Saturday, March 10, 2007

NYCFIRST Update #28 – March 10, 2007

A newsletter for the NYCFIRST robotics community in New York City and the surrounding area. If you want to be removed from this list type “remove” in the subject are and hit return.

Compiled by Norman Scott
NYCFIRST Registration coordinator
norscot@aol.com
917-992-3734

New blog: http://normsrobotics.blogspot.com/
I'm starting a new blog where all these newsletters will be available and where updates will be posted as they come in. Feel free to comment.

Region 4 Robotic PD: March 8
Thanks to another great job by Region 4 Robotic Staff Developer Stephen Shapinsky for another great day of robotics as teacher/coaches from middle and elementary schools broke new ground in developing their skills. Plans were made for the Pentathlon Challenge, with a tentative date in early June.

FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) Regionals at Javits, Mar. 16-18
FRC high school tournament (with the NYC regionals at Javits on March 16-18.
I will be there all 3 days volunteering at the VIP registration desk, so stop by and say hello. You are all VIP’s to us.

FLL Demos Sat/Sun, Mar. 17/18

We are looking for some teams to be available to do demos on Saturday and Sunday. Let me know ASAP if you are interested.
So far we have the following:

Saturday
IS 192Q: Eric Greene, coach

Sunday
IS 217Q: Veryl Greene, coach


School Trip on Friday, March 16 to Javits
Schools coming so far:
MS 217Q (9 students)
Vanguard HS

IS 49 SI
MS 302x
Professional Children's School

If I inadvertently left you out let me know.

If you are planning on bringing a group to the FRC on Friday contact me ASAP. We have arranged some special events for you.

Friday March 16th procedures:

1. Teams must RSVP with Norm Scott. A list will be finalized next week and the number of visiting FLL teams will be reviewed and assigned to the various student escorts.

2. Visitors must give us an estimated time of arrival, number of visitors and special needs by any member.

3. A time slot will be assigned by Norm for Friday; time slots are 1.5 hour durations starting from 10AM to 2PM. (this is just a guess).
No more than three groups can be touring the venue at any time due to crowding, safety glasses availability and safety issues around the pits and arena.

4. Student escorts will be assigned by borough coverage:
SI TECH 375 for Staten Island visitors (3 students)
STUY 694 for Manhattan and Queens visitors (2 students)
Morris 395 for Bronx visitors (2 students)
Bklyn Tech 334 for Brooklyn and Queens visitors (3 students)

5. Visitors will check-in at the registration & information table

6. Student Escorts should be at the table to meet the visitors. A schedule will be given to the FRC team that will be escorting the visitor early Friday.

7. The three areas for the visitors are:
A) General discussion at the arena stand about FRC and the 2007 game with Q&A.
B) A tour of the outside parameter of the playing field and brief talk with the Head Referee.
C) A tour of the pit area and a visit to the pit station of student escort's team.
(An estimate of 30 minutes in each area equal 1.5 hours)

8. Teacher/Coach survey- ask them to comment on their experience with feedback.


Contribute to the NYC/NJ FIRST website
by Sara Reffler, NJ/NYCFIRST

I'm STILL looking to do a small recap blurb on the NYC/NJ FIRST website about all the FLL events hosted this year. The goal is to have individual pages with photos linked from the event's entry on the calendar page.

I'm looking for information on the following FLL events:
Staten Island
Manhattan
Brooklyn
Bronx
Queens
City College of New York
NYC FLL Championship

If you could get back to me ASAP that would be fantastic. Any information or more contacts you can offer me are much appreciated. It doesn't have to be very long, one or two paragraphs at most. Thanks in advance.
--
Sara Reffler | sreffler@usfirst.org
FRC 1089 College Mentor | BandChick
Co-Founder of the Unofficial FIRST Fraternity ƄOƎ
"If FIRST isn't your life, you're doing something wrong."

Please respond directly to Sara and CC me


NYC FLL Winners
I am still waiting for some people to email me. I have some scattered papers with team numbers on them but you can really help me out by sending me the following information if you won an award.

Day competed:
Award:
Place:
Team Number:
School:
Coach:
Email:

A final list will be included when all info is received.

Thanks to all of the winners who responded.


Carol Franken writes about her son, former FRC team member at Stuyvesant:
Gordon, as might be expected, has continued to be very active with the autonomous vehicle at Princeton. He and the team were interviewed by NJ News last week. It aired last Wednesday and you can see the 2 minute segment by going to http://www.njn.net/newspublicaffairs/science/
Its on the top right called Auto Driving Workshop 2/28/07