Hi! My name is Dan Pelletier, formerly of FRC team 241. I officially retired from FIRST after 8 years following the 2011 season and thought I was done for good. Well, “The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray” and I am back in FIRST, now with FRC Team 3467. I recently graduated from the University of New Hampshire with my BA in Theatre and I am excited to be working with a new team, focusing on leadership, presentation skills, strategy, and a whole slue of other things.
So, since I’ve been away for three years, there’s clearly been some major changes in FIRST. Would anyone be so kind as to maybe give me a sparksnotes version of the differences between 2011 FRC and 2014 FRC? I would be very appreciative. Thank you!
Changes in leadership at FIRST: new president for FIRST, new director for FRC. GDC has had some changes in personnel.
FIRST Choice is a new way of distributing parts to teams that have been donated, outside of the KoP a team gets at kickoff. (The massive technical glitches aside…)
Many award submissions have changed in requirements, both in terms of eligibility and submission process. Dean’s List has interviews, and they want sophomores/juniors. Entrepreuership award is online submission. Website award is gone. New awards, check them out: http://frc-manual.usfirst.org/viewItem/9
All teams now bag & tag their robots. Crate shipment of the robot is only used for hardship and championship.
Social media (twitter/facebook) seem to be used significantly more for FIRST since 2011.
Welcome back! You’re still in New Hampshire, right? Well, do you remember the district system that Michigan had back when you were in high school? Well starting in the 2014 season for New England… http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/500x/44011199.jpg
I would call this the biggest change. Districts are now in Michigan, MAR (Mid-Atlantic Robotics, comprising of New Jersey, Delaware, and PA east of Harrisburg), the Pacific Northwest, and New England (Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire). Here is the new NE FIRST website.
To give a very brief overview: Your team will compete at a number of district events, which are basically mini-regionals with fewer teams, but each team gets more matches (for the past two years in MAR, each team got 12 qualification matches at each district)! At each event, you will accumulate ranking points based on awards won, qualification match results, and eliminations finish. Only the points earned at your first two district events will count. After the district events, a certain number of the highest ranked teams will be invited to compete at your district system’s regional championship, where the ranking points you earn are tripled. From the regional championship, the winners on the field, as well as a certain number of award winners, along with a certain number of the top ranked teams in the district (ranked via the total amount of ranking points accumulated in the district system throughout the season) will move on to the FRC World Championships in St. Louis. It seems as though 3467 is currently registered for the NE Districts at the University of New Hampshire and at Northeastern University. If you advance to your district system’s regional championship, that will be at Boston University, which I believe is the same location for the old Boston Regional. (Did I miss anything?)
District teams can still go to actual regionals and attempt to advance to the World Championships the traditional ways, but they won’t earn any points for their district system there. However, teams outside the district system cannot play in districts. 3467 is not currently signed up for a regional.
I remember when we had flags to indicate alliance color, and I’ve seen the various lights from before that.
Well, since 2011, we have four districts now (Michigan, MAR, PNW, New England). Mexico has a regional now, a guy is trying to start about a dozen teams in China (PRC) this year.
If you want the latest, attend the worksops FSM Kathie Kentfield and I are hosting at HQ on Friday, 3 Jan from 1 to 4. You Lead Mentor/Main Contact has all the info. RSVP me at [email protected]
I see you focus on awards and scouting. There have been several changes…
For 2014, FRC teams can receive a free copy of a business intelligence data analysis package by Tableau. There is a CD thread on this announcement.
There were significant changes in awards for 2013 and apparently a few more coming in 2014. The 2014 awards manual just got released today. The website award was removed in 2013 and replaced by a new emphasis on social media. Dean’s Homework from last season was to create a 2 minute video of your team’s story to share with corporate sponsors or other FIRST marketing initiatives.
There have been a few new developments in the broader FRC community as well. One of my favorites is FRCTop25.com. Check it out.
Also do some research on “Robot in 3 Days” plus this year’s “Build Blitz” initiative from VexPro. These efforts are designed to help the FRC community raise the level of competition and will have a significant impact on 2014.
This is something I really will need to learn more about.
Is there information somewhere on this points system? Where can I learn more about like how much each award is worth, as well as positioning in the over all ranking system, that sort of stuff. Is it available yet, or is this something they are unveiling at during/after kick-off?
Welcome back Dan, we’re glad to have you on board for 2014!
I would say from a strategy standpoint there has been a shift towards much simpler robot designs or robots that play a unique part of the game. A huge part of the push for simplicity can be found in reliability. Simple robots are easier to build and repair during the competition season. Robots now see twice to three times the matches in a season. Last season we played 70 official matches between regionals, the Championship, and two off-season events. This number doesn’t include practice matches, two additional off-season events, and drive practice. In total I would say our robot saw about 110+ matches without in shop drive practice. Our rookie year robot saw 22 official matches and probably 15 after practice matches and an off-season event.
Back when I first started and much of your experience was teams competing at one event which was the average in FRC. Now two qualification events is becoming the standard with some teams seeing as many as four events before the Championship. FIRST has also been giving more matches at an event increasing the plays per dollar amount in which we will see more of in the District system.
Districts will be a huge change with now two day events compared to the traditional three day events with the practice day being replaced by load in/inspection the night before the competition and 6 hours of un-bag time in the shop. Really means the robot that goes into the bag for competition needs to be ready for its first match when we take it out.
The smaller robot size in 2013 was an interesting twist to the game adding a new size challenge. The nice feature of the smaller size was an easier inspection process.
Another interesting change over the years has been the withholding allowance of generally 30lbs of pre-fabricated materials you can bring into the event with you. This has led to more team’s pulling off drastic redesigns or iterating current mechanisms in between events.
The introduction of the Vexpro product lines (a division of IFI), new companies like West Coast Products & Modulox, and expansions of product lines in Andymark, Banebots, & 221 Robotics Systems have brought a large number of off the shelf components to teams like never before. The Vexpro line of parts was something new in 2013 and has drastically expanded the choices and products teams can use on their robots.
All in all, a lot of changes with some good and bad but its still an amazing experience!
