Central Valley Regional – 2023

Central Valley Regional – 2023

The FIRST Robotics Competition Central Valley Regional, at the Fresno Convention Center from March 9-12, 2023, was a big success!  There were 39 teams in attendance and the weekend was Charged Up! 

Among the teams that came from all parts of California, we also had teams visiting from Arizona, Idaho, Mexico and Chinese Taipei. The teams had a special visit from Patti Poppe, the CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric Company. Patti and her husband Eric, along with matching funds from PG&E, donated $200,000 to Northern California FIRST events and teams, including 20 of the teams competing at the regional.  And they announced they were committing to another $200,000 for the 2024 season! 

The Central Valley Regional was also hosting several local FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST LEGO League Challenge and Explore teams, which included the a team that will be competing at the World Championship in Houston this April. There was even more excitement for teams when they visited the Air Force booth and got to talk with officers about the many opportunities that exist using the skills they learn through FIRST within the Air Force and Space Force. 

The competition was filled with excitement and culminated with many awards to teams for their skills, talents, performance, outreach, dedication, and Gracious Professionalism at the event. In fact, 47 individuals were awarded an exclusive FIRST California Gracious Professional pin for being ‘Caught in the Act!’

We’d like to extend an immense THANK YOU to all the sponsors, mentors and volunteers who contributed to this very successful Regional.

We hope you too had a memorable experience at the Central Valley Regional! 

LIST OF TEAMS ADVANCING TO CHAMPIONSHIPS IN HOUSTON!!!

The following teams and individuals earned top honors at the Central Valley Regional and earned their way to compete at the FIRST Championships in Houston, April 19-22, 2023

FIRST Impact Award

The FIRST Impact Award represents the true spirit of FIRST.  It honors the team that best serves as a model for other teams to emulate and that embodies the goals of FIRST.  It remains FIRST’s most prestigious team award.  The FIRST Impact Award is presented to the team judged to have the most significant measurable impact of its partnerships among its participants, school, and community over a sustained period, not just a single build season or school year. The winner is able to demonstrate progress towards FIRST’s mission of transforming our culture.  The recipient will be invited to the FIRST Championship where it will compete for the FIRST Impact Award against the winners from all the other qualifying events.

You can watch their Impact Award video here.

    Engineering Inspiration

    The Engineering Inspiration Award celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school and community.  This team will advance to the Championships and receive a $5000 NASA grant toward registration.

    This team’s dedicated outreach team strives to bring engineering and stem fields to underrepresented communities. They empower Girl Scouts and kids of all ages, those with learning disabilities and other nations through their robust outreach. Their sustained outreach efforts prove they are anything but inert.

    • Team 840, Aragon Robotics from San Mateo, CA

    Regional Winners

     

    Dean’s List Finalist

    In an effort to recognize the leadership and dedication of FIRST’s most outstanding FRC students, the Kamen family sponsors an award for selected top students known as the FIRST Dean’s List. This award celebrates a student’s outstanding leadership and effectiveness in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering and engineers, both within their school, as well as their community. FIRST Dean’s List Finalists will compete at the championship for the FIRST Dean’s List.

    • Anisha Shukla from Team 2135, Presentation Invasion
    • Emilia Plancarte from Team 4400, Cerbotics

    Woodie Flowers Finalist Award

    FIRST stands apart from other competitions in STEM and sports due to the FIRST Ethos of Gracious Professionalism, the concept of Coopertition, and the commitment to the FIRST Core Values. The guiding force behind these principles was Dr. Woodie Flowers. Dr. William Murphy, Jr., who was instrumental in creating the concept of FIRST with Dean Kamen, recognized the unique perspective, wisdom, and communication style that Woodie brought to the FIRST Robotics Competition.

    In honor of Woodie, Dr. Murphy founded the Woodie Flowers Award in 1996. He recognized that the FIRST ethos would be carried forward by our FIRST mentors and sought to celebrate those mentors who demonstrate the leadership, ethical behavior, and communication skills exemplified by Woodie. Woodie believed “societies get the best of what they celebrate”.

    Being recognized by students, through nomination essays, makes this honor very meaningful to mentors. It is truly an honor for a mentor to be nominated for this award.

