Meh. Since KIPR (KISS Institute for Practical Robotics) is run by the guy that co-founded FRC Team 116, I wouldn’t be too worried. 
-dave
Although Hawaii is far away from Indianapolis, it’s over our school’s Spring Break for next year, so hopefully…
I wish our team could go to any of the new Regionals for 2008 (and our team does travel outside of the Midwest), but they are far away, and when we travel by plane, we fly out on Wednesay evening so we don’t miss school. All of the new Regionals are pretty far… 
Yay! Hawaii is finally in the FIRST regional family! Everyone better sign up quick because this one is definalty going to sell out fast!
It’s about time too. Not enough events near Texas. This year Bayou was an exception, but now with Oklahoma I think it will accomplish two things. It will make more teams in Oklahoma and also add to the Robotics Education Program of Oklahoma because Botball is HUGE there. The only thing is that Botball is during the FIRST season which may pose some problems, but for huge teams, it is a great way to split the team and/or to keep the rookies busy with the programming and let them do the mechie or control stuff in their later years.
Our team is excited to hear more regarding the Seattle Regional. In the meantime, Dean Kamen is here in Hawaii pushing FIRST to everyone possible. Here is a more detailed article regarding the FIRST in Hawaii Kickoff, as well as some glitchy video.
Or consider Botball as potential feeder program for FIRST by having middle schools compete. There is already FLL and Jr. FLL but then there are options such as EARLY and Botball.
Here in San Antonio, TX we have an initiative growing to get middle schools competing in Botball. (The architech for the Botball controller is Rich LeGrand whose lab/Co. is in Austin, Texas Charmed Labs)
Additionally, since SA is a big BEST area we are getting elementary schools to compete in GEAR city-wide while some school districts are also adding in EARLY neighborhood tournaments.
In our are we use a variety of programs to spread robotics that can be seen on the Houston Robotics website. We do EARLY, FLL, BEST, Botball, and FRC as well. And the greatest thing about all of these programs is that they all feed into each other… EARLY teaches the students a little bit about building robots, FLL teaches them programming and makes them think a little more about design, BEST makes them think about design but on a new level as well as some more programming, Botball teaches them about programming in depth and gets them ready for FRC which makes them look more in depth into the different types of engineering and lets them work with professionals.
Okay take note, my presumption in this regard was very far from correct and could in the instance of the the Texas and Oklahoma regionals be in direct conflict with it:eek:
Lone Star Regional
Katy, TX DATE 3/20/2008 - 3/22/2008
Oklahoma City Regional
Oklahoma City, OK DATE 3/20/2008 - 3/22/2008:ahh: