Memorable Moments

[Libby K]

By far my most memorable moment in my 17-year history as a FIRSTer happened this year. But let me start with a story I was told before my moment even happened.

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A few years ago, a group of students found themselves in an elevator with Dean Kamen and his parents (my grandparents). At the first stop, Dean got off, but the students, as well as Evelyn and Jack, stayed on.

Student: Oh my god, was that Dean Kamen? (turning to my grandparents)
Evelyn Kamen: Yes it was.
Student: You have NO idea, without him, I wouldn't be here!!
Jack Kamen: No, YOU have no idea...without us, HE wouldn't be here.
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Jack Kamen was a great influence on the man all us FIRSTers consider an inspiration. (I mean, come on, he raised the guy!) Unfortunately, he passed away this past August. It was a great loss to our family and to the FIRST community as a whole. This year at the Championship, FIRST and Dean made the decision to present the Imagery Award in his honor.

As Jack's granddaughter, I was asked to make the award presentation. In front of 25,000 + people. It was an honor and a privelege, and has become my favorite FIRST memory. I know he was looking down on us proudly.

[Adam Freeman]

Originally Posted by EdwardP

Looking from the side of the field up into the stands durring the selection process and seeing someone from Wildstang holding up a white board saying "971"

That was actually a HOT Team member, after the decision was made between Wildstang and HOT alliance selection teams.

The give and take between HOT and Wildstang was incredible. We both had opinions on robots and teams, and the ability to combine those thoughts and lists was a very memorable moment. Quite possibly the defining moment of the Championships for 111, 67, and 971.

[Josh Drake]

When team 118 members came over to our pits to ask questions about our swerve drive. The masters of the swerve were asking us questions? We found out why later on, sort of checking out the bot before thinking about the pick. Thanks again.

[BPetry234]

I guess my favorite robot memory was the last match before elims. A robot (sorry, forget the number) came screaming down the field and hit us at full speed. We almost got flipped over backwards.

This would freak out most people but when my friend called me from the pits and told me that nothing happened to the robot it was an awesome feeling. In all of our matches we only had one part break and that was a sensor bracket that got destroyed when we hit 1501 (Sorry for the dent. It hurts to see such a beautiful robot get even the smallest of scratches.) in a full speed head to head collision.

This is a huge difference from last year. It's great to see our team continually improving. I hope that trend continues.

*Plus it made a great essay topic for a pre-AP English test...*

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by BPetry234

*Plus it made a great essay topic for a pre-AP English test...*

'screaming down the field...' creates a terrific visual. I hope you used that.

[Mish Mooney]

Originally Posted by Imadapocalypse

my favorite moment would have to be our second match in curie when another robot latched onto our for the whole match. we had control of them the whole time since all six of their wheels were off the regolith.

I think I remember watching that and laughing the entire time...

[s_forbes]

Originally Posted by Cynette

How did Steve Answer him?

I think I night have been there when that happened! At one point when I was waiting for 1511's giant orbit ball to be signed by Woodie, I saw him take a cell phone from someone and start talking!

I told him I had a midterm and a Space Grant presentation to give that weekend... so there was no way I could make it. At least I had engineering stuff as an excuse, so I didn't feel so ashamed. I have to admit that I thought my dad was playing a joke on me at first, since talking to Dr. Flowers on the phone isn't something I do very often! This qualifies as my most memorable moment this year.

[keehun]

Mine would be in the 10,000 Lakes Alliance Selections.

Last year, we did so-so as rookies and this year, record wise, we've done a little worse but we were a much "better" team than last year, having a little more resources to respond to Pit Admin calls for needy parts and ability to show as a team and scout.

Anyways, 21 teams were already on the screen for alliance selections. Our hopes were down because the remaining alliances were 3rd, 2nd, and 1st seed. We were like "If we didn't make it earlier, too late now" but when Team 93, the oldest team along with Team 3007, a VERY VERY professional rookie team called us up to join them, it was exhilarating.

[Chris is me]

Plenty.

In Minnesota, when 2826 was the first ranked seed and we got picked 1st overall, it was one of the happiest moments in robotics for me. We'd pushed our team to the top, and got to pair up with a really cool team. We were cheering with and for them all regional and it just seemed natural that we got to compete together.

At the same regional, we decided to all do each other's cheers as they read off our team names in the eliminations. For Wave, we linked hands and passed a "wave" through them. For More, we waved shop rags that we gave to the drive teams in the air. Then for Blitz Team we did this weird hand thing. It was a great way to get excited for each match.

