IRI Thanks and Congrats 2008

[Josh Hambright]

I'd like to take a moment and thank all the people involved with the 2008 Indiana Robotics Invitational. Its hard to believe that yet another IRI has come and gone and I'm already looking forward to the next one.

A special thanks to Andy and Chris and everyone else on team 45 and 234 who were involved in the planning and execution of the event. Thanks to Team 1024 for providing such a wonderful location for the event.

Thanks to all the countless volunteers who put in many hours of work leading upto and at the event making sure everything went so well.

Thanks to all the teams who participated and made the event what it is. The level of competition and gracious professionalism at IRI has never waivered in all these years and its the reason we all continue to come back for more.

A very special thanks to those mentors and students who I got to meet for the first time this weekend, and to all of you whom I already call my friends it was great to see you again.

[AndyB]

Andy and Chris, you put on a great show and of course, I would also like to thank the countless other volunteers who did a great job as well. The event ran very smoothly and everyone on 171 had a great time.

Thank you to our alliance partners, 93, 27, and 292. We made a good run.

Congratulations to the scholarship recipients as well as to 67, 330, and 987.

[CarterM]

Great event! Thanks everyone!

[Triple B]

awesome event as always.
congrats to the champs and all the teams that attended.
it just keeps getting better and better.
mike d

[zachjo]

it was my first time at IRI and for sure not my last time

Thanks everyone.

Thank you to our alliance partners, 27, 93, and 292. We made a good run and had some interesting matches.

[Billfred]

IRI was awesome.

Thanks to (in no particular order) the teams, the volunteers, the people who bombarded Copioli's bucket with money, the people who avoided Aidan Browne's bucket like the plague, DSATKB for letting our mob on stage for the rickrolling (even if we have lousy timing, ahem), half of the midwest for directional assistance, and my roommate Tim for keeping the car from going too off-course on the way.

I can't wait for next year!

[Katie_UPS]

An-dy Bake-er *clap* *clap* *clapclapclap*

[Renee Becker-Blau]

Thank you teams:

16, 27, 33, 45, 68, 93, 107, 111, 141, 171, 217, 233, 234, 292, 330, 503, 148, 832, 910, 968, 980, 1018, 1024, 1038, 1094, 1501, 1731, 1741, 1902, 2194, & 2377

for the interviews. You were all very inspiring and the they turned out very well.

Thank you Killer Bees, Engineers of Tomorrow, Winnovation, Exploding Bacon, Cyber Cards, Thunder Chickens, and Wildstang for the T-shirts.

I can't wait for next year!... has anyone made that time machine yet????

Renee

[Lions for First]

im CADing it as i speak next build season here i come

[Taylor]

Thank you to 1741 for letting us borrow a spare RC .

Thanks to the ThunderChickens and UPS for the shirts.

Thanks to all who promised to attend/volunteer for the CAGE Match in October.

[FoleyEngineer]

First of all, thanks so much to Andy and Chris for inviting us. You and your aweseome team ran this event as well as any regional we've been to. We were saying on the way home that you could easily host a 60 team regional and it would be fantastic (and wouldn't need to cost us all $4000 either!).

Thanks to our partners, 2171, 33 and 70 for everything. We were a really tough alliance that were 4 points from taking out the champs in that third rubber match! I don't think any other team took them to three did they? If so, we only missed by 4 points though... wow, what a blast!

To 67, 330, 987, 68 - you guys deserved it all. We've been partners with you this year and last, and knew that you'd put up an awesome fight. 330 - I loved your comment that you only strap down your battery when you're playing against 910! You broke three of our fans with those awesome arms of yours but it didn't affect anything and was a riot going bumper-to-bumper with you, trying to stop your awesome drivers and bot from racking up the points. We felt like, "if we couldn't win, at least our friends did!"

Finally, to the judges, thanks for the "COOLEST" award the Foley Freeze has ever received! Wow! My secretary asked me this morning if it came with a remote! And as far as, "The team the judges would most like to take home with them"... well, "When's dinner!!"

Thanks again for the most fun event of the year!

Team 910 - The Foley Freeze

[Sean Schuff]

Thanks again for another phenomonal IRI event!! There are just too many people to thank but suffice it to say, those involved in planning and pulling off IRI are the best around!

If IRI truly is where the egos come to play, then they do it with a generous helping of gracious professionalism and a whole lot of fun!!

Thanks to Extreme Engineering, RUSH, and PantherTech for giving it a good run! It's always satisfying to play with great teams who have a lot of heart.

See you all next year!

[Herodotus]

I'd like to thank 2171, 33, and 70 for an awesome alliance. We couldn't have asked for better partners, and we all worked together very well. It was great to finally get the chance to play alongside the Bees instead of against them in the eliminations. We seem to have a habit of standing opposite of each other instead of next to each other.

I'd also like to thank and congratulate 67, 330, 987, and 68. When I saw that Truck Town was the backup bot in that alliance I knew we were in trouble. It was both fun and extremely tough trying to play defense on such a powerhouse alliance. You all deserved the win, and I couldn't think of a better alliance to lose to.

Thank you to the Judges for the Judge's Award. From when I first saw the trophies I fell in love with them, so it is awesome to have one in the team's collection. It really topped off an awesome event.

Thank you to all of the host teams, the volunteers, the judges, and the awesome refs for one of the most fun and most intense competitions I've ever had the pleasure of attending. Thank you to all the other teams in attendance as this was one of the first times I had the chance to go around and talk to some people about their robots and I was extremely impressed by the methods and ideas put into action.Thank you to everyone who performed at the talent show, and to DSK for providing even more entertainment. (now I'm just waiting for a DSK album, specifically a Dr. Seuss album) Finally, thank you to everyone at IRI for the awesome weekend, and an awesome final competition as driver and student.