Lessons Learned - The Positive

[kapolavery]

I think the HP fitted the theme of the game though and what FIRST is about: real life applications, humans interacting with robots to get a task done, etc.

In a way, this years game was understandable too, as our Lt. Governor put it during his speech at the Hawaii regional "the human element" made it more friendly.
Its understandable though why the HP was disliked, since it had a tremendous effect on the outcome of the game.
But it sort of allowed rookie teams to have an advantage and fighting chance against teams that have been doing this for the past decade. I thought it was interesting to see rookie teams beating vet teams since they had a good HP and at times a good Defensive bot. In this way rookie teams didnt have to contend with making something theyve never done before, especially if they didnt have the sponsors/mentors/engineers/motiviation/inspiration/funds/facilities etc.

I liked how there were multiple ways to tackle the challenge, and all of them would work depending on the circumstances.

[Mr MOE]

* Even though there were growing pains, the conversion to the CRIO went better than many expected

* Having match schedules for the second (or third?) year in a row on Thursdays is terrific for scouting teams. I give credit to all volunteers who were frantically stapling match schedules at 7:00pm on Thursday at the Championship

* It was obvious that, for most of the finals and awards on Einstein, that FIRST was trying to move things along at a brisk pace. I know that might mean that some of the "bling" is gone, but I would rather have the event done on time.

* The game allowed for significant strategy and analysis.

* The Wrap Party was one of the best I had seen since the Championship was help in Atlanta (could have used more plates, though).

* Good options for those viewing / following along back home.

[Koko Ed]

This year I volunteered at seven events. I am so amazed by the skill, dedication and unbreakable will that the people who so willingly give their time to FIRST to see these events run so smoothly.
They are some of the most amazing people I have ever met and I cannot think of anyone else I would rather work with then the pople who I worked with at these events.

I was truly in awe of the display of truest values of what FIRST is about at the DC regional by the teams there. The teams worked so hard to see that the event and the other teams were at their best at the event. Even when I have my doubts about FIRST I can recall the actions of the many teams who went out of there way for their fellow teams at this event and I can truly say how wonderful FIRST truly is. It's one of the best memories I will ever have of FIRST.

I was very impressed with the FiM pilot program from my initial glance (I'll admit I am not deeply involved with the program so I did not see the district events so I cannot form an opinion on them. But the format intrigues me and I truly hope FIRST adopts it for the rest of FIRST. I think it'll save alot of teams that are struggling to survive.

I am not a technical person (though many of you still insist on trying to explain your robot components to me and never notice the "nobody's home" look on my face. I must not be doing it right) but I had alot of experience witnessing the new control system at work having to que teams up. I think FIRST has hit a home run with this one.

[martin417]

1) The new control system. It worked flawlessly for us, is very powerful, and the support from FIRST and NI was phenomenal.

2)The low friction floor and wheels. At first I thought it was a terrible idea, but after two regionals and the championships, I have to say that it added excitement and challenge to the game.

3) The volunteers. I watched people standing and working HARD for three solid days with very little time to catch their breath, expecting nothing in return. Thank you all for all you do.

4) The obvious hard work and effort put in by most teams. It was reflected in a crop of excellent robots this year.

[lynca]

1) District Model - Not ready for prime-time everywhere. However, the FIRST experience cost per student could significantly decline !

2) New Technology - Introducing a new controller helps students & mentors learn about different technology. Keep adding new sensors, protocols and interfaces !

3) Out of the Box Game - Keep changing the game floors, keep changing the game objects, but try to keep the game more entertaining for spectators !

4) FIRST Community - Connecting FIRST alumni is off to a slow start but the idea is good. We need to email the http://firstcommunity.usfirst.org/ support to make the process easier for people to register. I can register on facebook or myspace much faster than firstcommunity

[JaneYoung]

I'd like to give a shout out to all of the beta test teams that participated in helping with the control system earlier this season. The commitment to learning about and sharing the information with others as well as working with other teams is an example of community growth and development in FIRST.

The initiative wasn't perfect and received some criticism but I do feel that it showed the FRC community what we are capable of as a program and an organization. We are a community of mutual interests and goals that include and celebrate innovation and change. The beta test teams took this to heart.

[Jessica Boucher]

Once again I have only wonderful things to say about all my Galileo volunteers. As I told them, its tough when you get the list to visualize how its going to go all weekend, but once again they became a well-oiled machine and cranked out solid 6 minute turnarounds all weekend long.

