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Out to New England FIRST Robotics Competition teams...
Week of February 22, 2016 |
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Congratulations on Completing Build Season!
FIRST posted a Shakespeare-themed blog for Stop Build Day that you can read here.
Please note that team updates will now be posted once a week on Tuesdays until FIRST Championship. Team updates can be found on the Competition Manual page. Additionally, Main or Alternate contacts should take a minute to update your team's TIMS account with your team nickname, robot pictures and your robot name ASAP to make sure the information makes it into the judging booklet and the match preview screens.
Bagging and tagging a robot at the end of a build season is a huge accomplishment! We hope you take some time between now and the start of competition season to celebrate with your team.
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Week Zero Playlist
FRC GameSense made a YouTube playlist of qualification matches from Week Zero in Merrimack, NH last weekend. You can watch the matches here.
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Audience Displays and Mods to Referee Communication
FIRST has made a number of modifications to the way the field management system and the Audience Screens are used this year, in order to give a more understandable and consistent audience experience:
- The Match Preview screen provides team introductions and includes the defense selections made by each alliance in the order in which the audience will see the defenses on the field. During playoffs this screen changes slightly to reflect alliance information as well as the series progress, e.g. "Red Leads Series." Team nicknames will be incorporated into the Match Preview screens.
- FIRST is making efforts to always have the scoring banner present at the bottom of the screen. This will allow for timeout clocks, issued cards and other information to be displayed via the audience screen.
- Both the scoring system and Referee roles have been modified to improve real-time scoring. A Match Review icon will be incorporated to indicate when the score is under review by the Referees and delays between the end of the match and the score screen will be minimized.
As part of this overall experience improvement, FIRST has made modifications to the way that Referees do their jobs. Referee operational procedures have been modified to allow them to focus on the play on the field rather than have to spend valuable focus time recording details about infractions. As a result, Head Referees will no longer be expected to provide detailed information about Fouls and Technical Fouls issued during the Match. However, Head Referees will be able to discuss how/why certain fouls are being called and/or why a particular robot may be susceptible to certain fouls based on its design or game play; as well as how specific rules are being called or interpreted. Heralds will periodically make announcements detailing which infractions the teams as a whole are incurring and teams are still encouraged to send representatives the question box for clarification.
More information about referee communication changes can be found in the blog posted by Aidan F. Browne, Ph.D. and FIRST Robotics Competition Chief Referee. A preview of the audience displays and additional information are in the blog posted by Danny Diaz, FIRST Robotics Competition Systems Engineer.
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Judged Awards at District Events and District Championship
At the New England District Championship this year, the Judges will decide the most prestigious awards that will earn a team a spot at World Championships in St. Louis. There will be 6 Dean's List Finalists, 4 Chairman's Award Teams (CA), 2 Engineering Inspiration Award teams (EI) and 1 Rookie All-Star Award team (RAS) that will qualify for the FIRST Championship.
Each Dean's List semifinalist previously nominated by their team will be interviewed at one of their District Events. If you submitted an application for a semifinalist, your team should have already received a form regarding District Event interviews. A shortlist of the semifinalists will be interviewed in the two weeks prior to the District Championship via Skype, following which the Judges will make the final selection of 6 Dean's List Finalists to be announced at the District Championship at the XL Center in Hartford, CT.
Teams submitting for the Chairman's Award will receive instructions for setting up interviews electronically. Each Chairman's Award interview is allotted a 12 minute slot. The team has up to 7 minutes for their presentation. Remaining time will be left for Q&A with the judges. In addition to the 3 students, a team may have a mentor present who must be silent. No recording of the interview will be permitted.
The team awards (CA, EI and RAS) will be selected from those teams receiving the awards at their District Events. Once a team has won one of the three awards, they will not be eligible for that particular award at another District Event, but can receive one of the others.
Only teams being awarded Chairman's at a District Event will be automatically eligible to register their team to compete with their robot at the District Championship. To be able to register their robot to compete at District Championship, Engineering Inspiration awardees and Rookie All-Stars will need to qualify for a spot based on their point total (please refer to Section 7 of the Administrative Manual for more information on this).
All interviews for these 3 awards will be held at the XL Center. For a team to be eligible for the award, they must be interviewed. If a team has either not qualified for a spot at District Championship or has chosen to not to have their robot compete, those teams will still need to be interviewed at District Championship.
Teams submitting for the Entrepreneurship Award should bring a hard copy of their business plan and submission to their competitions.
If your team has any questions, please contact the Senior Judge Advisor at seniorjaforne@gmail.com.
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NE FIRST District Event Practice Match Policy
At all District Events this year, teams will be able to run practice matches in a "filler line" queue on Day 0 and Day 1 of each event (please refer to Section 5 of the Game Manual or Section 4 of the Administrative Manual for more information on how filler lines work). Teams may only enter the filler line queue for practice matches once they have been fully inspected. Due to scheduling constraints, events will only run filler line practice matches on both Day 0 (load-in and setup day) and Day 1 (the first official day of competition) instead of scheduled practice matches.
