[FTC]: FTC Technology Forum at 2016 FIRST Championship

[BSV]

Posted this on the FTC forum, but maybe more people are reading CD at this time of year:
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We were looking at the Championship Conferences schedule, and saw this presentation that is probably of interest to everyone here. In conflicts with Dean's List-related stuff and NCWIT stuff, so I don't know if my team or I will make it, but there are some questions we'd like to ask.

Hopefully they will address the issue of when they will take a more open model and allow multiple approved vendors to provide things like motor controllers (like FRC). Competition will drive down the price for teams and create better products. Here is the info on the session, from http://www.firstchampionship.org/welcome#block-block-53

FIRST® Tech Challenge Technology Forum
Thursday, April 28, 1:30-3:30pm and
Friday, April 29, 1:30-3:30pm
Union Station - New York room

This session will provide participants with an opportunity to talk with the FIRST® Tech Challenge technology volunteers and vendors about hardware, electronics, and software used for the FIRST® Tech Challenge competition. Participants will have the opportunity to provide feedback, ask questions, and talk directly with the engineers and developers who provide the technology used for competition.

• Bob Atkinson, Bioengineering Graduate Student, University of Washington
• Andy Baker, President and Owner, AndyMark
• Steve Barker, Co-Founder, Modern Robotics
• Danny Blau, Design Engineer, AndyMark
• Jonathan Berling, Software Engineer, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
• Thomas Eng, FIRST® Tech Challenge Engineer, FIRST®
• Tim Lankford, Robotics Application Specialist, Pitsco Education
• David Levy, Technology Director, American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Liz Looney, Senior Software Engineer, Google
• Craig MacFarlane, Technical Leader, Cisco Systems
• Phil Malone, Founding Director, GEARS, Inc.
• Justin Mathews, Electronics Engineer, Modern Robotics
• Colton Mehlhoff, Engineer, Modern Robotics
• Molly Nicholas, Engineer, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
• Mark Stults, Director of Operations, AndyMark
• Paul Uttley, Engineer and R&D Manager, Pitsco

Meet and Greet the Vendors

• Pitsco (Tetrix)
• AndyMark
• Modern Robotics

Meet and Greet the Developers

• QualComm Technologies, Inc.
• FTC SDK development volunteers
• MIT App Inventor development volunteer