The 5th NYC FIRST! Regional in 2005

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Rich Wong

New York City Regional Public Agenda *Updated*
Friday, March 25, 2005
6:00PM-7:00PM ......Team Social

So, Rich.. there is a team social? Is is that dance/or performing troupe I heard about last year again?

Nice.. I heard they did a great job. (I think... wow I'm getting old and losing my memory )

A bunch of 237ers shoud be coming in on Friday morning since it is a holiday and seeing what we can do to help this event run very smoothly.
(Btw, any idea if holiday rates on Metro-North are different from regular peak or off peak rates?)

Should be fun.

[Rich Wong]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

So, Rich.. there is a team social? Is is that dance/or performing troupe I heard about last year again?

Nice.. I heard they did a great job. (I think... wow I'm getting old and losing my memory )

A bunch of 237ers shoud be coming in on Friday morning since it is a holiday and seeing what we can do to help this event run very smoothly.
(Btw, any idea if holiday rates on Metro-North are different from regular peak or off peak rates?)

Should be fun.

To be respectful of Good Friday, the social will be 45-minutes only. There are STEP teams throughout the day and in the evening. There will probably a Gospel singing group from Harlem too.
Elgin, hope you can visit!

Pit Bull 1126 is there yet another "one day robot"?
I'm still waiting for the UK team to called with a 911 or a 411 after they land in NYC to find out where or if there rate arrived.

[Rich Wong]

"GREETINGS NEW YORK CITY TEAMS!! THREE SHORT DAYS TO GO AND YOU ARE... ON!!!! THE 2005 NEW YORK CITY FIRST ROBOTICS COMPETITION IS ABOUT TO BEGIN !!!

HERE ARE SOME GREAT NEWS AND REMINDERS FOR ALL OF YOU!

We are happy to announce an Evening of Musical Celebration of Harlem featuring a Jazz performance by the Harlem School of the Arts Jazz-Latin Ensemble. Many thanks to Harlem Y team #1660 for making this possible -

Social Activity - Friday - 5:45 to 7 pm at the playing field.

Here are last minute reminders - please share with your team members:

1) Be sure to bring and wear your safety goggles.

2) Keep your Fedex bills handy. Fedex will not ship your crate without proper documentation.

3) Food vendors are limited at the Riverbank State Park venue. If you wish to order sandwiches for your team, team #1660 Harlem recommend their caterer, SSHJ Gourmet for delivery if you order by Thursday. Orders at: 212-662-1300 or cell 410-963-7117 - There is a McDonald's aproximately three blocks away.

4) Noise makers are OK, but no banging on the seating. Avoid horns or very loud noise makers

5) Bringing power strips and extra batteries is recommended

6) Bring tools with which to open your shipping crates

7) The three team members to be permitted in early to open shipping crates should all be ready to enter the pits at the same time as a group

8) Parking - Remember that parking is located at an underneath level and entrance to parking lot requires exiting the park and re-entrying through 137th Street. Buses may drop students at the venue door and proceed to the underneath parking lot. Park Rengers will provide a map and further directions. Once in the parking lot, you can walk upstairs or take a shuttle van back to the venue.

**********************************

Randy Schaeffer, Ana Martinez
Regional Directors
New York City / New Jersey FIRST!
New Jersey Institute of Technology
East Building, Room 361
University Heights
Newark, NJ 07102-1982

New Jersey Office: 973-596-3234/3572" eom

[mtaman02]

Rich what time will you guys be beginning field assembly if it has not yet been completed.


With as a little as 36 - 48 hrs left until practice day I am hoping everyone is getting all hyped up.


Team 759 I hope things get worked out otherwise I and many others will help put together a temporary robot so that you guys can play.

[Denman]

its going good

We are somewhere around 13th i think, and we won the imaging award. I was at the machine shop when the other awards were announced, as someone managedt o break the steel on steel welds.... ... We got inspected by john neun, but i'm not sure if it is the one JvN.... i havn't seen any pics etc, and i found 2 john neuns on here lol...


Anyway, see you all tomorrow!
Steve

[Rich Wong]

Yes you did.....Team 795 is the winner of the Imagery Award at NYC!