    You shared high praise for the accomplishments and dedication of your mentors and your teams. Based on your input, we now recognize the outstanding contributions of ONE mentor to the FIRST experience.

    This nominee has dedicated over half their life to the FIRST mission. Their passion and commitment to their team and FIRST is unmatched. They work to make their team and their community more efficient and effective. This mentor works with nearly every part of their team from design, software, business, and graphic design inspiring their students to be well-rounded. He is an exceptional role model to students on their teams and to every team he works with.

    Please join us in congratulating the 2023 Central Valley Regional Woodie Flowers FINALIST Award winner, Andrew Nabors, from Team 1671! 

    • Andrew Nabors from Team 1671, Buchanan Bird Brains

    Additional Awards

    Congratulations to the Teams and individuals that earned the remaining awards at the Central Valley Regional! See the list here.

    Instagram Highlights

    Don’t Miss Out on the Best Moments of Central Valley. Watch Our Instagram Highlight Tab!

    Ventura County Regional – 2023

    Ventura County Regional – 2023

    Congratulations to the 46 Teams PLUS all the Mentors, Volunteers, Sponsors, Friends and Family members from all over California, Hawai, Idaho, Nevada, the Netherlands, Mexico and Chinese Taipei who participated in the FIRST Robotics Competition Ventura County Regional from March 9-12, 2023.

    Week 2 at the Ventura County Regional was full of excitement! Weather was upon us so we had leaks in the roof and a flooded pit (no damage to the robot or equipment), but nothing can keep FIRST students from competition.

    The bar was high from Week 1, but this week did not disappoint.  High Tide, Team 4414, raced to the front with Hawaiian Kids, Team 359 on their heels.  They formed two alliances and ended head to head in the finals with Alliance #1 coming out ahead.  But, several wildcards were now available, so both the first and second alliance are headed to Worlds in Houston.  Team 1836, The Miliken Knights, Team 5274, Wolverines, and rookie team 9084, Octobots are on their way to Houston.

    The Rembrandts, Team 4481 from The Netherlands won the Impact Award and students from Team 599, Robodocs and Team 4481, Team Rembrandts won the FIRST Dean’s List Finalist Awards.

    The Volunteer of the Year was awarded to Angel Zamarron, the STEM Outreach Director from the Navy command, NAVAIR from Pt Mugu, and the Regional Inspiration Award was awarded to Team 1138, Eagle Engineering.

    Kathy Looman from the Gene Haas Foundation was our guest speaker along with several speakers from the Naval commands.

    We’d like to extend an immense THANK YOU to all the sponsors, mentors and volunteers who contributed to this very successful Regional.

    We hope you too had a memorable experience at the Ventura County Regional!

    We’ve capture some of those great moments from the Regional for you. Feel free to find your team and download pics in the gallery below and tag @firstroboticscalifornia on Instagram is you share them.

    LIST OF TEAMS ADVANCING TO CHAMPIONSHIPS IN HOUSTON!!!

    The following teams and individuals earned top honors at the Ventura County Regional and earned their way to compete at the FIRST Championships in Houston, April 19-22, 2023

    FIRST Impact Award

    The FIRST Impact Award represents the true spirit of FIRST.  It honors the team that best serves as a model for other teams to emulate and that embodies the goals of FIRST.  It remains FIRST’s most prestigious team award.  The FIRST Impact Award is presented to the team judged to have the most significant measurable impact of its partnerships among its participants, school, and community over a sustained period, not just a single build season or school year. The winner is able to demonstrate progress towards FIRST’s mission of transforming our culture.  The recipient will be invited to the FIRST Championship where it will compete for the FIRST Impact Award against the winners from all the other qualifying events.

    • Team 4481, Team Rembrandts from Eindhoven, Netherlands

      Engineering Inspiration

      The Engineering Inspiration Award celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school and community.  This team will advance to the Championships and receive a $5000 NASA grant toward registration.

