2012 Texas Robot Roundup

[Michael Blake]

Originally Posted by jessjank.

Opportunity to Register 2nd Robot:
Following the end of the Registration period, we have 4 slots available. One team dropped and all out of state teams initially expressing significant interest could not make it; we are still working with potential pre-rookies. The TRR Planning Committee has decided on the following:

• Teams are asked to fill out this form: goo.gl/A7LEv by the end of next Friday, July 7th, regarding their interest in entering a 2nd (practice, backup, etc) robot
• If no more than 4 teams already registered wish to register a 2nd robot, we will allow teams to enter 2nd robots
• If more than 4 teams wish to enter a 2nd robot, we will not allow teams to enter 2nd robots
• If the criteria above are met, interested teams will need to register their 2nd robot by Wednesday, July 11th
• Teams must pay the regular registration fee of $250 for their 2nd robot by Thursday, July 26th

Jess, can we now officially enter our practice bot? THANKS!

[jessjank.]

Originally Posted by midway78224

Jess ,

I have a question about the skills challenge. If i understand correctly that all balls have to be touching your robot and two of the balls have to be in contact with the robot and key. My questions is at the start of the match can we harvester the other two balls so we have all four balls in our system and then take our shots or do we have to go by FIRST rules and only can have 3 balls in the robot.

From the committee: The robot may not possess more than three balls at a time.

Originally Posted by Michael Blake

Jess, can we now officially enter our practice bot? THANKS!

Yes, you may!



I have been unreasonably busy recently. Thank you all for your patience with regard to my delayed responses!

[jessjank.]

Just sent this email out to teams:

Hi TRR 2012 Teams!

I hope you're all getting excited for the 2012 Texas Robot Roundup! We're looking forward to seeing you all in just 2 weeks. I know this email is long, but please read it carefully to find out about and share many valuable opportunities with your team and attending supporters.

Pay your Registration Fee - Online or by Check:
If you haven't do so yet, please send in your registration fee! Details can be found at www.roubotroundup.org (the website is being updated this weekend as well). If you can pay online through PayPal, this option is now available. Payments should be made to the following account: austincansbooster@gmail.com

Friday Night Team Social:
TechXsplosion, Team 2789 from Manor, TX, is hosting a social at TRR on Friday, July 27, at 7:00 PM. The goal of this social is to have a fun time with all the teams going to the 2nd Annual Texas Robot Roundup. Entry to the social is free, but during the social they will have jars around the room for donations to a local library that is in desperate need of books. They will be providing an assortment of desserts and punch to all the teams. Please RSVP here: http://goo.gl/9AkYc

Win a FIRST Xbox! Win a Pizza Party for your team!
The new Microsoft Store in Austin will be raffling off a FIRST Xbox to one lucky team member! All team members will receive a raffle ticket at check-in. To see a picture of this special FIRST Xbox, head to the Alamo FIRST Facebook page: www.facebook.com/alamoFIRST and while you're there, "like" the page! One team will receive a Pizza Party! We will draw the name of one person who has "liked" the page at the end of next week and their team will win the Pizza Party. Encourage your members, mentors, parents, sponsors, and supporters to "like" Alamo FIRST!

Mentor Recognition Award sponsored by National Instruments:
This year, we are beginning the tradition of recognizing an outstanding mentor at TRR. Nothing needs to be done by your teams in advance. When you check-in on Saturday morning, your team will receive a prompt and your students are asked to respond to it in a half page space regarding a mentor they wish to recognize. Entries will be read by a group of non-team affiliated judges.

TRR Trading Post:
Central Texas teams are pilotting a fundraising activity that we may open up to all participating teams in years to come. Throughout a portion of the day on Saturday, teams will be selling a variety of cool tech-oriented things like FIRST logo and recycled electronics jewelry and key chains, t-shirts, buttons, bristle bot kits, pictures in a carnival cut-out robot, and more!

VIPs/Invited Guests & Student Ambassadors:
If you have invited any VIPs or special guests to TRR, let me know so that they can be included in some special activities we're arranging for invited guests. Additionally, if you have any team members who would like to serve as student ambassadors to give tours to these guests and answer their questions about FIRST, Rebound Rumble, and more, please send me their names (in addition to your team number).

Special Tournaments & Canned Goods Drive:
In my last email, you should have received rules for the TRR Skills Challenge that will happen on Saturday. Let me know if you need me to send you the rules sheet again. Additionally, please remind your team to collect canned goods to donate to the host team (ausTIN CANs - 2158) food drive that will determine team alliance selection ranking for the Mentor Tournament. When you check-in at TRR, interested teams will be asked to sign your team up to compete in the Skills Challenge and Mentor Tournament.

Workshops, Presentations, & Meetings:
Throughout Saturday, attendees have a chance to go to a variety of workshops, presentations, and meetings designed to inform, support, and inspire your teams. We will have some very interesting speakers, a panel discussion from some of Texas' most competitive teams, workshops and presentations on robot design and how to create a business plan, and meetings for the Non-Engineering Mentors Organization and the Central Texas Robotics Alliance. Detailed overviews of each session will be sent out a week before the event.


At the end of next week, I will send out an email that will include attachments of some very important instructions and documents for your teams. Please make sure that this email address (robotroundup@gmail.com) is added to your address book if you haven't done so already so that my email doesn't end up in your spam folder!


As always, let me know if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you all in two weeks!

[jessjank.]

Originally Posted by TheMadCADer

Any news on where a webcast might be hosted? Some of us are going to be out of the country for TRR.

