Good Afternoon Teams,
I’ve just finished the first episode of FRC Live on the stage next to Pit Administration. We couldn’t arrange a live feed this year, but a recording was made and I’ll let you know as soon as we can get it posted on the web.
National Instruments joined me on stage to announce the new cRIO FRC2 which will be included in the 2012 rookie kit of parts and which will be available for purchase sometime in the fall. The cRIO FRC2 chassis will be less than $300. The new upgrade kit which includes 3 modules and the cRIO FRC2 chassis will be less than $550. All existing cRIO modules are compatible with the new cRIO FRC2. You can visit National Instrument’s booth for more details today or watch National Instruments and the usfirst.org website for more details coming soon.
Kate and Collin joined me on stage to thank Andy Mark for their role in creating and maintaining the FIRSTChoice system which successfully allowed for better personalization of the 2011 FRC Kit of Parts. They shared FRC’s plans to expand FIRSTChoice options for teams in the coming season.
I answered a few questions from the crowd and from the “notes for Bill” box.
One person asked about the thought process behind having two FRC fields in the pits. As the FIRST family of programs grows, we need to ensure all programs are represented at Championship. In order to ensure FTC and FLL fields have a place of equal prominence in the Dome, the decision was made to reduce the number of FRC fields. Rather than move one division into the pits, we went with having two fields in the pits and developed the plan to ensure all teams had time in the dome. The Friday night stage performance was not the primary reason for the new dome layout.
I’ll return to the stage at 3:30 to discuss what happens behind the scenes at FRC. If you can, please join me.
See you then.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
Sitting here in the Dome... it appears the concert stage is the BIGGest reason for matches in the pits. I hope FIRST won't put celebrities FIRST next year. :(
From the concert: This is pretty cool. These students deserve this time in the spotlight... Thank you FIRST.
Just out of curiosity...
Is there a reason they couldn't have had the concert at a different location? Or at least put FLL/Einstein Fields on the stage itself to free up more room? Having the fields so close together caused a lot of problems in that the speakers from FTC would interfere with FRC and vice versa. Also, having a pit area right next to a pit field made it EXTREMELY difficult to talk to judges and other teams/teammates, etc. As if it isn't already loud enough in there, they had the emcee's voice blaring in our ears on top of it.
Also, the biggest problem was the lack of seating. How can we fit 86 teams worth of people in less seats than are at a regional event? We couldn't have anything in the stands and we didn't have enough room for our whole team during the eliminations.
On behalf of a lot of people at the CMP... we are asking to please go back to having all the fields in the dome. If you are going to put the fields in the pits, you need to have a convention center that is twice as big, and a place that you can put twice as many seats.
Sad. It is obvious to everybody that first is putting willie before the students. first use to be about inspiring students about technology, now the mission has changed. dean thinks it is better to be cool like a rockstar. We are not cool and do not care. Our self worth does not depend on being cool.
Can you really say that with a straight face that Willie was not a deciding factor to put 176 teams in the pit fields? Please admit your mistake and return to your roots .
I agree with the lack of seating at the matches. The fields were too close to each other and it was hard to hear the announcers. Also, please do something about teams saving rows and rows of seats for the entire weekend. Everyone would like to sit with their team to watch their matches and it's almost impossible to do so with these large teams claiming the stands for themselves with boards, backpacks, signs, etc.
Thank goodness others are speaking up.
Matches in the pit were overcrowded and unsafe, and with inadequate seating our team was unable to watch matches. Ironically one student twisted his ankle navigating the tight and crowded grandstands, and even with his ankle wrapped, and walking on crutches, he was turned away from handicap "vip" seating at the closing ceremony and had to hike up to the nosebleed section. Closing ceremony... oy. It was crowded in Atlanta... it was absurd in St Louis. Some of our team simply left, because sitting in the upper-upper stratosphere was pointless. I agree with the points Alex made, and I think John sees the truth as well. For everything that works about FIRST and Championships I am thankful, but these problems are quite serious.
Post a Comment