      • Team 1138, Eagle Engineering from West Hills, CA

      Regional Winners

      • Team 4414, High Tide from Ventura, CA
      • Team 4481, Team Rembrandts from Eindhoven, Netherlands
      • Team 4, Team 4 Element from Van Nuys, CA

      Regional Finalists

      • Team 9084, Octobots from Goleta, CA (wildcard)
      • Team 5274, Wolverines from Sacramento, CA (wildcard)
      • Team 1836, MilkenKnights from Los Angeles, CA (wildcard)

      Dean’s List Finalist

      In an effort to recognize the leadership and dedication of FIRST’s most outstanding FRC students, the Kamen family sponsors an award for selected top students known as the FIRST Dean’s List. This award celebrates a student’s outstanding leadership and effectiveness in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering and engineers, both within their school, as well as their community. FIRST Dean’s List Finalists will compete at the championship for the FIRST Dean’s List.

      • Merle Leurs from Team 4481, Team Rembrandts
      • Angel Eunisse Yanga from Team 599, The Robodox

      Woodie Flowers Finalist Award

      • Stephen des Jardins from Team 2102, Team Paradox

      Additional Awards

      Congratulations to the Teams and individuals that earned the remaining awards at the Ventura County Regional! See the list here.

      Instagram Highlights

      Don’t Miss Out on the Best Moments of Ventura County Regional. Watch Our Instagram Highlight Tab!

      Orange County Regional – 2023

      Orange County Regional – 2023

      Congratulations to all Teams PLUS all the Mentors, Volunteers, Sponsors, Friends and Family members from all over California, plus Hawaii, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho and England who participated in the FIRST Robotics Competition Orange County Regional from March 9-12, 2023.

      This year’s Regional, held at the OC Fair & Event Center, was a great success! With 47 teams participating, the weekend went smoothly, despite a rainy, soggy practice day. Students were excited to have a visit on Friday from Cathy Looman, Director of Education for season sponsor HAAS Automation.

      Cynthia Mescher, of Regional Sponsor Parker Aerospace, kicked off the first day of competition with an inspiring welcome during Opening Ceremonies.

      Saturday night, the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award was presented to Sean Stone, mentor for team 3501, and the Volunteer of the Year was presented to Jared Hasen-Klein, the region’s Volunteer Coordinator.

      The playoffs were highly competitive, with well-matched alliances turning in close-scoring matches, and a very spirited Team 2637 received the FIRST Impact Award, making for an exciting end to a great Orange County Regional!

      We’d like to extend an immense THANK YOU to all the sponsors, mentors and volunteers who contributed to this very successful Regional.

      We hope you too had a memorable experience at the Orange County Regional! 

      Big thanks to Brian King and Joe Duncan for capturing these amazing Orange County Regional memories!

      Feel free to download and share any of these photos.  You can tag FIRST California on Instagram at @firstroboticscalifornia and use hashtags #FIRSTinCA, #firstininspires, #CHARGEDUP and #omgrobots.

      LIST OF TEAMS ADVANCING TO CHAMPIONSHIPS IN HOUSTON!!!

      The following teams and individuals earned top honors at the Orange County Regional and earned their way to compete at the FIRST Championships in Houston, April 19-22, 2023

      FIRST Impact Award

      The FIRST Impact Award is the most prestigious award at FIRST, it honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST.   

      The FIRST Impact Award is presented to the team judged to have the most significant measurable impact of its partnerships among its participants and community over a sustained period, not just a single build season. The winner is able to demonstrate progress towards FIRST’s mission of transforming our culture.  The recipient team will be invited to a FIRST Championship where it will compete for the FIRST Impact Award against winners from other qualifying events.

      This team aims to make STEM accessible for everyone — with outreach to Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts, special education students, and bringing hope and advocacy to teams that would not otherwise have this support.

      While bringing everyone along for the ride, this pack parades their excitement in STEM in everything they do. That includes sharing with sponsors, fellow teams, and their local community.

      They are hauntingly impressive — their alliance with FLL teams is established and growing through STEM development courses and Arizona Native American communities. The cat is out of the bag!

      • Team 2637, Phantom Catz from Rolling Hills Estates, CA

        Engineering Inspiration

        The Engineering Inspiration Award celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school and community.  This team will advance to the Championships and receive a $5000 NASA grant toward registration.

        “This year’s engineering inspiration award goes to a team that is a shining light for science and technology in their community.  Their lion-like commitment resulted in over 1000 hours impacting students from grades K through 12 to better their community. The judges look forward to seeing this team soaring high in the future.”

