2012 Pittsburgh Regional

[lscime]

I was realizing tonight that I have attended every single Pittsburgh Regional since 2004 , either as a spectator, a team member, or a volunteer. So let me just say that I am thrilled to be coming back this year as an inspector again.

So who else is excited for PITT this year?! With 45 teams attending it should be more fun than ever!

-Luke

[Travis Hoffman]

Pittsburgh should be a fun time - a great event for our team to kick off the season. Glad we get a chance to watch Week 1 webcasts first, though!

[themathgod]

279 is looking forward to our FIRST trip to Pittsburgh.

[Nate Laverdure]

Some pretty shocking news from Pittsburgh.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-...inic-shooting/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...82718N20120308

This is right across the street from the Peterson Event Center where the regional is being held.

My thoughts go out to all involved.

[Renee Becker-Blau]

Just heard about the shooting, and how the events center was on lockdown. I hope everyone is safe and doing alright out there.

Best,

Renee

[IndySam]

We were in lockdown from 2:00-6:00 today. Other than not being able to leave the building the only effect was allowing us to play an extra 1.5 hours of practice matches.

[TimSchley]

There was a story about Team 1675 from Milwaukee being there on local news.
http://www.wisn.com/video/30641530/detail.html

[Kevin Kolodziej]

Originally Posted by TimSchley

There was a story about Team 1675 from Milwaukee being there on local news.
http://www.wisn.com/video/30641530/detail.html

http://www.wisn.com/video/30656790/detail.html
http://fox6now.com/2012/03/11/traged...ents-attended/

There were news crews waiting for us when we arrived back in town last night as well, which turned into decent coverage of the team/trip and promotion for the upcoming WI Regional next week. Its a shame that it took a tragedy to get this kind of attention though.

All-in-all, Team 1675 thoroughly enjoyed our first trip to the Pittsburgh Regional. We were very impressed with the teams, the staff, the venue, and the city. Load-in could have been a huge mess with the steep hill and our gigantic bus, but careful planning and communication was evident the entire time and everything went off without a hitch. Our students had a ton of fun, even though the robot had more than a few hiccups during the weekend.

Thanks to 4027 and 1708 for being great alliance partners in the finals and not giving up on us when we broke down on the first match. Unfortunately we never did get it fixed, and you probably would have been better off with another team rather than us falling off the bridge in the second, but that's the way it goes I guess!

The only thing that I found frustrating about the regional was the way the elims inspections were handled. At most events I've been to, after you play your last qualifying match, you go to inspection to get weighed, with bumpers, and you're done. We did that and were turned away and told they weren't allowed to do that until after alliances have been picked. Then I was surprised to find the need to weigh the robot and bumpers separately again, as well as both sets of bumpers, and get sized, and then have an inspector waiting in our pit to check the electrical system again. When all was said and done, we never had a chance to take the three robots to the practice ramp to see if the triple balance was even possible, but more importantly, in our rush to appease the second inspection (bare terminals on the Victor connections, which are buried in our robot), we likely loosened something or jiggled something that led to our problems for the elims. I talked with one of the inspectors about the situation and I understand why the extra inspections were done, but the lack of preemptive inspections created far too many unnecessary headaches.

After the competition we had dinner at Primanti Brothers and said our goodbyes to the Steel City. Despite the long drive, I have a feeling you'll see Team 1675 there again sometime! Congrats to 48 Delphi ELITE for the coveted triple crown of FIRST (CA, Winner, WFA) and to the Girls fo Steel for the EI award - well deserved.

[lscime]

I was an inspector at PIT and I know how annoyingly long the final inspections were. It sounds like you had a chance to talk wih us but for anyone else who was wondering about the length... The electrical tape on the terminals requirement was in response to one team blowing up 4 jaguars on Friday afternoon due to short across the terminals. The other reason for the inspection back at the pits was to confimrm appendage length. We had at least one case of an over-length arm being added after initial inspection. This was caught during quals but we wanted to make sure that the finals were played as fairly and safely as possible. Next year we will try and get word of any changes to final inspection out to the teams sooner, and hopefully that will make for a smoother process.

Thank you to all of the teams at PIT for making it an amazing competition,
-Luke

[smcmahon]

Team 2656 played in our fifth Pittsburgh Regional this weekend past. Yet again the Regional delivered and we had an amazing time. Everything was running so smoothly, from load-in to match queuing, that it seemed the event was 10-15 minutes ahead of schedule the whole time! Thank you volunteers! Great job!

If I may, a few 'congratulations' are certainly in order:

Team 48- Triple crown indeed! Very nice job. As usual, your robot was amazing and we always appreciate the safety escorts.
Team 2614- We started FIRST the same year ya'll did back in 2008. You continue to be a role-model team for us and a shining example of where a 5th year team can, and should, be. We still have the green martian we won in your raffle back in 2009 in our workshop!
Team 375- Another impressive machine and team. We're still talking about your 2008 robot, and it looks like that strong tradition continues to carry on.

Team 3504- Volunteers, Website, Dean's List Finalist, Engineering Inspiration Award? You're certainly on a roll. Despite this being only your second season, you've already become a premiere organization here in the Steel City and continue to raise the bar. Best of luck to you in Cincinnati! I've got cousins in town, so I might just see you there...

Teams 2641, 1708, and 3504- Representing Pittsburgh in the elimination rounds! Keep battling in your second Regionals this season.

Team 4031- This rookie team was across the aisle from us and had a very strong Regional. Congratulations on the Rookie All-Star Award! Well deserved.

