We hope you all had a wonderful and safe Holiday & A Happy New Year!
2012 is going to be an excellent year for FTC in Iowa.
A few items for this message:
1. Qualifier Tournaments
a) Tournament Update
b) Remaining Events
c) Hosting Events for 2012-2013
2.LabView Code Fest: (Jan. 16, 2012)b) Remaining Events
c) Hosting Events for 2012-2013
3. FTC Success Story
4. Questions About Specific Rules: Forums
5. New Award for 2011-2012: Promote Award
1. Qualifier Tournaments
1a) Tournament update:
Wow! Qualifier Tournaments are going very well. A HUGE Thank you to the wonderful volunteers and the event coordinators!! They have done, and continue to do, a fantastic job! Thank you, teams and coaches, who took on the stress of hosting a Qualifier Tournament.
Teams that we've seen at the Qualifiers, have also been very impressive! Kudos all around.
Check out the FTC-Iowa blog for a summary of the events: http://ftc-iowa.blogspot.com/
Qualifiers will be the norm in Iowa!
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1b) Remaining Events
We have received an interest from many teams, who want to attend additional tournaments. Although we would like to try to accommodate these requests, the remaining events are full. If additional spots open up, we will notify teams as to how to register.
Please view the site at: https://drupal.engineering.
Seeking Volunteers! If your students/mentors/coaches are not competing, but would like to watch an event, we would love to have them as volunteers!
Volunteers can sign up at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&pli=1&formkey=dEdlcUJaT0lONS1nSHkzdjhDUm1mZWc6MA#gid=0
1c) Hosting an Event for 2012-2013
Are you interested in hosting an FTC event for next season? Many of the coaches/mentors have expressed an interest in hosting an event, either verbally or via e-mail. Even if you have expressed an interest, please send an email to Rebecca Whitaker (rebecca-whitaker@uiowa.edu) with the Subject: "2012-2013 FTC Host Event Request" so the requests can be collected - with the location (address), potential dates, etc. We will then collect these requests, look at the calendars, and go from there. Thank you, in advance for your interest and desire to host FTC events!
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2. LabView Code Fest: Jan. 16th
FTC teams who use LabView, or are interested in using LabView, are invited to attend the first ever FREE!! Code Fest! Monday, Jan. 16th at The College of Engineering from 10am-4pm. More information, including the goal of the event, is in the attached flier. RSVP to Andy Marshall (andy.marshall@ni.com) Coaches, mentors and students are invited to participate.
~Exciting Stuff!!~
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3. FTC Success Story
FTC National is looking for success stories from the teams and students who participate in FTC. Please send stories, brief or long, to stories@usfirst.org. They'll be kept as confidential as you like with names and team numbers used or not based on your preference. Feel free to share as much detail as you'd like - your privacy will be protected if you'd like to remain anonymous. We would love for Iowa teams to submit their success stories!!
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4. Questions About Specific Rules: Forums
Does your team have questions about specific rules which are confusing or are not defined in the Game Manual? Check out the FTC forums. (http://ftcforum.usfirst.org/)
FYI: The most recent version of the Game Manual is #4, dated 11/28/2011
The rulings on the forums are final. Teams are responsible for knowing the information provided.
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5. New Award for 2011-2012: Promote Award
All teams, regardless if they are invited to compete at the FTC-Iowa Championship, are encouraged to submit an entry for the Promote Award. Information can be found at: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/ftc/promote
Now is the time to get stock footage of your team in the building/competing phase of the season.
Details about how to submit a video to FTC-Iowa will be sent at a later date.
Thank you all!
The FTC-Iowa Team