         

        Regional Winners

        • Team 987, Highrollers from Las Vegas, NV
        • Team 4415, EPIC Robotz from Cerritos, CA
        • Team 4276, Surf City Vikings from Huntington Beach, CA

          Regional Finalists

          • Team 3476, Code Orange from Irvine, CA (wildcard)

          Dean’s List Finalist

          In an effort to recognize the leadership and dedication of FIRST’s most outstanding FRC students, the Kamen family sponsors an award for selected top students known as the FIRST Dean’s List. This award celebrates a student’s outstanding leadership and effectiveness in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering and engineers, both within their school, as well as their community. FIRST Dean’s List Finalists will compete at the championship for the FIRST Dean’s List.

          • Matteo Salloum from Team 1884, Griffins
          • Nicholas Ortiz from Team 4141, Monarch Robotics

          Woodie Flowers Finalist Award

          FIRST stands apart from other competitions in STEM and sports due to the FIRST Ethos of Gracious Professionalism, the concept of Coopertition, and the commitment to the FIRST Core Values. The guiding force behind these principles was Dr. Woodie Flowers. Dr. William Murphy, Jr., who was instrumental in creating the concept of FIRST with Dean Kamen, recognized the unique perspective, wisdom, and communication style that Woodie brought to the FIRST Robotics Competition.

          In honor of Woodie, Dr. Murphy founded the Woodie Flowers Award in 1996. He recognized that the FIRST ethos would be carried forward by our FIRST mentors and sought to celebrate those mentors who demonstrate the leadership, ethical behavior, and communication skills exemplified by Woodie. Woodie believed “societies get the best of what they celebrate”.

          Being recognized by students, through nomination essays, makes this honor very meaningful to mentors. It is truly an honor for a mentor to be nominated for this award.

          “You shared high praise for the accomplishments and dedication of your mentors and your teams. Based on your input, we now recognize the outstanding contributions of ONE mentor to the FIRST experience.

          This mentor leveraged his professional expertise as a Mechanical Design Engineer and introduced industry standards to include computer-aided design, design review processes, and supply chain management to the team. To invest in knowledge transfer between members, this mentor designed and set up an annual training program that simulates build season. The program teaches students engineering design principles and manufacturing skills.

           Reaching beyond the FRC team, this mentor also mentors FLL teams, volunteers at FIRST competitions and events, and publicly speaks to many about FIRST.

           Please join us in congratulating the 2023 Orange County Regional Woodie Flowers FINALIST Award winner, Sean Stone, from Team 3501!”

          • Sean Stone from Team 3501, Firebots

          Additional Awards

          Congratulations to the Teams and individuals that earned the remaining awards at the Orange County Regional! See the list here.

          Instagram Highlights

          Don’t Miss Out on the Best Moments of Orange County Regional. Watch Our Instagram Highlight Tab!

          Hueneme Port Regional – 2023

          Hueneme Port Regional – 2023

          Congratulations to the 44 Teams PLUS all the Mentors, Volunteers, Sponsors, Friends and Family members from all over California, Hawaii, Arizona, and as far away as the Netherlands and Mexico who participated in the FIRST Robotics Competition Hueneme Port Regional from March 2-5, 2023.

          The regional started out with a high school junior offering a Jimmy Hendrix style guitar rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, proclamations from the County Board of Supervisors, the Mayor of Port Hueneme, U.S. Representative Julia Brownley and a presentation of a $5,000 check from the Community Benefit Fund, the City of Port Hueneme, and the Port.

          Throughout the event, gracious professionalism was displayed by Team 4 in helping to set up the  field, Team 4481 from the Netherlands who helped anywhere needed, and many who helped a struggling team finish their robot build.  All received the new Gracious Professionalism pin from FIRST California.

          There was a marriage proposal where Brian Martin, game announcer, popped the question with the help of his team and SHE SAID YES!!

          As far as robotic competition, you could not ask for more entertainment.   In the first round, the #1 alliance was upset by the #8 alliance and with the new double elimination format they really had to work their way back.  The finals started out with a tie, 148-148. then as the play went on, they were neck and neck, a field mechanical failure and finally the #1 alliance ended up on top.  5 matches in the final round!  At one point a high score match record was set.

          We’d like to extend an immense THANK YOU to all the sponsors, mentors and volunteers who contributed to this very successful Regional. 

