FIRST wants to hear feedback from everyone (over the age of 13) that attended the 2015 FIRST Championship. This is a reasonably lengthy survey (FIRST says it will take about 10-15 minutes), so make sure you have some time before starting it.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FRC2015FIRSTChampionshipSurvey
Done.
Did you receive this is an email? I have not received anything from FIRST regarding a survey on Champs but have been looking/expecting one.
Thanks for sharing.
I got one around 10 AM this morning.
I got an email about three hours ago. Presumably it went to all FRC mentors that have opted into emails from FIRST.
Same here.
Done
It was addressed to volunteers… not sure what that means
Done… It asked me to do it twice because I was a mentor AND I was a Volunteer… Im not sure why I couldnt have done both at once, but its done.
We had an observation we discussed in St. Louis that doesn’t fit well into the survey so I’ll post it here.
We rely on FIRST’s presentation to support our outreach to our community and our sponsors. We send them to FIRST’s website and webcast to learn more about us and to follow us at Regionals and Championships. Without that support we can’t spread the message of FIRST.
FIRST’s web presence for Championship seemed inadequate given that the primary goal of FIRST is to promote STEM in our culture. That promotion requires a presentation that reflects the priority of using the latest technology in the best way. And since FIRST wants to emulate other sports, it should look to how other sports are shown through the media.
To that end, we discussed the following suggestions:
Over the last two years, continual problems have cropped up in displaying ongoing competition results. This appears to be an infrastructure issue for which we don’t know the details. Regardless of their source, FIRST must provide enough resources to fix them before they happen. Updating standings at lunch and the end of the day is not an adequate solution. (We felt sorry for the teams that left Newton without knowing exactly where they stood in the rankings Friday night. It had to inhibit their discussions with other teams.)
Official webcasts too often have not been up to the professional standard that an organization promoting a world championship for 3,000 teams should be presenting. FIRST need only look to the PNW consortium led by Team 1318 to see how this can be done at a minimal cost. The webcasts out of Ontario are also excellent examples. Grainy Regional broadcasts with inadequate lighting and unreadable team numbers are really unacceptable. We need excellent webcasts to show that we really are on the leading edge of promote cultural change.
WiFi and/or cell coverage in the Edward Jones Dome (or any stadium) needs to reflect the technology emphasis of FIRST. AT&T users had slow connections in the stadium. (I use T-Mobile so had fewer problems.) And of course Wi-Fi is banned. FIRST should be looking at how other high-tech events such as South by Southwest and the Consumer Electronics Show address connectivity and high bandwidth demand. The FIRST Championships by its nature attracts a highly-connected crowd; the infrastructure should be sufficient to meet demand. And why not move the robots to 5.8 GHz WiFi to free up the use of WiFi for team functions? (We use Bluetooth and cell at a cost to get around this issue.)
As a community we should ask FIRST to address these issues before next year. We have a great product–let’s make sure that the public can really enjoy it along with us.
The robot-to-field Wi-Fi connection has always used the 5 GHz band.
Unfortunately, a bug (or at least an undesired feature) in the D-Link firmware showed up in the presence of sufficiently many 2.4 GHz access points, even if the bridge wasn’t actually trying to connect to any of them. It’s not exactly an interference issue, but it does disrupt the communication.
I am starting mine now. They should be prepared for an essay about the whole Einstein/awards/finale experience was for many teams, and the severe lack of communication about important items.
Is this bug endemic to all 5 GHz routers, or only to the D-Link brand used by FIRST?
They have already seen essays from more than one member of the Einstein crew.
Communicate Communicate Communciate
Of course they don’t include DC. We only have 13 teams and no congressional representation. :rolleyes: Guess I won’t fill out your silly survey.
But at least you don’t have to pay taxes, right? 
We pay more per capita in federal taxes than any state by a wide margin(~$32k, and more in gross federal taxes than 19 states. In exchange, we get Congress telling us how we can or can not spend our local tax dollars.
::rtm::