FIRST Robotics Competition Blog

Sing at the FIRST Championship

Think you (and maybe a friend) have what it takes to sing the National Anthem of the United States at the FIRST Championship this April in front of, oh, to a first approximation, a million people? Now’s your chance! We’re having a little contest to select the next FIRST idol. Check out the details here.

2016 Game Non-Hints

Seems as if we can’t post anything without it being interpreted by someone as a game hint. There were a few fun 2016 game non-hints that popped up before Kickoff this year, I thought it might be interesting to share.

The ‘map’ in the 2016 teaser video

A team member from FRC Team 4183, Bit Buckets, from Tucson, Arizona, USA, captured an image of the ‘map’ in the teaser video and performed some perspective correction to yield this:

As you probably know by now, this wasn’t a map, but a blueprint* of the robot the team in the teaser was working on. You can even see a hint of the robot’s ‘face’ in the upper left of the image. Also, note that someone seems to be pointing to the initials ‘bp’. These are the initials of the Disney artist who drew this image, Brad Pascual.

The ‘Duck Army’ video

You may remember this blog from September, when we posted the Duck Army video and made reference to the Visigoths descending on Rome**.This was not intended to be a hint at all, though I did get an email shortly after I posted this from someone who knew the game referring to this as a hint. Maybe it was a subconscious hint? But it wasn’t in my conscious mind when we posted it.

WPI Survey Support

Two WPI students, Francisco Sanchez and Travis Simoneau, are surveying FRC teams as part of their studies. They are examining the composition of veteran FRC Teams in relation to quantitative team data. In order to obtain information for this study, they are trying to reach veteran FRC team 5 years old or older. The survey will be used to attempt to understand what traits contribute to overall team success, based on longevity of teams, team competition success, and other factors. Your participation may help them find traits that correlate with success, which could support new FRC teams in developing into sustaining, successful teams.

Please help their study be successful by participating! The survey will take between 15 and 30 minutes to complete. Click here to take the survey.

Questions about the survey may be directed right to Francisco (fmsanchez@WPI.EDU) and Travis (tjsimoneau@WPI.EDU).

Frank

*If you don’t know what a ‘blueprint’ is, ask Mentors who are over 50 or so. You may need to wake them up to ask, though, as it’s likely their nap time.

** Nothing against the Visigoths by the way, I’m sure you would find them to be fine people once you got to know them.