinking about this today, and it would be really cool if we could have a "human plays out game" game at BTB. A team member from each team would be in a bracket, and there would be alliances. Then there could be a tournament. That would be cool.

[MisterX]

Trust me 521 is pushing our mentors to approve for all the paperwork and financing to be taken care of!!!! WE EXTREMLY WANT TO GO and look forward to what should be an amazing competition as it is paning out (well atleast I want to go and get out of prom good shoice on the date thanks in advance!!! you just saved me a bundle)

[BoyWithCape195]

716 is planning on going, thy should contact you by tommarrow, or maybe even today! Their advisor already said yes, they just havent registered yet....

[Tom Bottiglieri]

GASP! It seems like the last spot at BTB will be decided in a showdown with 521 and 716. On You Mark, Get set.... Call Erin!

[Erin Rapacki]

(857) 222-7926

Ah yes, REMINDER: To the teams who are registered, try to get the registration fee to NU within the next week (your team leaders should know where to), NU needs financial committment from at least 20 teams by early/mid april.

Thanks!

erin

p.s. Because we will be pushing dates for fees to get in rather diligently, fear not if your team ends up on a waiting list... it's likely that your team could get in. Register by emailing me erapacki@coe.neu.edu your team #, team name, team location, main contact name, phone #, and email.

[MisterX]

Originally Posted by ToMMan b182

GASP! It seems like the last spot at BTB will be decided in a showdown with 521 and 716. On You Mark, Get set.... Call Erin!

This is our time to shine! I knew there was a reason for all those pre-meeting dialing finger streetches! Ugh.... It would be so much easier if our sponsor wasnt in an outage right now!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!! Cant the nuclear core wait!!!!!

[Erin Rapacki]

Here's the email sent to team leaders:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello everyone,

FIRST of all, I apologize for not being so frequent with my emails lately… going to three Regionals in a time span of ten days, working at DEKA, and keeping up with the Chief Delphi forums gets to be rather exhausting (but I’m sure you know how it feels, we’re all FIRSTaholics here : ). However, you may have heard from my counterpart… Don Goldthwaite. Don is a faculty member at NU, he is the NU-TRONS team leader, and he is very excited about participating on the Beantown Blitz organizational committee. Don is able to help you with information specific to NU, such as: parking, lodging, Boston, and he is responsible for handling the registration fees. Feel free to email him at dgoldthw@coe.neu.edu for information pertaining to these topics. My main responsibility is to bring-in what the FIRST community wants, to: organize volunteers, work out event logistics, and make sure you, the teams, are happy.

On that note, registration has gone rather well… here are the 36 teams attending at this point:

Team # Team Name Team Location

19 Big Red Robotics Greenwich, CT
38 Nonnebots Woodbury, CT
59 Miami Coral Park H.S. Miami, FL
61 Blackstone Valley Regional H.S.
69 HYPER Quincy, MA
88 TJ^2 Bridgewater, MA
121 Rhode Warriors Middletown & Portsmouth RI
125 NU-TRONS Boston, MA
175 Buzz Robotics Enfield, CT
176 Aces High Windsor Locks, CT
178 The Enforcers Farmington, CT
181 Birds of Prey (BOP) Harford, CT
190 WPI, Gompei and the Herd Worcester, MA
195 Cyber Knights Southington CT
213 Dirty Birds Keene, NH
228 GUS Meriden, CT
237 Sie-H20-Bots / T.R.I.B.E. Watertown, CT
348 Normwell Robotics Norwell, MA
350 Timberlane Robotics Plaistow, NH
447 Team Roboto Anderson, Indiana
549 DevilDawgs Leominster, MA
571 Team Paragon Windsor CT
596 SciClones Hopkinton, MA
663 Whitinsville Christian School/Umass Lowell, MA
782 Kilowatts Hartford, CT
839 Rosie Robotics Agawam, MA
1027 Machatronic Maniacs West Springfield, MA
1058 PVC Pirates Londonderry, NH
1071 Max Wolcott, CT
1073 Team Force Hollis-Brookline, NH
1099 LIONS Brookfield, CT
1100 Algonquin Regional HS/Rohm & Haas Northboro, MA
1277 GD Crusaders Groton, MA
1335 Nyprobrotics Raymond, NH
1373 Spontaneous Combustion Uconn/Storrs, CT
1474 Titans Tewksbury Memorial High School

With one team on the waiting list so far:

126 Gael Force Clinton, MA

Congratulations to all of the teams who made it in! However, we do encourage all of you to send in your team’s registration fee of $250 as soon as possible. Please also include attached document. Mail to:

Beantown Blitz
Attn: Gina O’Brien-McLelland
College of Engineering
230 Snell Engineering
Northeastern University
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115-5000
Mail to: dgoldthw@coe.neu.edu

Thanks!


Erin Rapacki
Beantown Blitz Coordinator
FIRSTaholic College Student
erapacki@coe.neu.edu

p.s. If any of you wish to meet me in person, I will be working at the FIRST Robotics Conference my whole time down in Atlanta… I served on the organizational committee for that as well. Feel free to stop by!

[Devin L.]

0019 Big Red Robotics Greenwich, CT

from what i know, i dont think team 19 competed this year. if i am right, then how will they compete at BTB?

[Erin Rapacki]

Yes, there will be a newly compiled list of teams once we get all of their money in... some teams have dropped out. I hope to have the list sometime soon.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Devin L.

from what i know, i dont think team 19 competed this year. if i am right, then how will they compete at BTB?

I think team 19 did not compete because of funding issues, but I know some team 19 members were at UTC regional collecting team management info for next year and beyond.

That is a good question though, if they did not compete in any competition this year:
A) What robot are they going to use
B) Should they be allowed to compete

This is not an attack on team 19 by any means. If they want to compete at BTB, then that is cool with me. I am just curious as to what robot they are going to use, and if there is a clause in ANY mini-comp rules that say if a team did not compete in a certain year if they can play in the mini-comp.

I hope not, but as we have seen in FIRST it is the unwritten rules that are questioned and make us "raise the bar" - Filling the goal by gravity for example this year. That was probably never even considered in the original game design and testing that FIRST did, but someone, somewhere though of it during the six weeks, and it seemed to me to be a big hidden strategy this year.

[MikeDubreuil]

Note: I'm not involved with the planning of the BTB.

I would lobby for them to be able to bring whatever robot meets the height and space requirements, and uses a 2004 control system. They may have even made a robot for this particular competition, you never know. Either way, I don't think it matters they never competed officially. In fact, I would go to bed feeling much better if they were able to compete in our off-season event, knowing they did not have the chance during the season. The BTB might give them a chance to ignite the fire that will cause them to officially compete in 2005.

[Erin Rapacki]

I'm personally not aware of Team 19s situation, nor am I'm looking into it. As long as they are using the most current Innovation FIRST Robot Controllers that are compatable with the field software... anything is fine by me!

[Heretic121]

Originally Posted by Erin Rapacki

I'm personally not aware of Team 19s situation, nor am I'm looking into it. As long as they are using the most current Innovation FIRST Robot Controllers that are compatable with the field software... anything is fine by me!

so potentially... i can call up some battle bot guys, and ask them to borrow their robot, re-wire it to make it use innovation first controls and use it?? *me ponders about which one i should take... im thinking about a flipper =D*