Please note that practice matches are not guaranteed at any District Event. The availability of practice matches at each event will vary depending on when the field can be set up and any field hardware or software issues. The Field Technical Advisor (FTA) present at the event will inform teams whether or not there will be time to run practice matches as soon as possible.
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Robot Inspection Reminders
Now that Build Season is over and your robot is bagged and tagged, here are a few tips from Dana Henry, our Head Robot Inspector for New England:
- Make 3 copies of your robot lockup form! Your student team lead gets one, your Main Contact gets one and at least one other mentor/student gets one. Every event I inspect at, at least one team tells me that their Lock Up Form is on the teacher's desk back at the school. Let's avoid this by having multiple forms carried by different people.
- The 2016 Inspection Checklist is available and you should assign at least one or two students to inspect the robot during your 6 hour Robot Access Period time before each District Event. Make sure you check for firmware updates on the Driver's Station, roboRIO, Talons, etc. Pay close attention to wire sizes, color coding, pneumatic plumbing (making sure you have legal and properly rated fittings/valves), solenoids and actuators.
- Motors: Are all of your motors listed in the manual? Are you using an automotive motor? Do you have the proper documentation proving that a motor you are using from the automotive list IS an automotive motor? It is the responsibility of the team to prove to the inspector that all motors on your robot are legal. (Globe motors are still illegal!)
- Pneumatics: Pneumatic rules have changed slightly this year (the first team that tells me what the rule change is gets a free corn dog at an event where I am Lead Robot Inspector). Check and recheck the schematic for proper plumbing. Bring documentation/manufacturers data sheets for your solenoids, compressors, etc. Again, it's up to the team to prove to the inspector that all parts on your robot are legal, especially if you are pushing the envelope.
- Bumpers: Have you seen Team Update 13? FIRST also published a helpful video for teams that have questions about bumpers and frame perimeter. Look at it this way: the first thing a non-FIRST person sees on your robot is your bumpers. Make a good bumper and you'll look good no matter what!
If you have questions, refer the manual and check the official FIRST Q&A. If you still have questions, have a mentor or student team lead email Dana at dhenry@firstinspires.org. Include your team number in the subject line.
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FIRST Championship St. Louis Cardinals Ticket Offer
Join us for the FIRST "Night At The Ballpark" at Busch Stadium, on Friday, April 29th to watch the St. Louis Cardinals take on the Washington Nationals.
The Cardinals have generously offered discounted tickets at $20.00 (+ service fee) each which includes the price of admission, as well as a hot dog and soda coupon to all FIRST Championship attendees.
Come early-all FIRST ticketholders will have a chance to participate in a pre-game field parade, and will be able to watch the on-field recognition ceremony, including an Honorary First Pitch to a Cardinals player!
The Cardinals are also offering a 10% discount at the main Team Store on Level One between Gates 3 & 4 at Busch Stadium. You may stop in the store between Wednesday and Sunday during Championship week-show your FIRST badge to take advantage of this great offer.
Please go to the following link to order your tickets directly from the St. Louis Cardinals. For ticket orders of 20 or more, call the Ticket Office direct at 314-345-9000 and tell them that you are purchasing tickets for the FIRST Championship event.
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Practice Field Elements & Robot Access Period
The list for practice field element sharing and useful information can be found here. Updates can be submitted through a form on the NE FIRST website and updates since last week have been posted here.
You will be able to use your six hour "Robot Access Period" before any of your District Events for practice or making modifications to robot. See Section 5.6 of the Administrative Manual for more information on how this time can be used.
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NE FIRST Consent & Release Form Reminder
All teams competing at an NE FIRST event must fill out an NE FIRST consent and release form in addition to the FIRST consent and release form. These forms should be completed and signed by parents/authorized adults and brought with the team and turned at the beginning of the team's first district event. The form will cover the team for additional plays in New England during the season and only needs to be filled out once. The form can be found here (please disregard the year in the file name; the consent & release form itself does not have a date and is the correct one for this year).
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Upcoming Important Dates
Media and Technology Innovation Award Submission Due
Monday, Feb. 29, midnight
Please check the FIRST Calendar for a complete list of important dates.
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Upcoming Events
Granite State District Event
March 4-6
Windham High School
64 London Bridge Rd, Windham, NH 03087
Waterbury District Event
March 4-6
Wilby High School
460 Bucks Hill Road, Waterbury, CT 06704
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Contact Us NE FIRST Executive Director NE FIRST Advisor NE FIRST Regional Directors NE FIRST Senior Mentors |
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Archives of NE FIRST Things FIRST are available on the archive page and on the NE FIRST site under "News." Submissions can be sent to ljefferson@firstinspires.org.
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