QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! [07-01-01]

[Ken Leung]

Hi all, the Team forums are coming soon in August, so an early discussion seems appropriate¡K A chance to sort out your ideas and listen to what others have to say about the specific issue you have in mind, or any matters you never would¡¦ve though of. So, with that in mind here is the question of the week¡K

Question 7/1/01: What helpful suggestion can you give to FIRST for next year's competition? Anything regarding the rules, kit of parts, playing field, regional competitions, National competition, different awards, etc.

Let's see how this will work out here in the new forums...

Have fun,
-Ken Leung

P.S. I am open to suggestions of any questions you want as the "QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!!"... So e-mail me at ken_leung@hotmail.com and show me what you got...

[Joe Ross]

My suggestion is to make sure that more than one robot can accomplish whatever the highest scoring task is.

In '99 multiple robots could fit on the puck, so there was no fighting who would try to get on (only fighting to get on )

In '00 multiple robots had room to hang.

in '01, with only a few exceptions, only 1 robot could balance.

This lead to much harder alliance negotiations. The situation would have been different if there were 2 bridges, or if each big ball was worth 2x, because then teams would be less likely to have to fight over balancing.

I don't care if the matches are 4vs0 or 2vs2 or even something like 3vs2, as long as there is room for multiple teams to do the higest scoring task(s)

[Bill Gold]

I missed the defensive aspect of the game this year. I'd push for the return of defense, and that would add another award to each competition.

[David Kelly]

I'd like to go along with what Joe Ross said. I liked in '99 how more than 1 team could get on/ grab the puck and drag it around. I'd also like FIRST to allow HS students go to the kickoff. It was a blast when I went last year, but I didn't find out until reciently that I wasn't supposed to be there. Oops I don't know how hard they are trying, but I'd like to see FIRST strike some kind of TV deal in the near future.

I hope I didn't give too many suggestions

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally posted by David Kelly

I hope I didn't give too many suggestions

Nope, I dont think so....

And Ken, you were worried that noone would reply

[Pamela]

Sending students to kickoff would be really nice.... this game is for the students, isn't it? I get to go anyway as a volunteer so I shouldn't talk.... but I would like to see FIRST implement a program to get colleges more involved with FIRST. A team made up of high schoolers getting taught, college kids, learning to teach, and engineers mentoring all would make this program more multi-layered and add more of a purpose for the colleges involved with teams. I agree that their should be more opportunities in the game for teams to show off their skills, arguing before matches about who's robot does what better is just not the way things should be done, it leaves people angry when something happens and a task doesn't get done. hmmm... i think thats it, for now....

[Andy Baker]

Make the game easier to understand.

It doesn't have to be simple... but it needs to be easy to understand.

There are many other points that I want to discuss, but this is the most important one, in my opinion.

Andy B.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Hi,
We have discussed the addition to the rules the use of anything contained in a catalog for use on the robot. Since we already use Small Parts for mechanical stuff, let's use DigiKey for electrical stuff. They have a wide variety of interconnect, display, and even Basic Stamp. It would allow electrical engineers to demonstrate modern components to students and give alternatives to control panel designs. Speaking of which, allowing a seperate power supply for control panel for display purposes would be a nice addition as well.
(Yes! I am on the electrical team!)
Al

[Jessica Boucher]

...unlike the rather frivolous post I already made.

What I would really like (other than my normal "we need more females in strong roles" RCU-speech) to see is more colleges involved, so I am agreeing with Pamela.

Not only do more colleges need to be involved and we need to find a way to keep these FIRST alum around even though they may not be able to start a team right away.

Plus, we need more than just engineering schools involved. This is not saying anything against the engineering schools, because the majority of people really smitten with FIRST will more than likely go on to an engineering/technical type of career. But there are so many other roles on FIRST teams, and I know you all know that, but I think its time they were represented within FIRST as well. Business schools, art/animation schools, accounting majors, medical-related programs, travel agency (ok, so thats a stretch, but its early for me this morning).

I went to my interview with Babson all prepared to explain FIRST to the point and from a business (fundraising, teamwork, and presentation) aspect. The woman interviewing me surprised me, though...this was actually her 5th week on the job at Babson and before that she was working in the WPI admissions office, with a Dean of Admissions that was completely enamored with their team and told everyone in the office about it. She seemed shocked that I could spit right back to her their team number, the school they work with, and people I knew on the team.

In a perfect world, we shouldnt have to explain FIRST to any college. But I think if we opened our definition of what colleges you can go to by being in FIRST you'd attract more people and more colleges.

[Ken Leung]

Without getting too deep into the issues, here's a list of things I thought worth changing for next year's competition...

An entrance for the 18" fence around the playing field.

A more descriptive Index in the rule book.

Allow animation awards at regional competition

Remove the torque motor from the kit

Modify the rules regarding Small Parts, such as not allowing re-use small parts from the year before...

More informative display on the big screens at National, usually they are just a broadcast of the playing field without a timer

Have the pictures of robots available when award presentation, awards such as the creativity award or similar ones regarding a certain design of the robot.

Any comments or other suggestions?

[Pamela]

FIRST needs to find a way to make the animation team feel more included, I know from what I've heard from various teams and in my own opinion they are overlooked and underappreciated for the amount of work they put into their animation!

[Carolyn Duncan]

Ken I like the idea of an entrance to the playing field especially if the robot sizes keep growing! But my suggestion would be not to limit us to using only the small parts catalog. If the same item can be bought at a hardware store or another catalog there would be less chance of selling out of something or having delays. It would also allow teams to get parts cheaper and immediately, if from a local store, to keep pepole in the work mode. Buying parts at competitions would be limited, but that's like going to a restaraunt, you drink the type of soda/cola/pop/beverage they serve.
C~ya,
Carolyn

[Matt Leese]

First off, I believe I heard something about there being an entrance to the playing field this year and no one knew about it. Or something like that. This issue was brought up last year.

Anyway, as to what I think should change.

Bring back the unlimited sprockets, gears, pulleys, chain, and belting.

Move the media platform in front of Einstein because it makes it impossible for spectators to see.

Allow college students (those between ages 18-21) into kickoff and treat them as adult leaders because that's what they're doing.

Find a light where the shield stays on more readily.

Make the Chairman's Award and Animation Competition more integral to the competition.

Allow more awards to be given out at nationals (per division awards maybe?).

And that's all I can think of at the moment.

Matt

[Tom Fairchild]

Out of all these different posts, I agree with most, by far, Andy Baker. Trying to explain this game to all the different people I've been required to do as such has been a tremendous chore, one much larger than it should be. I've done more demonstrations than I can remember, and all of them ask two questions: "What does your robot do?" and "How do you play the game?" If these people have an hour to spend learning, then I teach them the game. But unfortunately, most of the time I have to give highly over-simplified answers that make our robot sound MUCH more simplistic than it really is. Just my two cents, ihmo.

~Tom~

[Jessica Boucher]

....Im in the same boat as Tom in relation to "Ive done more promos than I can remember".

One of 237's hallmarks is going to do promos for elementary school students. I have come to the conclusion that general speeches about the robot towards little kids as well as full grown adults can have the same outline, just different wording.

In 1999, we brought the puck and the floppies to most promos, and the games rough ideas would be outlined.

In 2000, we brought yellow & black balls as well as the center section of our balsa wood scale version of the field (to explain the troughs & the bar).

This year, I explained what FIRST was, how it is different from Battlebots, then another person described what the robot was made out of and what it did, and then described what you learn by being a part of a FIRST team. We only described the balls/goals, the "end zone", and the bridge.