FTC.We.R

In case you were not in St. Louis to see Will.I.Am compete as FTC Team "Dirty Bot" you may not have heard he competed vs. Dean and team FTC.We.R (coined by Dean!).

I like the ring of that because we are one team, one family, one tribe. FTC.We.R!

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Words out!

Great show last night at the Edward Jones Dome (FIRST Dome?) with Will.I.Am and the Peas. A ton of work went into it but what a payoff.

The real pop is when this hits those outside FIRST. We all know the power of what FIRST - really all of you - are doing. The trick has always been bringing the rest of society "inside" to show them.

We kick that door wide open with the special that will air August 14.... cultural change? we'd like to introduce you to FIRST!

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Will.I.Am

I had to wait for the official FIRST word to say anything but by now you've probably seen the announcement that Will and the rest of the Black Eyed Peas will do a show Friday night here in St. Louis. What a great way to add even more excitement to the FIRST World Championships.

Not only that, but Will is so into FIRST that he wants to compete! I flew out to Los Angeles last week to meet with Will and an FTC Team from Folsom, CA to build an FTC robot. He and DJ Poet jumped right in. With help from the Folsom team 3509 - Phoenxtrix Will and Poet got hooked up.

Will and Poet will compete against FTC teams here in St. Louis.

A camera crew filmed the whole thing at the Record Plant - where Will (and artists from Jimmy Hendrix to Eminem to Elton John) have recorded. Pretty cool stuff.

More to report in the future as to how the footage will be used. Stay tuned!

Ken

Full Steam Ahead

Looks like everything in St. Louis is moving ahead as planned. The FIRST folks on the ground report things are moving smoothly - see you in St. Louis!

St. Louis

As the rest of you, we are all trying to figure out what the situation is on the ground in St. Louis. Official information will be posted on the FIRST website as soon as possible.

I can tell you everyone at FIRST has all the people in St. Louis on our minds and wish them the best. FIRST personnel already there are safe - and assessing the damage and options.

Ken

Friends of FTC

I was cleaning out my phone images last night and came across this one. You all know Will.I.Am was a special guest at the FRC kickoff last January. While here we got this quick pic of the two of us.

Great having him at FIRST. Both he and Dean (and all of you) share the same passion for inspiring the next generation and making it a better place. Combining "worlds" of the Dean Army and Will.I.Am followers is a powerful mix. Good stuff!

Recollection of the Kickoff Video

As we get ready for World Championship all kinds of things are flying around. The "real world" however continues to revolve.

Like most, you've probably been paying attention to the nuclear disaster in Japan. The images of the nuclear workers at the plant doing their best to minimize the radiation is both honorable and sad - realizing that their lives will never be the same.

The image above was posted today from Tokyo Electric Power. It is the robot that is moving through the failed nuclear plant taking readings to assess damage. It is almost identical the one we highlighted in the kickoff video. If you want a concrete example of how robotics can help solve real world problems you don't have to look far.

I'm certain that those in FIRST will be helping in similar ways in the future - with problems we can't even imagine yet.

Is this thing on???

Yes, again the FTC blog comes out of semi-hibernation. Why? Too much to do - but all good stuff -

Over just the last couple months we blew our registration goals out of the water for the year. This was largely due to the wonderful FTC community and school districts (and entire states) getting on board with FTC.

Next year's game is 99% complete - just wait!

We've traveled to over 30 events, met with commercial partners in Texas, Pittsburgh, Miami, and Denmark to continually improve the FTC kit.

We've been working closely with FRC teams to help with their Minibots.

We're also running hard to put on a great FTC World Championship in conjunction with FLL and FRC. FTC teams will see some cool stuff at the WC and St. Louis is really rolling out the red carpet for all of FIRST.

Finally, we're in the midst of several international pilot FTC events. We just concluded a wonderful Romania event and China is holding a large pilot event the weekend prior to our WC here in the states.

So - again, I'll do better at using this forum to give you another view into FTC and insight into things from my perspective.

One thing to keep in mind looking forward - make sure your wiring is good (efficient, tight, well managed) for the WC. The biggest common denominator in robot issues this year has been inadequate termination and cable management. This can lead to a myriad of issues from haphazard robot control to complete lockup.

See you out there - Ken