Winning the semifinals in one of the closest, most intense matches I've ever seen got us all pumped up and ready for the finals. Then two matches later we squeaked out a win, and I can barely remember what happened next, it was dizzifying. I'm truly proud of my teammates and our alliance partners for those matches, the highlight of the season.

Then Atlanta came around and I had one goal: to do better. There were two matches that scared me when I read them, our last match (loss by 4 points), and versus 1625. Now 1625's kind of been the 800-pound gorilla for us; we wanted to give them a hell of a fight. The alliances were really evenly stacked; 1625 was checked by 2970, and the other two robots did about as much scoring as we and 842 had. We spent hours planning out how to run the match, trying to figure out what they would do and how to best counteract it. We figured they'd burn a partner on pinning 2970 and 842 would pin Winnovation, so it'd be our robot versus the opponents. Figuring with all the pins our human player would make more shots than us, we opted not to preload and went all-out. If everything went to plan, I honestly wouldn't have cared if we won or lost, it would have been a match to be proud of. Unfortunately, one of Winnovation's partners didn't move, leading our HP and 2970 to make repeated dumps. Quickly switching up our strategy, we double-teamed Winnovation and held them to one dump... and the final score was 96-70 us.

[Aren_Hill]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Then Atlanta came around and I had one goal: to do better. There were two matches that scared me when I read them, our last match (loss by 4 points), and versus 1625. Now 1625's kind of been the 800-pound gorilla for us; we wanted to give them a hell of a fight. The alliances were really evenly stacked; 1625 was checked by 2970, and the other two robots did about as much scoring as we and 842 had. We spent hours planning out how to run the match, trying to figure out what they would do and how to best counteract it. We figured they'd burn a partner on pinning 2970 and 842 would pin Winnovation, so it'd be our robot versus the opponents. Figuring with all the pins our human player would make more shots than us, we opted not to preload and went all-out. If everything went to plan, I honestly wouldn't have cared if we won or lost, it would have been a match to be proud of. Unfortunately, one of Winnovation's partners didn't move, leading our HP and 2970 to make repeated dumps. Quickly switching up our strategy, we double-teamed Winnovation and held them to one dump... and the final score was 96-70 us.

Okay, 2 dumps for us and then WE turned to hassle 2970, and it was 96-72, with a dead bot on our alliance...that bot was also supposed to be our defense on 2970, so instead of being hassled they had a free trailer to score on.

I wouldn't exactly be trying to brag about beating an alliance with a dead robot, just saying


MY most memorable moment of this year probably has to be coming out of the toughest REGIONAL (not msc) Midwest with a win AND the chairmans award.
Also not being a student on the team anymore meant i was no longer responsible as a driver and team captain and i was free to meander as i pleased, this meant meeting some more people i've known from CD and getting to know people better.

[Chris is me]

Yeah, I didn't mean to brag about that. It was memorable for us but far from fair. I really honestly do wish you guys had that third robot on so it would be a fair match (and almost certainly a loss for our side). Rematch at IRI?

[Rich Olivera]

There were memorable moments at all the events I attended, including Atlanta, but this year but something in particular at the Midwest regional.

During our lunch break before our quarter final against 71, 1114, and 1000, our alliance (2041,1732, 1652) met to come up with a strategy. We devised a plan that involved us running empty cells the whole match. Our plan was so elaborate we even discussed a system of checking in and out of certain regions of the field so that we would not get in each others way. As for our part in the plan, it turns out we were really bad running empty cells. That kinda happens when you wait to try something for the first time in the elimination rounds. Needless to say, we lost our first match of the quarterfinals. It was at this time Jeff from 1114 says to me "That was some great defense you were running." It turns out we were so bad at carrying out our offensive objective, it was perceived as good defensive play. I then turn to the drive team from 1732 and we had a quick discussion that went something like this:

1732: "well, that didn't work"
Me: "Yeah it seems team 1000 focused more on defense than on running empty cells"
1732: "How about this, we will pin 1114. We think you and 1652 together might outscore 71"

And with that, the next two matches were ours. It was cool to see such exhilaration in every member of that alliance. But its not just the moment of triumph that sticks out, its that whole string of events. The frantic effort to prepare for the huge burden ahead, the unintended blow to the ego, and the effort to rework things as we go along all stick out in my mind. To me, it was a microcosm of the whole FIRST experience within the span of an hour or two.



On a side note, I was shocked how many members of 71 and 1114 came up to congratulate us shortly after the upset. Those teams are pure class all the way.