And finally, our right-hand team in the pits the past two seasons, Team 3567- The Aviators! 3567 is an amazing up and coming second year team and I'd pit next to them forever if I could. We learn a lot from each other and they're quickly becoming my favorite FRC team.

Great job everyone, and thanks to all the teams that traveled a long way to see our city and compete here. Already counting down the days until the 2013 Regional!

[stundt1]

Anyone have pictures of the robots?

[smcmahon]

Nothing is posted just yet, but I imagine there will be plenty of photos on this webpage in the near future: http://www.pittsburghfirst.org/category/gallery

[Travis Hoffman]

6 made in hybrid by 48, 2614, 375, 1 counted in teleop. Let's see what happens next - www.pittsburghfirst.org.

[Mark 3138]

On behalf of team 3138, Innovators Robotics, we would like to congratulate teams 48 Delphi Elite, 2614 MARS and 375 Robotic Plague for their regional win at the Pittsburg regional event. Team 48 never lost a single match and their machine shot around the 80% mark for the competition. Team 48 also won the coveted Chairman Award. Two nets and two blue banners at one competition.

Above their amazing accomplishments at the competition, Travis Hoffman, mentor of team 48, received the regional Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. This could not have gone to a more deserving person. Travis has been an instrumental part in the success of many FRC Teams. There are not enough words that can describe the positive impact that he has had in the FIRST community.

Congratulations!

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Mark 3138

On behalf of team 3138, Innovators Robotics, we would like to congratulate teams 48 Delphi Elite, 2614 MARS and 375 Robotic Plague for their regional win at the Pittsburg regional event. Team 48 never lost a single match and their machine shot around the 80% mark for the competition. Team 48 also won the coveted Chairman Award. Two nets and two blue banners at one competition.

Above their amazing accomplishments at the competition, Travis Hoffman, mentor of team 48, received the regional Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. This could not have gone to a more deserving person. Travis has been an instrumental part in the success of many FRC Teams. There are not enough words that can describe the positive impact that he has had in the FIRST community.

Congratulations!

Mark - thank you very much for all the kind words. Since its inception, the people of 3138 have been a joy to be around and a personal source of inspiration - a team that makes all southern Ohio grandmothers very proud. As I told you in person, giving your students four straight weeks with a practice bot and minds full of good ideas, it's going to be scary to see what you unleash upon the field in Cincy.

Quite simply, this past weekend was as overwhelming for our team as it was awesome. Many of us have yet to fully recover - I know I am still in zombie mode. This is unfortunate, because we have more driver practice and robot upgrades to pursue before Wisconsin.

Let me take this opportunity to share my Pittsburgh thoughts all in one post. I will refrain from thanking folks internal to 48 because I've been doing a lot of that elsewhere!

• Thank you to Patricia DePra and all the staff and volunteers at the Pittsburgh Regional event for running a very smooth and professional operation, especially during the unfortunate events going on nearby on Thursday.
• Thank you to all who congratulated me on the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award recognition. I'm just happy to have someone from Team 48 represented among the finalist ranks after 15 years!
• Thank you to the Championship WFA winners who somehow manage to orchestrate the WFFA awards judging for all these regional/district events while being spread out all over the map. Upon asking Andy Baker, I was told the specifics of their evaluation methods are kept secret from us because the world is not yet ready to comprehend that level of awesome.
• Thank you to all the judges who volunteer their time and energy to these events each season.
• Thank you and congratulations to our elimination alliance partners, 2614 and 375. Ohio, West Virginia, and New York invaded Western Pennsylvania and conqured it together! 2614 - your robot, pit, and team are the epitome of professional - you made our first choice very easy! 375 - what a steal at the last pick in the draft! Defense, passing, the ability to sink at least 1 ball in hybrid with regularity - you were essential to our alliance victory! And the six-ball hybrid mode was a thing of beauty to witness (as you can tell from my shouting) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24bx4J4tNq8.
• Congratulations to the Finalist alliance of 2641, 279, and our NEOFRA buddies, the Girard RoboCats of 379. Your efforts in Finals Match 1 gave us our toughest test of the elimination rounds. If anyone bothers to look at Ed Law's latest OPR stats, you will find Team 379 sitting at #29 on that list (2614 is also on the list at #23). RoboCat students and mentors have worked VERY hard to put together a quality design, which showed on the field and was recognized by an Engineering Excellence Award (sponsored by Delphi - shout out to my employer, yo) on Friday. 379's robots seem to get better and better every year - I'm very proud of you guys! Good luck at Buckeye - we'll see you again in at Queen City!
• Congratulations to our NEOFRA robot collaboration partner team, Team 3193 Austintown Fitch Falco Tech, for successfully finalizing their bot during a frantic Thursday, working through some early bugs Friday, and making the semifinals Saturday. Their performance placed all three NEOFRA teams in Pittsburgh into the final four of the competition. Our not quite twin robots were based on a design shared between 48 and 3193, but the robot builds were almost completely independent enterprises. Having grown the size of their team's student population significantly and established a very solid parent booster group, 3193 has taken numerous positive steps in 2012 toward reaching fully independent sustainability.
• Congratulations to all award winners, but especially to Dean's List finalists Jaden Barney (3504) and Chase Douglass (128), Seegrid Scholarship winner Angelina Conti (291), and to Team 3504 on their Engineering Inspiration Award.
• Thank you to Nick Lawrence of 1503 - for being yourself.
• Thanks also to all of 1503 for coming down from Canada and visiting us - having some Canadian flair and competitive spirit at U.S. events is always a fun time. Besides, I still think your national anthem sounds cooler than ours, and your students pulled off their performances each day brilliantly!