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Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
aeronca65t
Great Pumpkin
Offline
Tomorrow is the Kickoff for the FIRST Robotics 2008 Competition.
This is my 10th year as a team mentor with FIRST Robotics.
We are Team #11 (like my car!) and there is over 2000 teams.
Team Number was assigned when you joined FIRST, so we are one of the original teams.
I've been lucky enough to meet Dean Kamen and even had dinner in his house twice (with about 100 other people).
Starting tomorrow, each FIRST team will spend the next six weeks (with very few nights off) doing the "build". I'll be away on vaction next week (in FLA) during the "design phase". Most of my work comes in the last 3 or 4 weeks as we make a mad rush to fabricate parts (often on my CNC mill or lathe). During the last week, we will surely work past midnight almost every night. The FIRST Competition "game" changes every year, so we always end up building a completely new robot. The "game" is kept secret until tomorrow, so no one gets a head start.
If you are doing nothing on Saturday and have the NASA cable TV channel, check it out.
Better yet, seek out your local FIRST team and pitch in! I've done everything from getting pizza to welding robot frames.
I know that some older people think that "the youth of today" are spoiled and lazy. This only indicates to me that they've never been involved in FIRST.
FIRST 2008 Kickoff Info
https://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=418
Our Team #11 two year ago.
Our robot "hanging" (for extra points) in a previous competition
The FIRST "Mantra" we preach to all our studnets
This is my 10th year as a team mentor with FIRST Robotics.
We are Team #11 (like my car!) and there is over 2000 teams.
Team Number was assigned when you joined FIRST, so we are one of the original teams.
I've been lucky enough to meet Dean Kamen and even had dinner in his house twice (with about 100 other people).
Starting tomorrow, each FIRST team will spend the next six weeks (with very few nights off) doing the "build". I'll be away on vaction next week (in FLA) during the "design phase". Most of my work comes in the last 3 or 4 weeks as we make a mad rush to fabricate parts (often on my CNC mill or lathe). During the last week, we will surely work past midnight almost every night. The FIRST Competition "game" changes every year, so we always end up building a completely new robot. The "game" is kept secret until tomorrow, so no one gets a head start.
If you are doing nothing on Saturday and have the NASA cable TV channel, check it out.
Better yet, seek out your local FIRST team and pitch in! I've done everything from getting pizza to welding robot frames.
I know that some older people think that "the youth of today" are spoiled and lazy. This only indicates to me that they've never been involved in FIRST.
FIRST 2008 Kickoff Info
https://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=418
Our Team #11 two year ago.
Our robot "hanging" (for extra points) in a previous competition
The FIRST "Mantra" we preach to all our studnets
