As many of you know, with the exception of last year, we have run the Chief Delphi Invitational every year since our second year in FIRST.
Last year, due to budget constraints and other issues, we had to cut back the competition.
We would very much like to host one this year.
But… …we need your thoughts on an idea we have for simultaneously keeping our costs down and improving the experience for those who participate.
Here is the nub of the idea:
Rather than provide a kit of materials (as we historically have), we would utilize the Innovation First EDU kit
Any EDU kit item from the IFI website would be legal (with some limits – for example, perhaps teams would be allowed only 8 motors).
Robots would be built AT THE COMPETITION (which would be at Pontiac Central on a Friday 6pm-9pm & Saturday 7am - 5pm).
We would open up an “IFI Store” onsite for teams to suppliment the EDU kits they have from the FIRST last season as desired.
Programming would be allowed but Operator Interface limited to 4 standard joystick (no custom wiring of switches or pots on OI side). Standard OI boards with 4 joysticks available for loan as needed (though hopefully most teams can bring their own).
General Agenda:
Fri 6pm - Game Kickoff
Fri 6-9pm - Brainstorming and Robot Build (private classroom provided – access to field is allowed)
Sat 7-9am - Robot Build and Certification (Check Material & Size)
Sat 9-1 - Game Playing – 1 on 1 matches, 4 fields, under 2.5 minute cycletime --> LOTS OF MATCHES
Sat 1-4 - Standard Double Elimation Tournament (a la basketball tournaments, or wrestling tourneys or many other tournaments).
Sat 4-5 - Awards and teardown
We think we can come up with a killer game.
We think the kit is makes this compressed build it and play timeframe possible.
We would save money mainly by not buying a kit (this may ultimately cost teams more though) and by not doing some of the multimedia stuff we typically do (for example we could used lower end Audio/Video/Computer stuff).
Teams could keep their robots (yeah!)
It would be a great time.
But…
…are teams interested in such an event?
We have not finalized costs yet but we are thinking that we may be able to do this for about $150 - $200 per team (that will be used up mostly on a few items that we will have to provide custom for the kit – specifically batteries and chargers – the IFI batteries and chargers are not up to running a competition, we would likely provided a charger and 2 batteries and a custom conversion pigtail to each team so that they could have enough juice to run a full competition).
So…
What do you say? Do we have 24 teams interested in such an event some time in November or December?
Reply to this message if your team is interested.
Joe J.