2015 IRI Invitation List

[seg9585]

Originally Posted by Cory

We're not busy. Unfortunately this game sucks and is not worth the added expense (and time off work, for mentors) to travel to Indiana for.

Wow, after all that work you guys put into re-vamping your robot for SVR and then Champs, suddenly the game is not worth playing!

Everyone's entitled to their opinion I guess, but that's definitely not an attitude I've encouraged students to have when participating in any engineering challenge, regardless of how interesting the project is. Definitely couldn't get away with saying that at an engineering job even if the project isn't the most interesting you've worked.

[Michael Corsetto]

Originally Posted by seg9585

Wow, after all that work you guys put into re-vamping your robot for SVR and then Champs, suddenly the game is not worth playing!

I can imagine the conversation went something like this:

254 Student 1: "Hey man, want to spend thousands of dollars to fly out to middle-of-nowhere Indiana, do the same thing on the field that we've been doing in the shop for 4 months, and then maybe loose in the end because some kid can throw a fun noodle further than 35 feet?"

254 Student 2: "Not really..."

254 Student 1: "Yeah, me either..."

[carpedav000]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

middle-of-nowhere Indiana

Whats so terrible about IN? Also, middle-of-nowhere Indiana has a name; Morgan County.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by carpedav000

Whats so terrible about IN? Also, middle-of-nowhere Indiana has a name; Morgan County.

If you hold an event in an area that also doubles as a travel destination of sorts you have more incentive to spend the time/money to attend an event. Indiana isn't a bad place to travel to and we all are entitled to our own opinions but it doesn't have the same appeal as attending a regional in Florida or Southern California for us Northerners who need some time in warm weather in the winter.

Even then it is a considerable cost and if you've had a long exhausting competition season some years you need a summer break even if you have one of the top robots of the year.

[Chris Fultz]

Status Update -

We have 54 teams that have accepted and no declines at this point.

Looks like a good, strong field!

[lovelj]

Chris, thanks to you and the rest of the team for pulling this together. I'm sure it's tiring and difficult but the efforts are greatly appreciated. 3824 really looks forward to the opportunity to learn from so many great organizations. We'll try to bring the printed Cobra if you have space.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

middle-of-nowhere Indiana

Being from Southern Calfirnia I'll take the "middle-of-nowhere Indiana" every time.

[Mike Marandola]

Originally Posted by seg9585

Wow, after all that work you guys put into re-vamping your robot for SVR and then Champs, suddenly the game is not worth playing!

Everyone's entitled to their opinion I guess, but that's definitely not an attitude I've encouraged students to have when participating in any engineering challenge, regardless of how interesting the project is. Definitely couldn't get away with saying that at an engineering job even if the project isn't the most interesting you've worked.

The thing is that it's an off season event which is 2000 miles away from them, that costs real money and time to attend.

[artK]

Originally Posted by seg9585

Wow, after all that work you guys put into re-vamping your robot for SVR and then Champs, suddenly the game is not worth playing!

254 knew they would be attending CVR, SVR, and Champs (qualified by winning champs last year and Hall of Fame) before the game was released. To back out of a regular season event because of the game would be silly.

Picking which offseasons to attend is like choosing which regionals/districts to attend. Some teams (359, 341, and 233 come to mind), choose to travel across the country for regionals. Why? Because they believe travelling would benefit their program and the students within it, despite the additional costs of travel. 254's decision to not apply to IRI demonstrates that they believe the costs outweigh the benefits (It's almost like the decision was made by a bunch of engineers). Should they attend other offseason events, it would because the cost benefit analysis comes out with positive results.

[MARS_James]

Originally Posted by artK

254 knew they would be attending CVR, SVR, and Champs (qualified by winning champs last year)

They are hall of fame they qualify every year

[seg9585]

Originally Posted by artK

254's decision to not apply to IRI demonstrates that they believe the costs outweigh the benefits (It's almost like the decision was made by a bunch of engineers). Should they attend other offseason events, it would because the cost benefit analysis comes out with positive results.

Yes, and what you describe is the cost benefit analysis we used when we decided not to go to Champs this year (we had a wild card spot). And deciding not to go for the reason of cost/time is perfectly reasonable, rather than saying "this game sucks so we're not going".

Obviously the cost-benefit analysis from prior years led to the decision to go, and Cory even followed up with the plan to attend next year in anticipation of a more positive cost-benefit analysis. With all else the same, that leaves the single variable here as "this game sucks" as the reason they are not attending. So be it, doesn't really matter. Just hope this doesn't translate to several years in a row of the same decision point because the game didn't meet the team's hopes and desires.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by artK

254 knew they would be attending CVR, SVR, and Champs (qualified by winning champs last year and Hall of Fame) before the game was released. To back out of a regular season event because of the game would be silly.

Picking which offseasons to attend is like choosing which regionals/districts to attend. Some teams (359, 341, and 233 come to mind), choose to travel across the country for regionals. Why? Because they believe travelling would benefit their program and the students within it, despite the additional costs of travel. 254's decision to not apply to IRI demonstrates that they believe the costs outweigh the benefits (It's almost like the decision was made by a bunch of engineers). Should they attend other offseason events, it would because the cost benefit analysis comes out with positive results.

Sponsorship is everything. Without it, there is no way we do what we do. The main reason we travel though is due to our location. With only one FRC Event, we feel it's not worth doing FRC if it's just going to be a one weekend thing after all the work put into it.
One could also say it's the building experience that's the most important part, which is absolutely true. But there are tons of other STEM experiences that are much less expensive.

Does anyone know when the deadline to accept is? We are still waiting to tag this trip with either the EP VEX Summit or Air Force Academy teacher training for some of us who want to go to IRI.
Airfares are killer this year too!