2012 MAR Rutgers University District

Competition Regional Competitions
1

Hey everyone!

MAR Rutgers is starting in less than two weeks, I figured, “hey, let’s get a discussion going.” I hope everyone is prepared and excited! How are you getting ready? How WILL you be getting ready? We have a lot of strong teams coming to Rutgers; I predict competition and matches will be extremely close and exciting. We shall see what happens when competition day arrives!

I hope everyone is pumped for Rutgers, I know 1676 is. Good luck to all teams! :slight_smile:

2

Hard to believe that it’s only 12 days away! I always loved the College Ave Gym, and was sad to see the competition leave in 2003.

I can’t wait!

3

So excited for it. Gonna be a Jersey blast.

And it’s awesome to know that George is gonna be announcing it. Chiniqua as MC too?

4

Yup, the dynamic duo is going to be there.

5

We are excited, but I was a bit confused by this: Are MAR teams (or just eams going to this specific district event) allowed an extra 6 hours for a total of 12 hours in which we are allowed to take the robot out of the bag, during the week before the competition? My coach told me he received some sort of email about this, saying some teams complained and they made it 12 hours, but I want to confirm. Is it 6 or 12?

6

Now I wish we were attending this MAR competition! I still recall taking some Engineering Physics final exams in there with about 400 other students, good times… Should be a great venue. Best of luck to everyone!

7

I wish everyone attending this regional the best of luck! I’ve been in robotics since I was 5 and I grew up in that college ave gym a few moons ago. It was an awesome time and I hope everyone has a blast. I wish I could be there!

8

I have not heard anything about this, perhaps there is some slight confusion.
You get 6 hours per event, but those 6 hours must be used in the 7 days preceding each event. So while you do get 12 hours total, they are separate time blocks.

9

Here’s the team list, as well as links to the robots revealed so far that I could find:

11
41
56 (another)
75
102
136
203
219
223224
303
555
613
752
869
1089
1143
1168
1228
1279
1302
1367
1370
1403
1626
1672
1676
1811
1881
1989
2016
2458
2554
2577
3142 (another)
3314
3340
3637
4128
4281
4347

See you all next weekend!

10

Here are two more that I found this morning before when I was creating this list for my team.

224
4281

11

I tried to tell my coach that, but he said he got some sort of (team update?) e-mail ‘that some teams complained about the length of build time during 2 day events’ and it was extended to 12 hours of Robot access time during the week of the competition. Has anyone else heard of this email? I dont want our team to get disqualified just for having an extra 6 hours on our robot bag and tag form.

12

While I haven’t heard one way or the other about the email your mentor is referencing, politely (and respectfully) ask him to print it out. If he can’t remember where he saw it or can’t find it again, I would STRONGLY suggest erring on the side of caution and NOT working on it for more than 6 hours. LIke you said, you would hate to be ruled ineligible because you worked on it for more than 6 hours.

Another route would be the FIRST Q&A forum and see if you can get an official response there.

Either way best of luck!

13

He showed me the e-mail, and it basically was reminding teams about everything in 5.7 , 5.71, and 5.72 in the Robot Transportation section of the manual. Have ANY other MAR (Mid Atlantic Robotics) teams heard of or can confirm that we get an additional 6 hours after using the already given 6 hours in the week prior to a single event? Which would be 12 hours of taking the robot out of the bag.
Will our rookie team get disqualified and not allowed to compete if it turns out those extra 6 hours of taking the robot out of the bag were not allowed? Would hate it if we were kicked out because of that.

14

Your best bet? Call FIRST on Monday morning and ask them directly. They would be able to definitively give you an answer. Up until then I would recommend not doing any more than your 6 hours. I can’t confirm that you’ll be DQ’ed, but I can guarantee that if you did more than your allotted hours, there WILL be ramifications that won’t be too pleasant.

15

*5.7.2 ‘Robot Access Period’ - Schedule

**Teams may unlock their robot for a total of 6 hours **during the 7-day period preceding any **two-day event **in which their team will be competing with their robot. The 6 hours may be broken up in any way the team wishes, with the exception that no single access period may be shorter than two hours. The robot must be locked up in between sessions and this must be documented on the Robot Lock-Up Form each time.
*

You only get 6 hours. Don’t open it for 12.

16

We just came back from Hatboro-Horsham.
You have the 6 hours to open the robot at your school or where ever you usually work in two hour blocks. After that, when you go to Rutgers (I believe Thursday afternoon for inspections and practice matches), you’ll be allowed to open it up once again and keep it open for the remainder of the competition.

17

A few tips from Hatboro-Horsham:

  • Get inspected as early as you can on Day 0 (Thursday). This makes the “compressed” district time schedule much less stressful the morning of Day 1. This weekend I do not believe they were letting teams go to scheduled practice matches Friday morning unless they were fully inspected. Thursday practice matches required the first “practice” to be a safety inspection and subsequent practices required full inspection. If for whatever reason you can’t get completely inspected Thursday, get as much of a partial inspection done to save yourself and the inspectors time Friday morning.
  • If at all possible arrive on Day 0 at or before the opening time. This gives you quite a bit of time with the robot unbagged for work, inspection, and practice. For Hatboro-Horsham the pits were open from 4PM to 10PM.
  • There will probably be a small practice field at the event. Utilize it early and often to calibrate, check functionality, etc. Hatboro-Horsham had a real bridge and a real barrier. There are significant differences in both of these that the low cost wood versions do not accurately represent. In general, the bridge is more difficult to tip and the barrier is at the proper height and the corners have a radius. We had difficulty with the wood barrier, but had absolutely no problems with the field barrier.
  • VERY IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE AN INSPECTOR IS PRESENT WHEN YOU UNBAG AFTER ARRIVAL!
  • Ask for help if you need it. Teams are super helpful and day 0 seemed to be slightly lower stress than day 1 at the older regional formats.
18

Minor correction: FRIDAY is load-in, pit setup and inspection at Rutgers, and Saturday & Sunday are competition days.

Show up on Thursday and you’ll be disappointed :ahh:

19

For anyone attending the Rutgers district:

Have an old iPod sitting around, collecting dust? Get a fancy new phone and don’t use your iPod anymore? Well put it to good use!

The non-profit organization Music and Memory needs donations of new or used iPods for the treatment of Alzheimer’s patients. They personalize each playlist to the individual, finding out about their history and family to develop a mix of music to connect to their past. The results are astounding; patients light up and come back to life.

Team 11, MORT, has partnered with Music and Memory to spread the success to even further. We will be collecting iPods at all of the competitions we’re attending, including Rutgers, and hope to teach Music and Memory what Gracious Professionalism is all about. Please see us in our pits if you wish to donate.

For more information please visit http://mort11.org/music and http://musicandmemory.org for more information, including videos showing this amazing transformation.

20

Can’t wait to see everyone at my lovely university Rutgers!

Katie Stevens