[FTC]: FTC - Alamo Championship Event

[Andrew Schuetze]

Greetings to all,

Having been involved in FIRST since my founding of FRC #499, the Toltechs, in 2001 it is with great pleasure that I announce the inaugural FTC event in San Antonio, Texas. On Sunday, March 15th at the AT&T Center 35 registered teams will compete in Face-Off. Our initial goal a year ago was to have about 18 - 24 teams so we have met our goal and then some.
Organized chaos is expected as over two-dozen teams are in their rookie year.
Texas has not only grown from 50 to 85 FRC teams this last year but also from 18 to 50 FTC teams. There are a lot of new FIRSTers in the great state of Texas in 2009.

APS

[JaneYoung]

I'm glad to see this thread and I'm looking forward to traveling to San Antonio tomorrow to participate in this event. Actually, I can't wait. It's an exciting time for Texas with the Dallas regional going on and now this wonderful FTC event. I've already met some awesome folks who are making this a well-planned and exciting event and I've been very impressed, to say the least. Help us cheer on the teams and FIRST's growth and development in the great state of Texas!

Andrew, thanks for all that you been doing and continue to do for robotics programs and for FIRST!

Jane

[JaneYoung]

Great event, Andrew!

It was a busy and wonderful day!
Simply terrific.

[Mushrooshi]

It was an awesome event!
I was on team 3033, from ETA, and we won!

Team 17 was also very friendly, and won the Inspire award. I can't wait to see them at Atlanta!

[akartaltepe]

Thought you might like a picture of the Alamo Championship FIRST Tech Champions.



This is after the awarding of the "Design Award" to them.

[Andrew Schuetze]

Thanks goes out to all the participants and volunteers who helped make our ignaugural event a great success. FMS type problems gave us fits most of the day but we worked through the event and I greatly appretiate everyone adjusting to our decisions to Gett'r Done! Firsts are supposed to be memoriable and I know this marathon tournament will never leave my mind.

What makes it all worth the time and money spent is the enthusiasm shown by the students and familes as well as the opportunity to inspire future engineers, scientists, programmers, mathematicians, ....

falling asleep while posting this at work, must schedule re-generation time

[Andrew Schuetze]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

Great event, Andrew!

It was a busy and wonderful day!
Simply terrific.

Thanks for the Kudos Jane and thanks for volunteering as a judge.
The day of the tournament director is so hectic I never got to say hello.

[Mushrooshi]

This was on the news

The AT&T Center was the target of a robot invasion Sunday as 35 teams of Texas middle and high school students wheeled in their creations to compete in the Alamo FIRST Tech Challenge.

“I think the robots we're seeing are incredible,” said Andrew Schuetze, director of the event. “Of the 35 teams, 27 are rookies who have never done this before, and (the) vets are not walking away with it.”

He said the main purpose of the competition is to instill a love of science in students to encourage them to choose a scientific career.

The robots at the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge have to start out no larger than an 18-inch cube. They must maneuver in a 12-square-foot arena and navigate over obstacles. They must gather hockey pucks from racks, then deposit them into a goal in the center of the arena — all the while battling the other team's robots.

Teams are paired in each round, so there are four robots in the arena, two on each team.

After three rounds, the Hang Fire team from Floresville High School was in fifth place in its division.

“We started on our robot two weeks ago,” senior Anthony Burchell said. “The robot can only be 18 inches tall, but the center of the goal is 23 inches tall, so the robot has to unfold to reach it. In the first round we lost an arm, but we've braced it up and in the last round it worked well.”

Ben McKeathen, a junior from Ryan High School in Denton, said the secret of his team's robot was simplicity and the use of four driver motors, instead of two, to power the wheels. The Ryan Raiders were in first place in their division after four rounds.

“It's fun, is the main reason I do it,” McKeathen said. “And it looks very good on your college application.”

Ethan Bender, a home-schooled student from Dallas, built his robot with a friend. It was the only robot at the competition with two baskets, one to hold his pucks to score with, and a second to steal pucks from the opposition.

“I've always liked building things,” he said. “I did it last year at another school and wanted to do it again on my own this year.”

In the final round, the teams form alliances of three teams, which battle in an elimination format.

After more than 10 hours, a three-team alliance led by the ETA Robo-Riders from Roosevelt High School's Engineering and Technologies Academy won the elimination tournament, qualifying the Roosevelt team to go to the World Championships in Atlanta next month. They were assisted by the Honk Honk Blarg Blarg team of Humble and the Project Pulse team from San Antonio's Lee STEM Academy.

A team of San Antonio home schoolers, called Skilled Metal Workers, also qualified to advance to Atlanta by winning the Inspire Award, the judges' choice for exemplifying all components of the FIRST Tech Challenge philosophy.

[FTC G-FORCE]

awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!