Championship's Atlanta 2006 - The Negative

Competition Championship Event
#60

Hmmmm…a thread about the “negatives” of the 2006 championship.

In the corporate world, we call them “opportunities” or “areas for improvement”.

I agree with all the comments I have read here and there are ALWAYS new opportunities. It’s vital that and issue you bring up also have a proposed solution…don’t simply gripe.

Kim O’Toole’s good summary surprised me in one respect about the judges and our “pit height” since I’m the one who led the student team in designing and building a pit to show-off all our accomplishments. It was exactly 10’ square and 9’ tall except for a small sign above that…So, yes, the rule book needs to be continually improved (but it’s thick-enough as it is) to use words like “shall” or “must”.

*** Our pit was INTENTIONALLY that tall since a 60" robot sitting on top of a 30" OSHA-safe-height work cart required that much clearance under the top of the pit…Think about it FIRST…

Overall, FIRST needs to start to look at the world championship in the SAME WAY that las vegas looks at a major trade show! There are som many events now going on each year at the April championship. Better up-front calendar of events onthe web site will be critical including a “build-your-own-agenda” section.

I also agree that more “visual” signage and video displays are better than voice announcements. The in-house food rule needs to be relaxed in the pits and each team’s safety officer needs to take-on the responsibility for cleaning-up spills, etc.

I’d like to see some better student-created ideas for a “mosh pit” for dancing etc that doesn’t clog-up the aisles and doesn’t create traffic jams for the on-floor robot traffic. I can’t come up with any good ones for the Georgia Dome.

The traffic flow in the pit (GWCC hall C) is always tricky, and overhead signage should be more “in-your-face” about safety glasses, especially by lego league visitors etc. Or…maybe a “no-work-time-out” set of periods each day for visitors?

Maybe all robot carts should be required to have flashing lights while in motion to warn pedestrians? We need to all think and observe what goes on in a Home Depot store when they’re using the forklift trucks and copy those good safety practices.

#61

Were these the conferense sesisons that you are speaking about? I wasn’t aware that any had changed.

  1. Pit announcements… we couldnt really hear them. I was thinking maybe they could have a board or monitor in each divisions pits to place the announcements that were just made so teams can recheck.
    Not only were they unintelligible and WAY too loud, the Vex Pit Admin was admonished for using our microphone to make an announcement to our teams- apparently we were not allowed to do so unless it was an emergency! :mad:
  1. Food in the pits… I get the no food in the pits, but they do at least need to allow water bottles. Our students and mentors were constantly dehydtrated because of course the robot & team come before getting food or water. We finally stashed a bunch in the back of the pit but felt like hoodlems for “breaking” the rule.
    http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/Manual/7-At_the_Events_Rev_C.pdf Section 7.16 Team checklist includes water cooler/cups and water bottles. You could bring them to any event.
#62

My big two:

  • Better escalator management. When all the teams were leaving the pits at 8pm thursday, on all the sets of three escalators, two were going down and one was going up. This created a huge bottleneck on the one up escalator while no one was using the two down ones.
  • Better handling of pit closing. I understand that the volunteers have to be forceful to get teams out of the pit, but seeing some of the volunteers actually screaming at teams just reeked of ungracious amateurism. I even saw one volunteer Friday yell “get the hell out” to a team. I’m sure this was just coming from a small minority of the volunteers (a vast majority of whom were great), but this should be address at the volunteer briefings.
#63

I won’t defend volunteers who scream at teams, but I can certainly understand the screamer’s frustration. The days get very long for volunteers in the pits. One particularly under-appreciated job is managing time-slots on the practice fields.

Overstaying your practice time or continuing to work on your robot when the pits have officially closed are both (IMO) akin to working on your robot after ship date outside of a fix-it window, making parts in your hotel room, or entering the pits early. The only motivation for doing these things is to gain an unfair competitive advantage over other teams that don’t – so all are forms of cheating.

