2009 Microsoft Seattle Regional

[KevinRo]

We have some great news about the Microsoft Seattle Regional (March 26th - March 28th, 2009). After touring the facility with the production company ShowReady and tweaking the layout, we will be able to accept additional teams. I don't have the exact numbers yet, but start making plans to attend our event in KeyArena.

Come to Seattle, home of the worlds finest Airplanes, Software, Online shopping, and of course Coffee.

It will be a great event.

Kevin

FRC Regional Committee Chair

[leftylink]

Which is worse... posting a duplicate thread, or reviving a five-month-old dead thread? In my mind, this was the lesser of the two evils.

Let's see some excitement for this regional, eh?! The West Coast needs some love too!

Quick facts:
- There are 64 total teams signed up for Seattle, a vast expansion from last year; this makes Seattle one of the larger regionals.
- 40 of those teams are attending Seattle as their only regional. The other 24 have been to one other regional (21 of those are Portland, plus one each from Florida, SVR, and BAE). No team is attending three regionals.
- Location, location, location: 2 teams coming down from Canada, 1 from California, 7 from Oregon, 3 from Idaho, 1 from Montana, 47 from Washington... and the interesting ones: 1 each from Florida, New Hampshire, and Turkey!!!
- Of those 64 teams, 28 are rookies. 23 of these rookies are from Washington. The others are the three Idaho teams, 2898 coming up to play again after Portland, and the team from Turkey.

Should be an interesting field; twill be interesting to see how all the rookies do. 1318 and 1983 are coming back from our win in Portland, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is a different style of play this time around compared to Portland. 360, 488, 948, 955, 1510, 1778, 2046, 2147, 2471, 2850, 2865 are all teams that made it to elims in Portland. Faraway guests 945 (NH) and 1280 (CA) also made it to eliminations in their own home regionals. 1280 was particularly impressive; it took the Cheesy Poofs to stop them from winning the regional. I'll be watching that team, definitely.

Any more thoughts?

[Rick TYler]

The most amazing statistic is that there ARE 47 Washington teams. If I remember correctly, in 2006 there were only 12 FRC teams in the whole state. I don't know if youth robotics is expanding faster than this anywhere in the country.

I'll be sitting at the scorekeeper's table for three days. If you're on the field make sure you wave!

[dtengineering]

And credit to the FIRSTWA folks for finding a way to cram everyone in. I think we're going to have to do a last minute redesign of our pit area to simplify construction so that we aren't clogging up the narrow passageways any more than necessary on Thursday morning and Saturday afternoon. (edit: EVENING, Saturday EVENING... I hope we're not packing up on Saturday afternoon!)

We spent a couple days over spring break working on our software and should be ready to hit the ground running. We found that our traction control algorithms running on our testbed robot result in approximately twice the pushing force of what we would achieve with wheel spin... and, for what it's worth... we can track the vision targets in our shop. I understand doing it on the field is a slightly more challenging task due to the lighting.

It's going to be hard keeping up with some of the teams who've already got some Portland experience under their belt, let alone the many brilliant rookie teams that I am sure will be making impressive debuts this weekend, but we're looking forward to the chance.

See you Thursday,

Jason

P.S. Reviving the old thread is much better... especially when it is short, sweet, and relevant. It reminds others of the importance of "search before you post".

[billyea]

Feelin good about this regional, I hope that's the correct emotion.

As this is my first year doing something that may or may not cause the robot to blow up during tele-op *cough* I'll have to be hands-on in the Pit Area, a place where I had only taken photos and gotten in people's way before. I probably still will, considering the sheet number of teams there.

I'll have to deliver programming updates like new tires are delivered to race-cars. VEX has given me some idea as to what kind of fortitude is necessary to spot, adapt to and fix problems when there's only 15 minutes before the next match.

Also, my dad would like to see a live webcast.

[Nawaid Ladak]

Hopefully the live archiving isn't too far behind, I'm hoping to watch my team from home (945, Orlando FL).

It's a fairly young regional but like someone said earlier 1318, 1280, and 1983 are the favorites here, I wouldn't count out 488 either. They always have a good robot every year.

Good luck to all the teams attending this event

P.S. If there is something other than the live archiving.... ie a webcast, please let me know

(if the regional is being broadcasted on public access television or something like that, please contact me so i can tell you how to stream it online )

[leftylink]

As for video... I know that for Portland, 360 set up a website with video, but it was delayed a few matches. They're coming to Seattle too, so perhaps this will be available for those who want to watch?

