Thanks, Vince.
The AndyMark operations just shut down for 20 minutes to watch this video. It was time well spent. Kudos to all who were involved and made this happen.
Sincerely,
Andy Baker
Thanks for the link, Vince!
Sounds like an good initiative from the President, but I was personally disappointed by their seemingly lack of knowledge of the FIRST Robotics Program. In the press release and articles about the announcement they keept on referring to the ‘cougar cannon’… which I found as a pour way to describe a FIRST Robot, and FIRST probably doesn’t like thats their main mention in the press releases. Its one of those things that the media thinks sounds cool, but doesn’t describe what a FIRST Robot really is. I was hoping for more, I have yet to figure out how FIRST and FIRST teams will be able to benefit from the program. Hopefully we will see more details about it soon.
This is amazing coverage for FIRST. Its nice to see the goverment and society finally understands what we do for 6 weeks every year. And congrats to team 623 for your performance in such an important opportunity!
As a veteran press spokesman, please ENUNCIATE when you’re talking to the Press, especially the WH Press pool. You know that they are hard of hearing!!!
From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/23/AR2009112301978.html
So, with that, just as proof of the extraordinary promise of American young people, I’d like to invite Steven Harris (ph) and Brian Ortelano (ph) from Oakton High – High School to come up here and demonstrate what their team has built. And it’s flashing, so far. I don’t see it whirling.
(LAUGHTER)
Where are they?
Give them a big round of applause.
(APPLAUSE)
All right. What do we got going here?
(UNKNOWN): So, we built our robot to compete in a competition called (inaudible).
(LAUGHTER)
And so, the object of the game is to shoot the balls, that they called the moon rocks, into moving goals (inaudible) team’s robots.
OBAMA: OK.
(LAUGHTER)
(UNKNOWN): And (inaudible).
OBAMA: OK.
(LAUGHTER)
All right, let’s see it toss the ball.
(LAUGHTER)
Now, what are they aiming at right now?
(LAUGHTER)
So im the guy who stood in front catching the balls. the reason why the press couldnt hear me or the other guy was because we didnt have microphones and the crowd was laughing so hard. also it was a pretty big room. Also my quote in response to “Can you get the stuff at radio shack” was " Not Quite". this experience was a great honor. i cant believe this actually happened. Obama seems to really mean what he said so hopefully he can pull this off. Also 623’s “Cougar Cannon” is now mythbusters approved.
In general, a valid comment. However in this particular case it really was not their fault. The transcript was prepared from the video/audio feed, and not by anyone in the room. Even though it was known in advance and very clear that Brian and Steven were going to be part of the program, they were not miked for the event by the WH sound team. We could hear them very clearly in the room (and when they said that the game was named “Lunacy” the whole room burst out laughing). But they were not picked up by the fixed mics on the cameras at the other side of the room. So we should cut them some slack.
-dave
.-.
Also dont hate on obama for the radio shack quote. he was asking that having inspected the electrical components of our robot. He has no clue about where we get our parts. he was expressing genuine interest in our robot. also if after this speech the only thing you can take away from it is that he made a silly quote about radio shack then you clearly didnt pick up the message he was trying to convey.
Heres the link to the uncut film footage.
What Obama was doing with the Radio Shack comment was “making a joke.” If you don’t get the joke, folks, send me a PM and I’ll see if I can explain it for you. I’m all in favor of public figures making themselves look silly, but this wasn’t a mistake – he did it on purpose.
Is it VEX related?
Also cougar cannon was the name of our robot. he didnt come up with a name a good as that. we did. so… the president didnt really make any mistakes. the only mistakes ive seen is the nytimes caption of the photo says brian hortelano when it should really say brian hortelano and steven harris. brian was out of pic controling the robot and im in the pic. also the nytimes states that the whole robot was built by two students in six weeks. not true. 30 students, six weeks.
Give the media a break, its great that they are covering everything and putting these photos and videos online. This will create a lot of publicity and support for FIRST. Its not a big deal if they get a few facts wrong, overtime they will become familiar with the program.
This is excellent news for both FIRST and all other related educational competitions. Can’t wait to see the impact this has.
This is very cool news. Congratulations to team 116 and 623. Hopefully this will mean better things for FIRST in the near future.
The White House also posted a Q/A session with Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Dr. John P. Holdren on the project: Sec of Ed and Science & Tech Director Comments About FIRST
See the section that begins at 7:06 to hear what they think of FIRST.
Thanks Vince for posting this.
We just heard the Secretary of Education echo Dean’s question “Why can’t we have a robotics team in every high school?”
It sure looks like we have our work cut out for us early this year!
If you are reading hate or lack of understanding the meaning of a joke in my post then you are reading your own ideas into what I posted.
I said I loved it.
Surprised no one has asked it yet: Will Obama be in Atlanta for the championship?
Were Grant and Tory busy? o.O
Nevertheless- awesome. Just awesome. Congrats to both teams for being there!
A few of the utes mentioned it. That’s why I didn’t quote anyone in particular and I certainly wasn’t aiming anything at you.