FIRST Technology Challenge

All I can say is "Wow!"  I've been to St. Louis for the World Championship three times now, but this year was far and away the most amazing experience I've had since joining the FIRST community.  From incredible robots to awesome people, this year's FTC World Championship was a showcase for all the best of what FIRST has to offer. Volunteer Judges For starters, let talk about our Volunteers.  The week began long before teams arrived, with an amazing crew of Volunteers coming in to organize, setup playing fields and put all the pieces in place for a successful week.  I'm convinced FTC has the most fun, energetic and dedicated Volunteers out there.  These men and women take time away from their jobs and families and use their personal vacation time and finances to ensure our students have the best experience possible.  The amount of attention they pay to every detail is incredible and the concern on their faces when something isn't quite right shows just how

By Stacey DelVecchio Stacey DelVecchio, President, Society of Women Engineers In my many years in engineering, one of my career highlights has been propping open the door for more women to enter the industry. I love my job and the many benefits a creative, collaborative career in engineering gives me. It’s an honor to pay it forward and encourage more women to be that engineer and shape the future, as well as our landscape. That’s why it’s a pleasure to deliver the closing remarks at the FTC Closing Ceremonies. It’s inspiring to see so many young people experiencing engineering in a fun, hands-on scenario that highlights all the amazing way our profession brings people together. As the president of the Society of Women Engineers , I represent our 27,000 global members committed to showing girls why engineering is an amazing career choice for everyone, as well as supporting women at every juncture of their careers . I’m happy to deliver the closing remarks because as this inspiring eve

Hashtags and robots and prizes – oh my! This year at FIRST Championships, there’s some new fun thrown into the mix for FRC and FTC teams. Your team can participate in the FedEx Innovation Challenge , an interactive competition that will take place Thursday, April 24 – Friday, April 25. The Innovation Challenge is open to teams competing in the 2014 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Championship and the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) World Championship. A grand prize of $5,000 will be awarded to one FTC Team for use towards their future FIRST initiative! Part problem solving, part creative challenge, this fun and engaging competition will consist of math and science problems, scavenger hunt activities, photo ops, FedEx innovation trivia and more. Best of all, it’s easy to play! Participating teams are required to submit responses in the form of a photo using either Twitter or Instagram. All responses will be judged on the accuracy of the answer, creativity of the response and the level o

Congratulations!  Every FTC season is part sprint and part marathon.  Milestones like the game announcement, Kickoff weekend, and of course World Championship, are mainly sprints with hundreds of moving parts.  String enough sprints together, with some chances to catch our breath in between, and the season feels like a marathon.  Regardless of the analogy that works for you, we're reaching the end of another successful year. I hope your year has been a good one.  The 2013/2014 season has been filled with great things.  Teams have continued to grow.  We now have about 4,000 FTC teams worldwide, over 3,300 in North America alone.  That represents over 35% annual growth this year.  The implementation of FTC Super-Regional Championship events gave teams more opportunities to compete and improve.  FTC continued to expand options for teams with the MATRIX kit and additional allowed materials.  The results of these changes can be seen in the amazing robots you've developed

Mark Seidman, a computer engineer in Rhode Island, was already familiar with FIRST and robotics clubs when he was approached to provide technical support at the state FTC Championship. Mark Seidman, center, works to setup an FTC field at a Rhode Island competition. As a member of the Newport, RI, Aquidneck Island Robotics 4-H club, Mark had already mentored Air Strike, a FIRST Robotics Competition team, since 2008 and was also familiar with FIRST  LEGO League.  Erin Flynn, the state FTC Affiliate Partner, was looking for someone to take the role of Field Technical Adviser and Mark agreed to take on the role. "Mark stepped in and, with his quiet way, helped me figure out how the game should be run, how teams should prepare and what needed to be done at the tournament," Erin said. While Mark was familiar with robotics, he said his first tournament was nerve racking because he had never been on the organizing side of a robotics competition. "After I realized what position I

This is a story about the relationship and impact of a high school teacher and FTC Mentor and one of his students and team members. As an FTC team Mentor, I've heard various perspectives of this story from the teacher, the student, and both parents, over the course of the last three years. Tyler spent his first three years of high school dreaming of becoming a professional snowboarder. His focus on snowboarding detracted from his schoolwork and he didn't find an academic interest or passion beyond snowboarding. Unfortunately, Tyler's snowboarding skills didn't quite match his dreams. Tyler's schoolwork, or lack thereof, left him in a precarious position regarding grades and college prospects. At the beginning of his senior year, he found himself in Mr. Schildknecht's Physics class. Unlike any course before, the problem solving and nature of Physics captured Tyler's interest along with a growing respect and camaraderie with Mr. Schildknecht. As it turns ou

Nine years ago, when Rita van der Lee was coaching FIRST  LEGO League for the second time, she joined forces with Doede ten Cate, an enthusiastic and energetic team dad. "Together, we were a perfect coaching duo.  Nothing was too crazy for us and Doede knew how to look forward and think outside of the box," said Rita. As Doede's sons grew older, he learned about other FIRST  programs, and was especially interested in FTC.  He poured a lot of effort, time and money into getting the first Netherlands teams established and starting a tournament in The Hague.  Rita said his goal was to host a tournament with more than 40 teams and he visited schools and personally made sure they had the materials they needed to compete. Tragically, Doede was killed in an accident in 2011. Rita van der Lee After the passing of her friend, Rita was inspired to help make Doede's vision a reality.  When FIRST Brabant , which is also the FLL partner in the Netherlands, became the FTC affiliate

Your team has spent weeks, even month, designing and building the perfect robot. Team members have all contributed great ideas and energy to the project, and you all arrive at competition psyched to show off what you've accomplished. Inspection, Judging, and Competition Matches all go well, but at the end of the day, another team wins. Disappointment happens. Of course you will be sad you didn't win when you worked so hard! And you are naturally going to want to figure out why you didn't win – what about your robot, your team’s performance, or how the day went could have been different? The engineering design process is about learning from failure. When you were designing, building, and programming your robot, there were ideas that didn't work, and you had to figure out why and make adjustments. Sometimes, even with modifications, an idea doesn't work and you have to scrap that robot completely and start over. The same is true of competition. Some matches will go we

In an effort to meet popular demand, the FTC Game Design Committee announced today that the 2014-15 challenge would be a water game. FTC GDC announces water game for 2014-15 While they would not release specifics on scoring or game play, the committee did release information on what teams could expect in terms of game elements and field obstacles. "The field will contain a number of exciting elements we've never tried before," said Michael Coleman, a long-time game designer.  "We'll basically have two to three kiddie-type pools inside the twelve-foot perimeter, ramps, floats and beach balls." Mannie Lowe, another member of the committee, said he expects teams to face a real challenge when it comes to operating their robots in and around the water.  He said teams will really need to stretch their imaginations to come up with ways to water-proof the robots. Of course, the name of the game and specifics of scoring are not yet available.  Teams can expect more i