Goals for 2012

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Eric O

From a competition perspective I am surprised more people don't have "Win Championship" as a goal. We actually write it on the board on kickoff day when talking about strategy. Oddly enough our goal for a few years was "Make it to Einstein", but then we were making it and losing in the semis. We then changed our goal to "Win Championship".

You guys get within 6 matches of the Championship every year. We haven't qualified for the Championship yet. Our goal is to qualify, and then win. That also affects design decisions (i.e. being very good at a low hanging task to do well enough at regionals to advance as opposed to writing off that strategy because we don't think the winning alliance at Champs will feature that)

[ENIAC]

1. Win a regional.
2. Have a team that works well together.
3. Have a chairman's video before the end of build season.
4. Inculcate the freshmen. SO MUCH INCULCATION.
5. Meet our deadlines.
6. Have a fully functional robot at the scrimmage.
7. Have a fully functional website.
8. Create "The 42 Days of Build Season", a song, over the course of build season.
9. Make a time-lapse of build season.
10. Actually post to the team blog.
11. Have fun and sleep.
12. Have a practice robot.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Tubatroopa

3. Build a robot that isn't 119.999999 lbs

Hey, we did that last year! Wait, does a 131.4 pound robot meet this goal?

2012 Goals:
1. Understand the game strategy as much as possible and let that drive our design.
2. Assemble a robust machine that can be repaired reasonably easily.
3. Have much more fun than last year.

[FIRSTtm134]

Here is one for you: go a season without waiting an hour on the field for first to figure out why things arent working

[mdiradoorian]

@FIRSTtm134 I will agree with you there because that happened a few times at the LA regional.

[Eric O]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

You guys get within 6 matches of the Championship every year. We haven't qualified for the Championship yet. Our goal is to qualify, and then win. That also affects design decisions (i.e. being very good at a low hanging task to do well enough at regionals to advance as opposed to writing off that strategy because we don't think the winning alliance at Champs will feature that)

Chris,

We have been very successful at Championship. We have also not won a regional since 2006. Except for qualifying by winning the championship the previous year we have been to the championship via the waitlist sign up every year since '06. If you haven't qualified for Championship, why haven't you just signed up?

When evaluating strategies which affect design decisions at the beginning of the season, I can't think of any season which planning for a championship strategy would cause you to build the wrong robot. It usually makes sense to develop new strategies for regional play, but if you designed your robot to play a championship strategy, it will likely have the capabilities you need to contribute to your regional.

Also, don't forget that the last overall pick a division has a good chance of winning a division. If you don't think you can be a top 8 team, strategize to be a great 2nd pick in a division. It could reduce the requirements for your robot while still satisfy a goal of "win championship"

-Eric

[Koko Ed]

1. Build on 20 years of hard work.
2. Inspire a new generation so they come back another year.
3. Repeat.

[JaneYoung]

1.Enjoy an inspiring and motivational journey towards an inspiring and motivational destination.
2. Prepare to be awed by the stories, impressions, work ethics, struggles, and commitment of the teams and their members.
3. Strive to listen carefully.

Here's to a terrific 2012 season,
Jane

Edit: Right after I made this post, I checked Facebook and read an article that Andy Baker had posted a link to. Here is the article. Moments like this make the journey so worthwhile and the path, beautiful. AndyMark, Inc., the TechnoKats, and the Kokomo community must be so very proud of Glenda.

[pandamonium]

Ed's is my favorite so far!

1. Continue to inspire and engage a new generation of firsters. We have a large amount of seniors and new students. The passing of the torch is important this year for our future growth as a team and for the growth of these new students as well.

2. Have the "Ahaha" moment before our first regional. I will explain what I mean by this. We have the past few years redesigned our robot or enhanced a certain feature based off more competitive designs after our first regional. While this constant improvement is part of the design process I would like to be one of the teams that gets it right the first time this year. The team that other teams look to base their redesigns off of.

3. Build a more simple robot: This is our first year attempting 2 robots so they need to be simple in order to pull this off. Our drivers grow tremendously over the season and continuously work on their technique and skill. I would like to see this growth start earlier on and have them tackle the challenges of adapting to the new robot well before it's first practice match.

4. Build a more simple robot: Doing one thing well is almost always better than doing everything. We have spent time this off season analyzing old games preparing our minds to attack this new challenge. The success robots have in the competition season is directly related to how the teams start the 6 weeks

[bearbot]

Goals for Ursa MAjor as an Alumni..........
1. BUild a working bot in the 6 weeek build and not finsh at compition
2. Weigh less than 120 before bag and tag
3.Win a Regional
4.Win any award
5.Have FUN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The guy who had fun will be in apperance cuz i will be on break GO Luck Ursa MAjor

[Alpha Beta]

Our rookie year (2007) just building a functional robot was a stretch goal. We got crushed at the St. Louis regional and while we didn't see the field Saturday afternoon nor have our number called for any awards we were inspired by our pit neighbors 829 who shared with us the meaning of FIRST as well as some traction material for our ramps. We also got a first hand peek at some world class team like 45, 148, 217, 525, 1625, etc at what in hind sight was a fairly stacked event.

2008 goal -- Build something simple and robust that would be a good 3rd pick. We didn't want to miss Saturday afternoon ever again. Result: A super fast lapbot that seeded 4th and 2nd in the two regionals we competed in.

2009 goal -- Find a way to qualify for the championship event. This led to our first Chairman's submission. And while the niche robot did see play on Saturday afternoons it was the Chairman's Award earned in Minnesota that punched our ticket to Atlanta. The robot did not get picked for elimination play in Atlanta.

2010 goal -- Goal A, Win a regional. Goal B, play in the championship elimination rounds. To do this we knew we needed a robot that played well with other great robots but could also win a game on its own should our partners prove less capable. We couldn't just be good in a secondary game aspect like in 2008, we had to tackle the primary objective. Result: #1 pick by 71 in Minnesota and regional champions. #3 alliance captain in the Curie division and division finalist.

2011 goals -- Goal A, win a regional as an undefeated #1 seed. Goal B, play on Einstein. Goal A was accomplished at the Colorado regional. We missed goal B and have it back on the list for 2012.

2012 goals -- We are seeing a lot more rookies at the tournaments we are attending this year and one of our goals is to be that inspirational resource like 829 was for us when our journey first started. We've never won our home regional (KC) and that is certainly on the list as well.

[yarden.saa]

1. It's my first year (and last because I am 12th grader) as my team captain. I want to be successful.
2. To find an alternative pizzeria (the pezzeria we used to eat from is in renovation)
3. Not to push the red buttons every day(we have 3 giant red buttons that shuts off the power if we push them)

[jdunston94]

Originally Posted by daniel_dsouza

I wouldn't mind if our team would;
7. not blame the programmers!

A Day doesnt pass when the build team DOESN'T blame the programmers even when it is a Jaquar that fried in the "on" position which would technically blame the mechanics. but who's watching?

[goodmorning2403]

1. Dont kill team members
2. Win Chairmans
3. Have Dean email me back
4. UNDEFEATED!!!
5. Robo-prom

Originally Posted by goodmorning2403

3. Have Dean email me back

I've been having the same problems! You'd think after 271 emails he'd at least tell me to stop!