#64

My team went to several of the conferences on thursday, and all seemed to run well once we got the flow of things (you should have seen our giant 11x17 matrix we had to use to determine who was supposed to be where when!), but on Friday coming out of the pits to the stands I was greeted by a bunch of very confused teammembers who said the rooms or the conferences got changed, they didnt know where to go, etc. Several of the afternoon Vex rooms got cancelled, forcing some of our members to all try to cram into one or two of them. The Chairmans one got moved to a different timeslot causing me to miss it, etc. I cant say I directly saw the new schedule, or what the conflict was, but that is what my teammembers said. I had to assume since we got it all right on thursday, that the friday issues were due to a change like they said.

I guess we read this wrong:

You cannot bring food on site at all. Not even as a promotion.
Do not provide teams with candy, water, fruit, soft drinks, etc. This is to
promote good will and the spirit of partnership with the venues

I assumed that the water bottles were empty ones, and still wouldnt be allowed in the pits. The regionals seemed to be more strict about ingraining it in our heads though. And the giant signs that always say no food or drinks in the pits also made us think that.

#65

I saw a team that had a lightbar on their cart…definitely cool. I’m gonna throw one of those flashing amber lights on our cart next year I think to warn people…maybe even a buzzer or something. Some people don’t seem to understand “Excuse us, robot coming through” very easily :frowning: Our pit was nice, but it was right by the projector screens so there were about 100 people always standing there :-/

As for the escalators, yes they should be fixed to atleast 2 of the 3, if not all 3 exiting (those who wish to go down can use the elevators).

#66

Although I agree, that there is too little time to finalize lists, and sell your team after the matches conclude saturday, I’d still rather have strategy time than selection time. Having worked both as a scout and a coach at official FIRST events, and scout, coach, base driver, human player, and arm operator at off-seasons, I can guarantee you that strategy time is more important than selection time.
Each and every team has different scouting notes on the other teams, and having strategy time gives you time to compare notes, especially regarding what strategic trends your upcoming opponents like to use.

#67

well no it was a multi tool i used in the pits , it just has a blade on it… and as nice as they may be im not taking my chances

#68

OK first of all I enjoyed every thing about championships, my only regret is not being able to attend opening ceremonies either day, I suppose that comes with being on the Pit Crew and Drive team.

While I understand many teams frustrations with the 10 foot pit rule I believe the best solution may be to do something like team ** did, they have columns (about 7 or 8 ft tall) that allow them to display anything they want and not run into problems of having a low ceiling. I would be tempted to guess that the 10 ft rule was at least suggested by FIRSTs insurance company as well as the UL safety advisor’s.

The thing that is really striking a nerve in this thread is the comments about the homeless. I will definitely not give out bad rep because of comments about it but I would like to say that I am offended.

I have spent nearly all of my life in or around good size cities (Boston and Providence) and have seen my fair share of homeless people. I understand that there are thousands of people who have grown up in smaller towns and cities and haven’t grown accustomed to such things. I must say that many of the post on this topic have been very narrow minded. A hobo round up as one person called it would not only be ridiculous but illegal and unconstitutional, to suggest such a thing in my eyes demonstrates extreme narrow mindedness, something that I believe FIRST is trying to do away with. These people maybe homeless but they all live in Atlanta, we are visiting where they live and you need to respect that. If a person asks you for money simply say sorry I can’t help you and continue walking, 99% of the time they will not bother you any more. In this case they have caused you no more in convenience that if I had asked you for the time. I would venture to guess that the majority of people on this forum would be more than willing to stop and take a picture for members of another team. This takes more time and is more of an inconvenience than simply telling a homeless person you can’t give them any thing.

To take this one step further them asking you for money is no different than when some one like you stops someone like Dean or Woody or any of your favorite celebrities and asking for an autograph. (OR asking Andy for a t-shirt) these people have something you want and you have something other people want. In the future try to be open minded and don’t feel superior to others until you know there story, they are not hurting you, why would any one care to suggest hurting or hindering them.

(note any negative perspective one this please take it up in my pm box rather than this thread or my rep, I would be more than happy to discuss my opinions on anything with any one.)

James

#69

I have to agree. Must people have never been exposed to life in a big city and had to deal with things such as homeless citizens asking for money. If they bug you that much, talk with asecurity or a police officer, it’s not that hard to find an Atlanta Police Officer in the area of the dome…I walked past one every block when I was outside at night.

