Ohio Region control system training

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by jmann

Hello Ohio region.

I am Jeffrey, your First 2009 control system training representative for the Ohio region.

Welcome to Chief Delphi, Jeff! I heard you were attending the NI seminar and was hoping you'd reach out to Ohio teams shortly after.

I spent this weekend in Austin an the NI training seminar. This new control system changes everything. Wait until you see it, especially the camera processing tools! As soon as I can find a venue, early ship kit, and set up a few demos, we'll have our first day of training. This will likely be at CWRU or Cleveland state, but I'll keep you informed (if you subscribe to the mailing list).

I see you list no team affiliation; however, by your email address, you are affiliated with Case Western Reserve University (my alma mater, not that it matters ). Case sponsors FRC Team 2399. Professor Wyatt Newman was their lead advisor last year. If you have yet to do so, you may wish to check in with him and see if they would work out as your most local control system source. I'd also see about contacting Team 1270, affiliated with Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C). Check out the contact info for George Bilokonsky, one of their lead advisors.

I am going to discuss this with our regional director tomorrow and see if she has a preference for other locations etc. Also, I need some help from the teams close to me so that I can get demos set up etc., for our training.

Have you inquired whether NASA Glenn has any willing people and/or resources to devote to any Cleveland-area demos? I expect Carol Galica could help out there.

The six FRC teams in the Youngstown/Warren area (48, 276, 379, 2010, 2835, and 2901) are pursuing joint control system education as members of our Northeast Ohio FIRST Robotics Alliance (NEOFRA) organization. These joint efforts will continue into the build season.

Team 48 would be happy to provide you access to our control system for local demonstrations here in Warren, if needed. We could also probably take the system to Cleveland for a demo if you can't find a more local team to provide their system.

Depending on the date and advance notice, 48 and Harding High School would be willing to host a demo for anyone wishing to attend - we were waiting to gain some semblance of competency with the kit we just received before opening our doors to teams outside of the NEOFRA six, though. If someone already knowledgeable wanted to come in and help run the thing, though, we'd be happy to hold a session earlier. Let me know.

At least 3 of the local NEOFRA teams have already received their control systems, and we'll have either 5 or 6 total delivered very soon.

1) I can be reached via email at jmann-FIRST@case.edu. Even if you know my other email addresses, use only this address for FIRST email.

2) teams in my region: please subscribe to the ohio controller training mailing list. Send an email to lists@case.edu with the subject, "subscribe frc-ohio-control". I will be will keep you informed of our region's training events using this list.

Will do. I'll pass the word on to the other NEOFRA team leaders.

4) help me get this information to all the other teams in ohio.

Perhaps Carol Galica (NASA/Buckeye Regional) or Nichole Goldsmith (FRC Regional Director for Ohio/Western PA) would have a master contact list for all Ohio teams? This might also be a useful site to help you track down Ohio teams.

It might also be helpful to recruit Ohio teams from each region of the state to serve as regional communications coordinators - identify 1-2 teams in each region who expect to gain the earliest understanding of the control system and can help spread that knowledge to all the other teams within their regions. Cleveland isn't exactly centrally-located within the state, and it will be difficult for many teams to travel there for demos.

Here are some possibillities off the top of my head. My apologies to any Ohio teams who wish to help out but aren't listed below - by all means, speak up!

Youngstown/Warren - 48
Cleveland - 1270, 1001, 1787, 2399
Toledo - 279, 451
Columbus - 1008, 128, 677, 2387
Cincinnati/Dayton - 1038 (search for CD User Jimmy Nichols)

By establishing some kind of statewide control system coordination effort, this would help pave the way for the development of an IndianaFIRST-style organization for Ohio one day.

5) I'll maintain our training seminar schedule and notes on this web site

If you wanted, I could easily grant you access to NEOFRA's http://controlsystem.neofra.com Google Site. I could create a page for you, and you could post and maintain your information there. Many people are already familiar with the site link.