Kickoff 2011

[rsisk]

Just thought I would be a thread started for Saturday's event.

Here is the line up of speakers from:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/hom...es-FIRST®-Kick

	  	
FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) will be joined by public figures to launch the 20th season of the FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC®) with a worldwide Kickoff event originating from Manchester, N.H.
-- The 2011 season will include an estimated 2,200 teams (over 45,000 high-school students) participating in 57 Regional and District events. All teams will be shown the 2011 robotics game field and challenge for the first time and will receive an exciting, new Kit of Parts made up of motors, batteries, a control system, and a mix of automation components – but no instructions. Teams will have six weeks to design and build robots to meet this year’s engineering challenge.
 
Dignitaries and public figures from across the nation will deliver remarks, including:
-- Hon. John Lynch, Governor of New Hampshire;
-- Walt P. Havenstein, Chairman, FIRST Board of Directors & CEO of SAIC;
-- Neal Bascomb, Author, “The New Cool;”
-- Amir Abo-Shaeer, Teacher and MacArthur Foundation Fellow (and subject of book on FIRST);
-- Robin Saitz, Senior Vice President Solutions Marketing and Communications, PTC;
-- Dr. Woodie Flowers, Chairman, FIRST Executive Advisory Board & Pappalardo Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering, MIT;
-- Bill Miller, Director, FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC);
-- Dave Lavery, Program Executive, NASA;
-- Jon Dudas, FIRST President;
-- Dean Kamen, President, DEKA Research and Development Corp., and Founder, FIRST; and
-- Special Guests

[Nate Smith]

Hmmm...."special guests"....any thoughts on what surprises they're trying to hide behind this one?

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by Nate Smith

Hmmm...."special guests"....any thoughts on what surprises they're trying to hide behind this one?

Joseph Boardman, president of Amtrak

I'm looking forward to hearing Amir and Neal. I especially want to find out if Neal sounds like Billy Mays, since he always starts his posts the same way...

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

Joseph Boardman, president of Amtrak

(Insert train themed hint comment here)

Looks like a cool line-up. I have to say I'm more excited for this Kick-off than I may have ever been.

[BrendanB]

Snoop Dog for his kickoff rap.

[BMW987]

I'm happy to see that Amir (mentor of FRC team 1717) is on that list. He is a great mentor for a highly respected team.

[Tetraman]

Is there a place where we all want to gather, some big chatroom? I know using this thread is one way of doing it, but anyone have plans for a chatroom to use?

[waialua359]

+1 for Amir.
Awesome!

[Chris is me]

I'm going to be sitting at home so if there's a chatroom I want in.

[davidthefat]

Some one set up an IRC... Does the guest speakers have any relation with the game?

[Cuog]

There's always been a firstchat irc, see my sig for the details, we'd be glad to have you.

[Tetraman]

Little more than two hours left.

Almost time.

[Bryan Herbst]

Anyone else having trouble getting the NASA webcast? The quicktime plugin shows a 404. Broken in both firefox and chrome.

Edit: Just using the backup. That works fine.

[Chris is me]

No luck for me on Real, but Windows Media is streaming the Public channel just fine for me.

[Graham Donaldson]

Anybody getting "this week at NASA" on the stream? I thought it started at 10...

EDIT: Never mind... Decided I should actually read the webpage. 25 minutes left...