          We hope you too had a memorable experience at the Hueneme Port Regional Regional! 

          Thanks to Rynn Grogin, we’ve capture some of those great moments from the Regional for you. Feel free to find your team and download pics in the gallery below.

          LIST OF TEAMS ADVANCING TO CHAMPIONSHIPS IN HOUSTON!!!

          The following teams and individuals earned top honors at the Hueneme Port Regional and earned their way to compete at the FIRST Championships in Houston, April 19-22, 2023

          FIRST Impact Award

          The FIRST Impact Award represents the true spirit of FIRST.  It honors the team that best serves as a model for other teams to emulate and that embodies the goals of FIRST.  It remains FIRST’s most prestigious team award.  The FIRST Impact Award is presented to the team judged to have the most significant measurable impact of its partnerships among its participants, school, and community over a sustained period, not just a single build season or school year. The winner is able to demonstrate progress towards FIRST’s mission of transforming our culture.  The recipient will be invited to the FIRST Championship where it will compete for the FIRST Impact Award against the winners from all the other qualifying events.

          • Team 4, Team 4 Element from Van Nuys, CA

            Engineering Inspiration

            The Engineering Inspiration Award celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school and community.  This team will advance to the Championships and receive a $5000 NASA grant toward registration.

            Regional Winners

             

            Dean’s List Finalist

            In an effort to recognize the leadership and dedication of FIRST’s most outstanding FRC students, the Kamen family sponsors an award for selected top students known as the FIRST Dean’s List. This award celebrates a student’s outstanding leadership and effectiveness in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering and engineers, both within their school, as well as their community. FIRST Dean’s List Finalists will compete at the championship for the FIRST Dean’s List.

            • Sienna Simantob from Team 1661, Griffitrons
            • Giselle Ng from Team 2429, La Canada Engineering Club

            Woodie Flowers Finalist Award

            • Brian Mendoza from Team 2429, La Canada Engineering Club

            Additional Awards

            Congratulations to the Teams and individuals that earned the remaining awards at the Hueneme Port Regional! See the list here.

            Instagram Highlights

            Don’t Miss Out on the Best Moments of Hueneme Port Regional – Watch Our Instagram Highlight Tab!

            Naval Internships and Career Opportunities

            Naval Internships and Career Opportunities

            Naval Internship & Career Opportunities

            On October 22, 2022, representatives from NAVAIR, NAVFAC and NAVSEA joined Velma Lomax with FIRST California to discuss intern success stories and exciting internship and career opportunities with the Navy.

            Below, please find valuable resources offered during the FIRST California Career Chat.

            • Summary of Summer Internships and Scholarships/Fellowships – NOTE: The SEAP program is for High School students.
            • Program Flyers for SMART and NREIP
            • Naval Horizons Essay Contest (deadline 11/28/22) – $200 prize for up to 5000 winners!
            • Replay Video of the presentation
            • Slide Deck of the presentation

            Summary of Opportunities

            Program Flyers

            Essay Contest – win $200

            Naval STEM Overview

            PG&E Corporation Foundation Grant

            PG&E Corporation Foundation Grant

            Grants for FRC and FTC teams!

            The PG&E Corporation Foundation and Patti Poppe’s (PG&E Corporation CEO) family foundation, DreamMakers Fund, are graciously sponsoring FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition teams in Northern California and all of their service areas for the 2022-23 FIRST season! Their program support also includes sponsorship of FTC and FRC competitions and events across Northern California.

            Below is Patti Poppe’s sponsorship announcement during the FIRST Robotics Competition Silicon Valley Regional earlier this year.

            If your team is interested in applying for PG&E team funding, for the 2022-23 FIRST season, one of the team’s two lead Coach/Mentors must complete the application by deadlines listed below.

            Application open to FTC & FRC teams in the PG&E service areas that meet at least one of the PG&E funding priorities.

            • PG&E employee mentored team
            • Title I school 
            • Over 50% under-represented team members (Female, Non-Binary, Black/African American, Hispanic, Native American, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Students with Disabilities)
            • Public school

            Application Deadlines:

            FTC 
            9/30/22 – Priority
            10/28/22 – Final

            FRC
            10/26/22 – Final

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