Edit: It amazes me to look at two of the statistics I posted, both having to do with halves... just over half (13/25, because 948 was replaced) of the robots in eliminations in Portland will play again in Seattle... and just under half of the Washington teams (23/47) are rookies. The OSPI money caused a veritable explosion of robotics in Washington. I hope these teams continue to do great things (even though I don't think the money made it back into the budget this year )

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by leftylink

The OSPI money caused a veritable explosion of robotics in Washington. I hope these teams continue to do great things (even though I don't think the money made it back into the budget this year )

Combined with Boeing's shaky finances, I think funding FRC teams is going to be hard next year in Washington. That's OK, though, since some teams will stay in FRC and others will convert to FTC or VRC. All students can still have a access to STEM competition programs as long as they and their mentors remember the key slogan of creative planning: semper gumby, pseudoLatin for "always remain flexible." Our 40-student VRC/FTC program has been a blast this year, and it's one we can run for $150 per year per student if we had to trim expenses. FRC can be an amazing experience, but it's not the only path to the goal.

[Fe_Will]

We have a few upgrades planned for Thursday... I just hope that we get in some practice matches.

That said, I would like to remind everyone attending (especially rookies) that SWAT will be in force. If you need help just ask.

[Dave McLaughlin]

The Skunks are excited and will be out in full force come Thursday. We have tweaked our drive code, implemented target verification and developed an upgrade for our shooter to increase our accuracy. Our scouting plan has been updated and we will be posting our data for everyone’s benefit during the event. Be prepared for Friday, not only will the Skunkworks be cheering, but we will be backed up by 400 Aviation High School students!!!

WHO IS READY FOR SEATTLE!?

[Bob Steele]

The Skunks would like to welcome everyone to the regional!!
Please let us know if there is some way we can help you out.
We will have extra bumper making materials if you need them for any last minute changes. We also have access to other materials if you need them.
Just ask... we like to help.

In regard to funding, Boeing has pledged 4 million over the next several years in order to help both FRC and I believe FTC progams. I would imagine that more information will be forthcoming on their program Boeing seems to understand how these programs can begin to help turn the country around and produce a new group of "the makers of things" as President Obama has so eloquently put it.

We will be bringing our school again on Friday... and our new sister Highline Robotics team 2942 "ER" from Evergreen High School will be bring their entire freshman and sophomore classes also. So we should have over 600 Highline school district students at the event on Friday!!


Skunkworks is anxious to Play Robots again!!

We look forward to making new friends. Good luck to everyone.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Dave McLaughlin

The Skunks are excited and will be out in full force come Thursday. We have tweaked our drive code, implemented target verification and developed an upgrade for our shooter to increase our accuracy. Our scouting plan has been updated and we will be posting our data for everyone’s benefit during the event. Be prepared for Friday, not only will the Skunkworks be cheering, but we will be backed up by 400 Aviation High School students!!!

WHO IS READY FOR SEATTLE!?

Our scouts have been nagging me to ask y'all if you'd be willing to share a dump of your finalized scouting data from Oregon. We're curious to see how our data stacks up to yours. Any chance that can happen?

[Stephi Rae]

I'm quite disappointed to not be able to see the skunks in action in Seattle this year! I was so happy that it worked out for me to come back and watch you guys in Oregon. I know the 400 AHS students and 200 EHS students will cheer you on for me. (That is going to be quite the cheering section!!) Congrats again on the win in Oregon, and also to 1318 and 2635. Good luck, and I'll see you in Atlanta!!

A big thanks, again, to team 360, who I believe will have their website up and running again for this competition. I will DEFINITELY be watching, and I expect frequent phone updates from some of you skunks about how things are going!

Best of luck to everyone attending the Seattle Regional this weekend!

[Dave McLaughlin]

Originally Posted by Madison

Our scouts have been nagging me to ask y'all if you'd be willing to share a dump of your finalized scouting data from Oregon. We're curious to see how our data stacks up to yours. Any chance that can happen?

Madison, I will talk to our head scout and try and get an email to you asap.

[Caio]

Like Will said, SWAT will be in Seattle at full force. Any rookies that need help with anything from technical to non-technical questions, feel free to ask. We'll be located right next the pit admin table, so we're easy to find.

We'll be making an announcement during the driver meeting on Thursday as well as hopefully during the opening ceremonies on Friday. Any teams that want to offer out help, come visit our table and write your name down, team number, and area of expertise. We'll be sure to contact you the people signed up if we need the help.

Seniors! If you want to be part of SWAT next year, in either Washington or Oregon, we'll have a sign up list. We love to see people staying involved and providing help to all the rookies and needing teams during build and competition season.

Can't wait to see all you guys there!

~Caio