I love them all and would love to work with any of them again! Thank you!

[JackN]

Here are some positives I can think of from this season:

1) The district system allows teams to play more matches for less money. It lets teams learn more and inspire their students more. Sure there are 1-2 bugs to work out, but i love to see how they will build on it for next year.

2) The new control system allowed teams do more impressive and interesting things. Over the next few years some of the things we will see being developed will blow everyone away.

3) Maybe it was the leveled playing field for this game, but some of the rookie teams this year were extremely impressive. Teams that stood out to me include, 2771, 2970, 2753, 2834, 3115 and 3091. I feel like all of these teams could grow into big members in FIRST.

4) I enjoy seeing games where there is little ref interaction. No offense to refs, but they can swing the outcome of a match to much over ticky-tack calls (However I would never want to be in their position, because then I would have to deal with people like me).

[Blue_Mist]

This year's game was pretty exciting and allowed plenty of strategy discussion and variation. I loved the small opportunities to score, the fast-progressing game and the way that it got me to scream my lungs out yelling "Get out of there!" and "Dump, Dump, DUMP!!!!" even though I knew our drivers hadn't a chance of hearing me.

We built our most effective and most polished robot to date this year, with 8th graders and freshmen just as involved as our seniors. The early release of the new control system was a great idea, to teach our new members as well as allow teams to familiarize themselves and others with such a different system.

The organization of the qualifying matches went quite smoothly and quickly, considering how many teams were there to play. It seems that every volunteer on Curie knew what they were doing and were smart. There seemed to be no complaints on the competition field!

I like the different color curtains for each division in the Pits, and the Pit layout. I much prefer the team number order rather than trying to place rookies and veteran teams together. There's merit in the idea, but as a scout/strategist, finding people is much simpler when the Pits are in numerical order. And groups of veteran team members tend to roam around checking to see if people need help anyway. Such is the incredibly good sportsmanship of FIRST.

The Pit announcements were much clearer than I expected them to be. I think this may have been mentioned before.

And... I got to see such legendary teams as Thunderchickens, Killer Bees, RUSH, Bomb Squad, Rocketeers, Holy Cows, Robowranglers, TechnoKats, Chief Delphi, Delphi ELITE, X-bots, MOE, the Pink Team, HOT, N.E.R.D.S., Wildstang, Children of the Swamp, X-Cats, Miss Daisy, Team Hammond, KRUNCH, Exploding Bacon and the Adambots! I even made some friends among these awesome people... I'm pretty sure I've missed some along the way. I saw The Fro and met Billfred (he probably thinks I'm nuts) and heard some truly inspiring team/robot stories. I would have loved to see everyone else, but I badly sprained my ankle right before Atlanta (my luck amazes me sometimes) and was confined to either limping badly or hauling myself about in a borrowed wheelchair. My arms were tired.

All in all, the Championships experience was phenomenal, especially to a senior who (idiotically) did not attend her freshman year and whose team didn't go 2007 and 2008. Everyone there was remarkably kind, polite and helpful, and things ran pretty smoothly in Curie after Thursday. "Like a regional, but four times bigger!" And fun!

Wow, long post.

[FRC4ME]

1. The DC regional. This was by far the most well-run regional I've seen - and this is its first year! Everything was perfect, from the spacious pits and full-sized practice field to the knowledgeable volunteers and various VIP speakers. I thought scheduling a rookie regional for week one in the first year using the new control system was a terrible idea, but the teams and volunteers somehow pulled it off and ran a wonderful event.

2. The new control system. Yeah, it had some issues - espeically the drive stations - but things went much better than I expected. As the lead programmer on my team, it was so nice to not worry about memory management, interrupt routines, and floating point math.

3. The uniqueness of the game. I love how FIRST surprised us all by forcing us to design new drivetrains - something many teams haven't done since their second or even rookie years. My team had gotten to the point that "coding" the drive system was a one-day operation. This year, however, we spent the majority of our six weeks working on drive and traction control.

Traction control also gave us programmers a new challenge. In previous years, we spent most of our time working on field positioning - gyros, encoders, and geometry - for autonomous mode scoring. This year, we spent most of our time working on physical modeling - friciton, traction, and inertia - for teleop mode scoring. The shift from math to science provided for a very fun and challenging build season.

I hope next year they can do something unique with the surface yet again. Or maybe give us a few more years on the regolith, so we can tune our moon drive system just as we did our Earth drive systems.