by Rebecca Berggren | Oct 4, 2019 | Blog, Silicon Valley
Congratulations to the 59 Teams from California, Minnesota, Turkey and China PLUS all the Mentors, Volunteers, Sponsors, Friends and Family members who participated in the Silicon Valley FIRST Robotics Regional from March 28-31, 2019!
ADVANCING TO CHAMPIONSHIPS IN HOUSTON!!!
The following teams and individuals earned top honors at the Silicon Valley Regional and earned their way to compete at the FIRST Championships in Houston in April.
Regional Chairman’s Award
Team 2220, Blue Twilight from Eagan, Minnesota
The Chairman’s 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 Chairman’s 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 Chairman’s Award against the winners from all the other qualifying events.
What the judges had to say …
“This team truly inspires
By connecting all the WIRES
Changing the world order
This robot team with no border
From establishing a beachhead
On the old farmstead
To making innovations
Even at the United Nations
Inspiring beyond their quota
This team from Minnesota
The RCA Award of FIRST light
Goes to team Blue Twilight“
Engineering Inspiration
Team 649, M-SET Fish from Saratoga, CA
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.
What the judges had to say …
“This team’s sponsorship of FLL teams is a matter of pride, and their partnership with 4 award winning FTC teams shows a commitment to the FIRST mission. They lead a hands-on class at a community youth facility and workshops at their local library, impacting over 700 middle school students led by over 100 students affiliated with this team.
MMMM-agnificent communication skills demonstrated by students describing how they spread their SPLASH to meet the FIRST mission and strong support from their school, like a MANTA from heaven, in the form of an identity-affirming lab, means there is no need to FISH for mechanical, science or engineering team resources.”
Regional Winners
Team 254, The Cheesy Poofs from San Jose, CA
Team 5499, The Bay Orangutans from Berkeley, CA
Team 6418, The Missfits from San Francisco, CA
Rookie All-Star Award
Team 7667, OtterBots from Napa, CA
This award celebrates a 1st year team demonstrating an early but strong partnership effort, implementing the mission of FIRST. Its winner understands what FIRST is really trying to accomplish and realizes that technical work is fun and challenging, made better by building a partnership among team, community and school. This is not an easy challenge for a rookie team but the judges want to recognize and reward one team that got it right.
What the judges had to say …
“This rookie team built a machine with a BUCKET for their youthful enthusiasm. Their carnivorous robot took good care of its owners, who in turn made sure the bot was well-fed on its favorite foods – cargo balls, fish, and other invertebrates.
This young team contacted dozens of organizations before finding supporters to fund their team. They campaigned to be the most inclusive team they could be, obtaining waivers so middle school students in their community could join. This winning team and their robot “Dozer” have a good home in the back of an autoshop, nestled between the vineyards.”
Regional Finalists
(Advancing to Championships because of 2 Wild Cards)
Team 972, Iron Claw from Los Gatos, CA
Team 7308, Deep Vision from Los Altos, CA
Dean’s List Finalist
FIRST Dean’s List Finalist – Kevin Wang from Team 199
FIRST Dean’s List Finalist – Kaitlyn Kumar from Team 1967
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.
Woodie Flowers Finalist Award
Alvin Cheng from Team 1967, The Janksters.
See scanned 35mm photo below at the 1999 Silicon Valley Regional, where Alvin (on the right in Hawaiian shirt) participated as a student – he’s not aged a day in 20 years!
Awards
Congratulations to the Teams and individuals that earned the remaining awards at the Silicon Valley Regional! See the list here.
Press
ABC 7 News
Link to full article and video here.
Support
An immense THANK YOU to all the Sponsors who contributed to this very successful Regional with funding, mentors, volunteers and enthusiasm! Regional Sponsors include the Brin Wojcicki Foundation, the KLA Foundation, Qualcomm, Oracle, Bosch, Arm and Atlassian.
Thank you to Philip Roan from FIRST’s Strategic Partner Bosch for sharing their broad portfolio and how they support FIRST teams a
round the world.
The Silicon Valley community graciously thanks KLA for their generous support of teams and sponsorship of the Silicon Valley Regional.
Checkout the KLA video and speech by Jijen Vazhaeparambil, Senior VP and General Manager.
We hope you too had a memorable experience at the Silicon Valley Regional Regional. We’d love to hear your stories. Please consider sharing them with us here in the comments below or on our facebook page. Photo and video links welcome!
by Rebecca Berggren | Oct 2, 2019 | Blog, Ventura
Congratulations to the 42 Teams from California and Switzerland PLUS all the Mentors, Volunteers, Sponsors, Friends and Family members who participated in the Ventura FIRST Robotics Regional from March 27-30, 2019!
ADVANCING TO CHAMPIONSHIPS IN HOUSTON!!!
The following teams and individuals earned top honors at the Ventura Regional and earned their way to compete at the FIRST Championships in Houston in April.
Regional Chairman’s Award
Team 4201, Vitruvian Bots from El Segundo, CA
The Chairman’s 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 Chairman’s 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 Chairman’s Award against the winners from all the other qualifying events.
What the judges had to say …
“This team exists to inspire students to become learners and innovators. Using exploration and inclusion in a spacecraft designed to support FIRST crew members. They are launching many to infinity and beyond. Their home is a small galaxy in the universe of FIRST.“
Engineering Inspiration
Team 2486, CocoNuts from Flagstaff, AZ
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.