And:
Innovation in Control Award won by Team 694 Stuyvesant HS
Xerox Crativity Award won by Team 1257 Technical and Magnet HS
Drive Tommorrow's Technology Award won by Team 354 G. Westinghouse HS
KPC and B Award won by Team 1155 Bronx Science HS
Judge's Award won by YMCA & Rice HS & The Frederick Douglas Academy
Website Award Award won by Team 555 Montclair HS
Autodesk Visualization Award won by Team 1257 Technical and Magnet HS
Regional WFA won by Tom Ferguson of Team 694


http://www2.usfirst.org/2005comp/Events/NY/awards.html

BTW- that is JVN's dad! That is the real JVN (Sr.)

[TonzOFun]

So far the NYC Regional seems to be going really well. I didn't hear of many bots in massive need of repair (based off of the lack of supply calls put out) and everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun. There are a lot of good teams competing at the competition and many rookie teams are surpassing my expectations with designs I would never have thought of, such as 1689's huge scissor lift and a couple of other designs whose team numbers I'm forgetting.

[mtaman02]

yes the NYC Regional is going extremely well, little to no scoring problems as of late. ummm however one thing i frown upon is the amount of penalties being issued - but eh its only a game nothing to get all worked up about. JVNs father is here inspecting the robots =) got a pic which ill post saturday nite.

Good luck to all the Teams competing,


Rich we need some line dancing music and the volume to be raised a tad.

[Ianworld]

The regional so far has been a blast. 694 is right behind the brits in 13th or 14th(not sure where they finally landed.) They have .11 RP's on us. *shakes fist in mock anger*

The top teams i've seen(and i'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch since i'm too busy driving, building and fixing to watch much), 38, 522, 375, 1257, 395, and many more!

[TonzOFun]

Originally Posted by mtaman02

little to no scoring problems as of late. ummm however one thing i frown upon is the amount of penalties being issued - but eh its only a game nothing to get all worked up about.

The few scoring problems were worked out in the first four to five rounds.

The penalties, on the other hand, came by the truck loads. The massive quantities of penalties wasn't because of heavy-handed refs, but because teams were making simple mistakes.

1) Human Loading Zone
a)Robot not touching triangle.
b)Human player not in box.
c)Opposing robots hitting bots in the loading zones.
d)Teams using tetras that had hit the ground outside the field.

2) Uncapping by accident

The second penalty only happened once or twice, but the Human Loading Zone caused penalties for all but four rounds.

EDIT: I didn't think the music was too low. Normally the music is too loud for people's tastes. THe lower level actually made it easier for teams to communicate among themselves in the stands.

[mtaman02]

ok i understand that the music needs to be at a respectable volume but when u have to sit in front of the speaker to hear it its a totally different story. All i kept hearing was robots bashing and stuff falling but no real sounds coming from the speakers. I had asked the DJ about it and he said that he had his volume maxed out and that its up to the AV team to kick the volume up a notch. However during the last couple of dozen matches the music was finally noticeable. =( [EDIT - i'm watching the video of the matches now and i noticed the music to be at a fairly decent level but maybe its only because i was plugged in directly to the feed and not doing the recording free lancing]

Crowd control too and from the field was not a problem on my side because me and another team quer managed to get a method worked out. espicially during the final rounds of the regional.

pits was not that bad - as if it ever changed in the past 2 years. =)

[Denman]

was good

Well done to 694 for winning chairmans, and for being picked by the second alliance. We had a good match (4 rounds!!!!!!)
anyway
i'll post more when i get home
s

[Waynep]

On behalf of 395, we would like to thank Team 375 and Team 1230 for being our alliance partners and working so well together. We could not have done it without either of you. Special Congratulations to 1230 for qualifying for Nationals for the 1st Time and now going down to ATL with us!

38, 555, 1660. We're sorry about the problems you faced during elims. We could not be more honored to play an alliance in the finals that never stopped trying even when things looked grim. Your alliance fought hard, had all 3 robots been 100% I'm not sure the outcome would have been the same. Especially given 38's capping ability unchecked (one of the coolest tetra grippers, loading and delivery methods, my favorite design by far), 555's unique strategy and ability to rapidly deliver tetras under the goal, and 1660 for being one of the most impressive and effective rookie teams at the regional. So congratulations to you for being Regional Finalists

We'd also like to Congratulate Team 694 for their Chairman's and Woodie Flowers Award win.

