Atlanta Championship Update: 4/19/08
Our final day at the Championship was an amazing one. we got
up early in order to get the best seats for our matches
today. Our robot performed quite well, but we lost both our
matches to some amazing teams. Our final record, then, was 2
wins and 5 losses, placing us 66th out of 85 teams in the
Newton Division.
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After the Newton champions, Teams 968, 233, and 60, had
been crowned in an intense set of matches, we proceeded to
Einstein Field. There, between the presentation of national
awards, the best teams in the world competed. Newton fell to
Galileo in the third round of a penalty-ridden matchup.
Curie beat Archimedes, for a Curie-Galileo final. Galileo's
alliance of 1114, 217, and 148 was ultimately triumphant.
Our team didn't win any awards, but all those that did were
each exceptional in those particular areas and truly
deserved to win.
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To cap off the season, after finishing packing up our pit
area and crating our robot for shipping back home, everyone
went to Centennial Park for the end-of-season party. It was
carnival-style, with inflated obstacle courses and
activities, games, karaoke, a climbing wall, rides, prizes
and food. And then, at the very end, a spectacular fireworks
show. Hooray for FIRST Overdrive 2008!
Atlanta Championship Update: 4/18/08
Today was the first day of qualification matches. The
competition officially began with the Opening Ceremonies,
which recognized the major sponsors of FIRST and
acknowledged several award winners as well as including
statements by Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST, Woodie
Flowers, FIRST advisor, and Paul Guidonis, the president of
FIRST who'd been with us at our legislative presentation.
They were also joined by former President George H. W. Bush,
who was one of the major supporters of FIRST at its
incenption. Qualifying matches began shortly afterwards. Our
robot performed well, but our alliances were not always
effective. We lost our first two matches and won the next
two, leaving us with a record of 2-2 and a ranking of 51 out
of 85 teams in our division. Tomorrow, we have an additional
two matches before the elimination rounds begin.
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After matches today, we took a group photo (that we hope to
have posted here soon) and visited the Georgia Aquarium,
which was a very cool, interactive aquarium. Tomorrow will
be the last day of competition and the FIRST Finale party in
the evening. We're all looking forward to it.
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EDIT: We also gave our Chairman's Award presentation, which
was well-recieved.
Atlanta Championship Update: 4/17/08
Today was the first day of the Championship in Atlanta. We had several practice matches in the Georgia Dome and continued to work on the robot. It was a somewhat glitchy day for us, as a number of small things went wrong that caused us to not do very well; some connections were wrong, the chain came off once. We made some adjustments to the autonomous code--with the encoders on the wheels working, we can now drive based on distance, rather than time interval. It was really cool to watch all of the different robots--the best worldwide--playing the game, and to see some of the really nnovative desgns. There's teams from all around the country here, as well as international teams from such places as Mexico and Israel. Afterwards, we had dinner at the CNN tower food court, then played in the fountain in Centennial Park. Tomorrow, official qualifying matches begin.
Atlanta Championship Update: 3/16/08
The team arrived safely in Atlanta today after several hours of travelling. A small crew went into the pits in the Georgia Dome to uncrate the robot, which looked none the worse for travelling all the way from Tacoma. Afterwards, we all had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Tomorrow, we'll be competing in practice rounds and working more on refining our robot's driving. It's going to be a very exciting competition!
Atlanta Championship Update
Hello from Phoenix! The first leg of our journey is complete. In about an hour we'll be on a plane to Atlanta, where we'll get ready to compete in the FRC Championship. Our team is in the Newton division (out of four, Newton, Curie, Galileo, and Archimedes) and will be competing there with over eighty other teams. Streaming video of the competition is available here: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/robotics/first/atlanta-finals-2008/