#70

I wish the playing fields were pushed back away from the stands a little bit. I found it hard to see the playing field at times, especially when teams in front of us stood up.

#71

OHHH and I almost forgot my number one pet peeve!! While I love that they got some great speakers, some big important people that will get FIRST recognized, I was absolutely embarrassed at ALL of the people that kept saying “lets make this the greatest nation!” I was HORRIFIED!! This is an international competition… its not NATIONALS anymore… I was thoroughly embarrassed to be from the US with them saying things like that in front of an international audience… they even had all of the flags up there to remind everyone! What about Canada, Brazil, Israel, Germany, etc??? The list goes on!!! Shouldn’t we be promoting cooperation over US Supremacy!!! Do they not tell the speakers this is an international audience? Do they not know countries from all around the world can be watching this??? SOMEONE Please fix this!! Year after Year this happens, and every year it gets more prominent. If they want to do a different international competition do that… but dint invite all of these teams to travel thousands of miles to hear the US ROCKS speeches!!

gets off soapbox

I thought it was my fault that my team kept calling it Nationals… with them being a rookie team, and me having been in it since 96, I figured I had rubbed off on them, but now I realize that even the event organizers, people on CD, no-one (not just me) can get it right… lets give these other countries the respect and recognition that they deserve.

#72

I was especially amused by the “special” MARTA deal the FIRST teams received. A 5-day, Wednesday through Sunday pass cost $13 bucks, while the standard MARTA 7-day (Monday through Sunday) pass ALSO cost $13 bucks! One great deal there. I seem to remember the passes costing $10 last year.

BEN

#73

I hate to bump up a negative thread, but I finally have time to comment. I agree with most of the comments here, but I still had a great time and think they fixed a lot of things from last year. I’ve only got two issues that haven’t been mentioned.

The pits should be available, at least for storage, until after the closing ceremonies. We had a fair amount of stuff to go on the bus, but were told that the pits had to be empty at 4:00 or something. Of course, this is impossible for teams competing, and a real concern for others.

I like the store selling FIRST items, but it was incredibly small. It was crowded every time I visited, and absolutely packed on Saturday afternoon. More space and staff would have helped this venture.

#74

We left our stuff in the pits until after the closing cermonies, as did a few other teams that I saw. They had started tearing down the pit dividers and the practice fields, which I would imagine is why they told you to be out by 4:00. That being said, they never gave us trouble for just leaving our stuff there.

#75

After we had hauled our stuff out where they first told us, they relented and recommended that we return it to the pits. I just think the schedule and plans should be clear up front.

#76

I second that

#77

Mythbusters or Bill Nye as a guest speaker would be AMAZING. Omg.

Hehe, actually, at the afterparty, me and my friends met with Dave and Woodie (they signed my safety goggles; I remember Dean saying “They aren’t going to be as safe anymore with writing on them.” haha :stuck_out_tongue: And we got the whole team in a picture with Woodie. It was sweet.) So I guess what I’m trying to say is that the afterparty WAS kind of a meet-and-greet in itself. :slight_smile:

Totally agree. We really need dancing space. There’s not enough room in the stands at all! :stuck_out_tongue:

As with the homeless people issue, myself and the most of team members seemed not to see or be approached by any homeless people. I guess it’s where we were in Atlanta at a particular time… it’s hard to deal with those people and they are going through tough times, but you can’t let them harrass you, you know?

#78

actually grant imahara from mythbusters i know used to mentor a robotics team in california

#79

Bill Nye spoke at the Texas BEST Robotics Competition at A&M University in College Park, Texas, in 2004. He was awesome when he was doing his introductions and when he was dealing with hecklers in the crowd, but when he got to his “assigned speech topic” the magic was definitely gone. By the end of his speech I would estimate that more than 50% of the crowd was asleep. Of course, the presentation was at 8:00pm, everyone had just eaten, we’d all had a full day of competition, and it was quite warm in the auditorium, so I cannot put the entire blame on Bill Nye. However, it WAS the best nap I’d ever had in stadium-style seats. :stuck_out_tongue:

-Danny