There were a lot of gracious teams at NYC which we had the pleasure of working/assisting. As a mentor, seeing how excited, appreciative, and inspired all of the students were could not have made me happier. Working with other teams to try and help them run their best, and in turn seeing what they got out of it is more special than winning the Regional. I must have gotten a thousand hugs and smiles between the various members of Team 1230, the Lionics from the time we picked them to the end. Seeing how grateful we were affirmed that no matter how elims went we had made the right decision in our alliance selection. I know that some of you may view this as easy for me to say with our accomplishments, but I want to remind you all that winning on the field isn't everything. Battles are won everyday with the self-confidence you gain, repsect for your teammates as well as science and technology, knowledge and experience that you gain, working with mentors and other professionals, having fun etc. Please do not lose sight of this, continue to work hard to spread the message of FIRST in the community, get more students involved and other things will come. When you focus on being a gracious professional, you're winners and the winnings will come.

Winning at all costs especially at the expense of your opponents is not in the spirit of FIRST. All of the teams have worked hard to put a robot on the field and compete with it there is absolutely NO REASON to try and pound other robots into submission. There is no need for unnecessary roughness, ramming, pinning, stuffing robots into goals, tipping other robots, not to mention risking taking penalties for your alliance ro getting disqualified. Kamikazes were not cool in World War II, nor are they in FIRST. I have not nor ever will run an "Aggressive Defensive Strategy" with an alliance of mine and I hope you will consider making sure that your team doesn't either. FIRST is about bringing out the best in everyone involved, let the teams play at their best, and you play at your best against them and see how you actually measure up against one another. Earn the respect of other teams for being a gracious team that puts out a good robot that plays with a solid clean strategy.

I want to personally thank all the students, volunteers, and other team members that introduced themselves to me who now know me by name and I got to meet and work with over the weekend. Team 395 had a great time competing with every one of the teams competing in New York. We hope to see you at Nationals or next year back in the big apple.

Best,
Wayne

[Max Lobovsky]

Team 1257 definitley had a great time. After our somewhat disappointing showing at Annapolis, it was incredibly satisfying to get everything working and take 2nd seed. We were looking forward to a great bunch of elimination rounds with 694 and 1430, but several failures came together and we lost in the semi finals.

As an almost 100% student run team, and 100% student built robot, we were also very happy to receive the Xerox Creativity Award for our holonomic drivetrain and the animation award.

[Rich Wong]

2005 has been an amazing year for NYC. In a radius of less than 15 miles, there are almost 40 FIRST Teams and over 152 FLL teams.
As the teams mature, they are winning multiple regional. Team 395 won the Pittsburgh Regional and the NYC Regional. Team 375 won the NJ Regional and the NYC Regional.
It just get better and better every year.
10 NYC teams are registered for the Atlanta Championship.

Team # Team Name TeamLocation
1. 334 SIAC/Brooklyn Tech. Alumni Assoc. & Brooklyn Tech. H.S. Brooklyn, NY USA
2. 335 Science Skills Center Brooklyn, NY USA
3. 371 Con Edison/Discovery Institute- College of Staten Island & Curtis High School Staten Island, NY USA
4. 375 Discovery Institute at the College of Staten Island/Verizon Foundation & Staten Island Technical H.S. Staten Island, NY USA
5. 395 The McGraw-Hill Companies/Columbia University/The New York Yankees/The Port Authority of NY & NJ & Morris High School Bronx, NY USA
6. 522 New York Container Terminal/College of S.I. Discovery Institute/Richmond County Savings Foundation/Con Edison & McKee Voc Tech H.S. Staten Island, NY USA
7. 694 Con Edison/Yvette and Larry Gralla/Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association/Cox & Company/Stuyvesant High School Parents Association/The Wallace Foundation & Stuyvesant High School New York, NY USA
8. 1211 Automotive High School Brooklyn, NY USA
9. 1230 Herbert H. Lehman High School Bronx, NY USA
10. 1597 IBM/Verizon/NASA & Bronx Aerospace High School Bronx, NY USA


GOOD LUCK TO ALL THE NYC TEAMS!