407 points - Cougars 4251 and PowerStackers 5029 1/14/12
254 points - Say Watt? 3539 and Shenanigans 4356 12/3/2011
Cougars win FTC Central Ohio Qualifying Tournament
Written by Jamie Diamond
Sunday, 29 January 2012 22:59
The Cougars Robotics Team, FTC team# 4251, won both the Inspire Award and were Captain of the Winning Alliance at the FTC Central Ohio Qualifying Tournament. The kids went undefeated during the 5 qualifying rounds to be the top seed for the alliance rounds. During round 2 they set a new National high score of 407 only to have their score beaten minutes later with a 444 coming out of the Newark Delaware tournament. They went 2-0 in the semi-finals and 2-1 in the finals to win the tournament. The Inspire Award is explained below (directly from the FIRST website).
The Inspire Award is the most prestigious FTC award, and is given to the team that truly embodied the ‘challenge’ of the FTC program. The team that receives this award is chosen by the judges as having best represented a role model FIRST Tech Challenge Team. The team that receives this award is a top contender for all other judging categories and is a strong competitor on the field.
Judges should use match performance, observations made during interviews and in the pit area, and the team’s Engineering Notebook as equal factors in determining the winner of this award.
The Inspire Award winning team will receive an invitation to advance to the next level event. If presented at a Qualifying Tournament, the team will receive an automatic invitation to participate in a Championship Tournament. If presented at a Championship Tournament, the team will receive an automatic invitation to participate at the World Championship Event.
For those of you who didn't get to attend the 2011/2012 FTC World Championships last week in St. Louis here's a couple things you might be interested in.
The first is an opportunity to give us your feedback on FTC in a unique/fun fashion. Dr. Woodie Flowers asked for any and all feed back on your thoughts about improving FTC - the only catch is you've got to do it in three words!
3Words@usfirst.org is the email address to provide this input. As you can imagine many of the teams at FTC World Championships gave us their ideas - we want yours too.
Two new sponsorships were also announced. Alcoa is the newest FTC sponsor with a multi-year commitment to growing teams both domestically and internationally. The LEGO Foundation also committed to $150K in FLL to FTC graduation grants. FIRST will add $100K to that for a total of $250K in grants for FLL teams that want to move to FTC this year. Details on how those grants will work will come soon - prior to registration opening.
Finally, FTC announced a rule change with regard to allowable materials used to build robots. In addition to the TETRIX robotics building system, a second robotics building system called "MATRIX" will also be allowed. Teams will continue to be required to use a LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT controller and Samantha WiFi communication system to ensure a level playing field and competition experience. You can check out the new MATRIX options at www.matrixrobotics.com. FTC will pilot the use of this kit in selected areas and the 2012/2013 rules will allow these materials to be used in the FTC competition.
Thank you all for a great year and keep an eye on the FIRST website, FTC social media, and this blog for more previews of what's coming next season. We think you'll be excited to see the continued improvements in the program!
The Romanian FTC event just occurred. This is a second year event and attracted teams from all over Eastern Europe. Although I don't speak Romanian - a well produced 7 minute story on Romanian National TV aired recently and can be seen here: http://www.tvr.ro/articol.php?id=122774
Felicitări Romania!
Did you know....
Population: 21,612,000 Capital: Bucharest; 1,853,000 Area: 238,391 square kilometers (92,043 square miles) Language: Romanian, Hungarian, German Religion: Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, Catholic Currency: Leu Life Expectancy: 71 GDP per Capita: U.S. $7,600 Literacy Percent: 98
Check out Wired's website this weekend for all your space needs: the SpaceX launch on Saturday, May 19, and an annular solar eclipse in Sunday, May 20.
The Inspire Award is the most prestigious FTC award, and is given to the team that truly embodied the ‘challenge’ of the FTC program. The team that receives this award is chosen by the judges as having best represented a role model FIRST Tech Challenge Team. The team that receives this award is a top contender for all other judging categories and is a strong competitor on the field.