What the judges had to say …
“Houston-we have a problem. This team has the solution with over 40,000 hours connecting to other teams, producing training programs, spreading enthusiasm, and building a legacy. Their influence lights up the universe. Mars rover, Mars rover-send the CocoNuts right over!”
Regional Winners
Team 5199, Dolphin Robots from Outer Space from San Juan Capistrano, CA
Team 4414, HighTide from Ventura, CA
Team 6934, Scorps from Camarillo, CA
Rookie All-Star Award
Team 7650, Monte Pacis Robotics from Sankt Gallen, Switzerland
This award celebrates a 1st year team demonstrating an early but strong partnership effort, implementing the mission of FIRST. Its winner understands what FIRST is really trying to accomplish and realizes that technical work is fun and challenging, made better by building a partnership among team, community and school. This is not an easy challenge for a rookie team but the judges want to recognize and reward one team that got it right.
What the judges had to say …
“This team’s inspiration and dedication to each other has outweighed the best. The calculated effort of this team allowed them to build a functionally designed robot. The robotic movement was hands down as precise as a Swiss Watch’s timing.”
Regional Finalists
(Advancing to Championships because of 3 Wild Cards)
Team 294, Beach Cities Robotics from Redondo Beach, CA
Team 114, Eaglestrike from Los Altos, CA
Team 7887, Final Frontier from Camarillo, CA
Dean’s List Finalist
FIRST Dean’s List Finalist – Isabel Guerrero from Team 3512
What the judges had to say …
“This finalist started with a passion for FLL and Robotics. This has grown into her commitment to business and financial acuity for the team with grant writing, fund raising, balance sheets and planning. Her enthusiasms, energy, and attitude values everyone and will be useful in her future goals in medicine. “
FIRST Dean’s List Finalist – Giovanni Giacalone from Team 1138
What the judges had to say …
“This finalist has a great appreciation for all the opportunities and assistance he received. He is humble and believes that his priority should be paying it forward with summer camps, mentoring FLL teams and starting a FTC team. He is an expert in CAD with a Solidworks Certification and teaches freshmen design principles which will be useful to his future in Robotics Bio medicine.”
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.
Woodie Flowers Finalist Award
Fazlul Zubair from Team 4201, The Vitruvian Bots.
Learn more about Fazlul in this recent post about Raytheon’s support of FIRST.
Additional Awards
Congratulations to the Teams and individuals that earned the remaining awards at the Ventura Regional! See the list here.
Press
VENTURA COUNTY STAR
Link to full article and video here.
Support
An immense THANK YOU to all the Sponsors who contributed to this very successful Regional with funding, mentors, volunteers and enthusiasm! Regional Sponsors include the Gene Haas Foundation and Ventura College.
We hope you too had a memorable experience at the Ventura Regional. We’d love to hear your stories. Please consider sharing them with us here in the comments below or on our facebook page. Photo and video links welcome!
(Cover photo credit: Team 4414, HighTide)
by Rebecca Berggren | Oct 6, 2014 | Blog
Inventor and FIRST Founder Dean Kamen launched the 2014 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) season on January 4th with the Kickoff of a new robotics game called AERIAL ASSIST to nearly 70,000 high-school students on more than 2,700 teams in 92 cities around the globe via live NASA-TV broadcast and webcast. At each Kickoff location, students were shown the AERIAL ASSIST playing field and received a Kit of Parts made up of motors, batteries, a control system, a PC, and a mix of automation components – and only limited instructions.
6 Weeks to Design, Build and Test Robots
Stop Build Deadline is February 18th
Working with adult mentors, students will have only six weeks to design, build, program, and test their robots to meet the season’s engineering challenge. The Stop Build deadline is on February 18th at midnight. Once these young inventors build a robot, their teams will participate in one or more of the 98 Regional and District competitions that measure the effectiveness of each robot, the power of collaboration, and the determination of students.
6 Regional FIRST Robotics Competitions in California
About AERIAL ASSIST
AERIAL ASSIST is played by two competing Alliances of three robots each on a flat 25’ x 54’ foot field, straddled by a truss suspended just over five feet above the floor. The objective is to score as many balls in goals as possible during a two (2)-minute and 30-second match. The more Alliances score their ball in their goals, and the more they work together to do it, the more points their Alliance receives.
The match begins with one 10-second Autonomous Period in which robots operate independently of driver. Each robot may begin with a ball and attempt to score it in a goal. Alliances earn bonus points for scoring balls in this mode and for any of their robots that move in to their zones. Additionally, each high/low pair of goals will be designated “hot” for five seconds, but the order of which side is first is randomized. For each ball scored in a “hot” goal, the Alliance earns additional bonus points.
For the rest of the match, drivers remotely control robots from behind a protective wall. Once all balls in autonomous are scored, only one ball is re-entered in to play, and the Alliances must cycle a single ball as many times as possible for the remainder of the match. With the single ball, they try to maximize their points earned by throwing balls over the truss, catching balls launched over the truss, and scoring in the high and low goals on the far side of the field.
Alliances receive large bonuses for “assists,” which are earned for each robot that has possession of the ball in a zone as the ball moves down the field. Points are awarded for each action per the table below.