[FRC4ME]

My memorable moments:

-Winning Delphi Driving Tomorrow's Technology at DC. We knew we had a unique component (the "moveable feast", which shifted the 40 lb electronics board left and right to during turns for easier turning and dynamic traction redistribution) that had a chance of winning, so we very excitedly explained our design to the judges. They actually spoke to our head mentor and said they were impressed with how clearly we were able to describe the design to them. During awards on Friday, when the announcer had said enough for us to identify ourselves (after a very anxious build-up) as the winners, one of our mentors actually squealed (yes, squealed) so loudly, the MC momentarily stopped talking. Then, everyone in the stands turned and stared at us as the MC said, "hold on!". It was really embarrassing yet totally awesome at the same time.

-Going out on the field as a coach at Atlanta. My team ensures every member gets to go out on the field at least once during their years on the team. Since this is my senior year I got to be a coach. Walking out onto the Dome floor was really a breathtaking experience. The match was even better. The other two coaches on our alliance were running back and forth across the player station, coordinating our strategy. Kudos to them, and I apologize for my relative inexperience! We didn't win the match, but it was still an amazing experience.

-Watching our traction control system work as intended during our last qualifying match at Atlanta. I didn't think our open-loop traction control that we had used at regionals was good enough, so I proposed a new system consisting of two new encoders, four new PID loops, and 300 lines of new code, all to be written, wired, and tested at Atlanta. Our programming mentor didn't think we could possibly get such a system working in that amount of time, so he let me attempt the project on my own as pretty much a learning exercise. Fortunately, our mechanical mentor was more optimistic and agreed to build and mount the necessary follower wheels.

At Atlanta, I spent every spare minute debugging the new code and tuning the PID loops (very difficult considering how the practice fields were being run). Then, on Saturday, with just one match remaining and no time for a test on the practice field, everything was finally wired, coded, and ready to go. It was very difficult for me to convince our programming mentor to let me try to system on the field - I had to put in an override switch to go back to the old system and make the drivers swear to push it the moment they noticed something wrong - but he eventually agreed. The system worked flawlessly, we won the match, and the drivers came back talking about the much-improved driveability of the robot. That gave me a really good feeling of personal accomplishment. Although it was too late to really make a difference - we weren't picked for the elims and we probably would have won our last match anyway - watching the "impossible" system work on the field was a memorable experience.

-Watching the waves go through the Mezzanine level during Einstein. That was one of the funnest things I've ever seen. When the slow-mo wave came through, we thought it was great, but watching the super-fast wave response made me laugh out loud. We have one mentor who is very laid-back and difficult to get excited (i.e. he rolls his eyes at the Spirit Award), but when that fast wave rolled its way across the level, he was laughing and cheering louder than all of us. That made my day. Then, they started landing paper airplanes on the field...it was great.

-Winning Delphi Driving Tomorrow's Technology at Atlanta. Even after winning at DC, I couldn't let myself be optimistic enough to believe we actually had a chance at this. I mean, these are 360+ teams including all regional winners; surely one of them had a design more innovative than ours! This time, the announcer said a key word that made it immediately obvious that we had won. I looked at our head mentor - both our mouths hanging open - and said, "we won?!" I didn't see us on the screen or hear the rest of the speech, I was in such disbelief. Remember that excited mentor I told you about at the beginning of this post? Thankfully, when the announcer gave us our "clue", we had three team members restraining her, one with his hand over her mouth, smiling all the way, until it was time to cheer. I think those sitting around us still noticed, however. I can't think of a better way to end what has been a wonderful competition season.

[Raumiester2010]

Only a couple

lets see...
being picked by the Thunder Chickens
making it to finals in our division,
winning our division,
getting to go down on the field (even though im a 3rd year student and a 2nd year veteran of the pit crew),
being on Einstein (a first for our 13 year team),
going down for our metals and having Woodie sign my jumpsuit(right under Dean's Signature )

and soo many more...

[samir13k]

Originally Posted by BPetry234

This would freak out most people but when my friend called me from the pits and told me that nothing happened to the robot it was an awesome feeling. In all of our matches we only had one part break and that was a sensor bracket that got destroyed when we hit 1501 (Sorry for the dent. It hurts to see such a beautiful robot get even the smallest of scratches.) in a full speed head to head collision.

lol. Its alright, we wrote "234 was here" on the dent. You guys earned a spot on our bot without even sponsering us lol. It'll only last until the sharpie wears off though lol