Additionally, there WILL be a webcast! Representatives from the DiscoBots, team 2587, will be providing the webcast. We will post a link here and to www.robotroundup.org once we have it available so that those of you who can't make it to TRR can still enjoy the event!

[jessjank.]

Part A of email I just sent out to teams:

Hi TRR Teams! PLEASE READ THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHED DOCUMENTS!

We're looking forward to seeing you all on Friday (optional Practice Day) and Saturday at Anderson High School in Austin! If you still need to get your event payment in, please get in touch with me so we can figure things out. Basic event information can be found at www.robotroundup.org.

Reminder: RSVP for the Friday night team social here: http://goo.gl/9AkYc

Attached you will find a number of helpful documents (pdf format). Review them before the event and share them with your team! Note: all documents are subject to minor changes. Updated, official versions will be provided at check-in.

LOAD IN: Basic map of where to enter Anderson High School to Load-in your robot and supplies, and check-in.

Event Map: Outlines all important rooms/locations at Anderson High School, including Check-In, Pits & Pit Admin, general Queuing Area, Playing Field, Meeting Room, Auditorium, Practice Field, TRR Trading Post, Concessions, Bathrooms, and Team Social.

Pit Map: Shows the pit layout. Use this to figure out where to load-in your robot and supplies.

Team List: Updated list of the 36 teams competing at TRR 2012. Includes team #, name, school/organization, and location.

Public Agenda: Updated agenda, now includes workshops/presentations/meetings times, topics and locations, Saturday Mentor Breakfast, and TRR Trading Post.

[jessjank.]

Part B of email I just sent out to teams:

PresentationsWorkshopsMeetings: Provides an overview of each of the presentations, workshops, and meetings at TRR, including times, locations, and presenters.

Queuing Notes: Outlines important information and considerations for teams with regard to methods, rules, important cart considerations, and more.

Local Area Map: Basic map (not to scale) of important locations (food, hardware stores, drug stores, etc) very close to the event.

iPhone Locations: PDFs of Austin that are georeferenced, meaning that they have spatial coordinates embedded in the actual pdf document. You can load these documents on a GPS enabled smart device and find where you are on the map. Document includes directions for iPhone or iPad, but similar applications exist for Android devices as well. Includes a variety of locations in Austin, such as restaurants, hardware stores, entertainment, emergency care, and more and lists their contact info and hours. We are adding more locations tomorrow - please email me if anyone wants an updated version.

Please see my last email for more information on the team social, registration fee payment, Xbox raffle , awards, TRR Trading Post, and special tournaments.

As always, let me know if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you all at the end of the week!

[jessjank.]

In case anyone misses Edward's thread, the TRR webcast will be available at:
www.roll24productions.com/watch

This link will also be posted to the TRR website:
www.robotroundup.org
Check out the website for additional resources and up to date information.

We're looking forward to seeing everyone soon! And for those of you who can't make it to TRR, definitely check out the webcast. A great big thank you to Edward and the DiscoBots for making the webcast happen!

[midway78224]

Jess,

Do have any idea on how many matches TRR plans to run for each team or is that still up in the air.

[Pjohn1959]

With the time allowed and 40 teams, I would think that each team could get in 8 matches pretty easily. We will be packing up tomorrow for that early trip Saturday morning.

[jessjank.]

Originally Posted by midway78224

Jess,

Do have any idea on how many matches TRR plans to run for each team or is that still up in the air.

By the estimates of our AndyMark crew, we should have at least 8, perhaps 9, matches per team!

[JaneYoung]

About to head up to Anderson High School!

Travel safe, everyone. See you later on today or early tomorrow!

Jane

[Brant Bowen]

For those of you following at home here are the TRR Alliances:
Teams are listed as Alliance Captain, 1st Pick, 2nd Pick and 3rd Pick (Backup Robot)

1 118 624 457 4332
2 1477 148 2833 4271
3 2789 1296 418 4335
4 2158 3679 57 4300
5 2587 3847 3735 653
6 647 3481 3997 3320
7 2583 1429 2936 2881
8 2468 3482 3103 3999

[Gregor]

Incredible finals match. Congratulations to the number 1 seed on their win.

[jessjank.]

For anyone who is interested, the 2012 TRR results and awards can be found at www.robotroundup.org/results

I owe a wealth of gratitude to so many people for helping make the 2nd annual Texas Robot Roundup a fantastic event. Thank you to (in alphabetical order):
- Alamo Regional Director: Patrick Felty
- AndyMark crew: Brandon Maris and Brant Bowen
- Event Manager: John Sperry
- My team (the hosts): the ausTIN CANs - 2158 members, mentors, and parents
- Planning Committee (a fabulous crew spanning across 6 central Texas teams!)
- Presenters, Panelists, and Workshop/Meeting hosts
- Sponsors & Contributors: Title Sponsor - National Instruments; Platinum Sponsor - Time Warner Cable-Connect a Million Minds; Gold Sponsor - Geekdom; and Silver Sponsor - Randolph Brooks Federal Credit Union
- Team members, mentors, and supporters of our 35 Texas teams in attendance
- Volunteers... all the referees, queuers, field crew, pit crew, check in crew, mentor awards judges, and more
- Webcast crew: Edward Morris, Paul Chaguine, and team 2587
And all other supporters who I might be neglecting due to being pretty exhausted. Thank you all so very much!

I hope everyone had a great time. I will be sending out feedback forms soon so that we can determine what we can do to continue to grow TRR into an even better event. I look forward seeing y'all again soon at some of the upcoming FIRST events in Texas this fall. Now off to go rest for a few days.

[rsisk]

Jess,
On the website you link above it says the 1477 alliance was the champs at TRR. Is that correct?