New Team Essentials Dale Yocum Head Coach & Mentor Catlin Gabel Team 1540 The Flaming Chickens

2011 Team captain and Regional Finalist, San Diego 2011 Innovations in Controls, San Diego 2010 Chairman’s Award, Oregon (Championship Qualifier) 2010 Winner Colorado Regional (Championship Qualifier) 2010 Innovations in Controls, Colorado 2009 Engineering Inspiration Award (Championship Qualifier) 2009 Best Website Award Oregon and Las Vegas 2008 Engineering Inspiration Award (Championship Qualifier) 2008 Winner Oregon Regional (Championship Qualifier) 2008 Best Website Award Oregon Regional 2008 Xerox Creativity Award Las Vegas 2007 Chairman’s Award, Oregon Regional (Championship Qualifier) 2007 Finalist Oregon Regional 2007 Motorola Quality Award, San Diego Regional 2005 Rookie Inspiration Award, PNW Regional 2005 Best Website, Region & World Championship

Team 1540 History

Gracious Professionalism We learn and compete like crazy, but treat one another with respect and kindness in the process.

Attracting Students

• Assembly Presentation • Activity Fair •  Lunch meeting with

Pizza

Parent Meeting •  Attendance required •  Play FIRST promo video •  Talk about expectations •  What the kids get out of it. •  Scholarships, university

recognition, leadership opportunities

•  Ask for donations and announce any fees

•  Recruit mentors, food providers, logistics help, etc.

Calendar •  http://www.oregonfirst.org/calendar/

•  FIRST Calendar •  http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/

content.aspx?id=454

OMSI Showcase Oct 22nd

Girls Generation Oct 29th

BunnyBot 2011 Dec 17th

Kickoff Jan 7th

Team Dynamics & Structure

Mentor Involvement •  Some team’s robots are

entirely student designed and built.

•  Some team’s mentors and students work side by side.

•  Some team’s mentors pretty much do it all with students helping where they can.

•  All mentors should read FIRST Mentoring Guide at www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FRC/Team_Resources/Mentoring%20Guide.pdf

Team Management

Head Coach

Software Mechanical Control Systems

Chairman’s & Outreach

Competitive Analysis Marketing Web

Mentors

Co-Presidents

Team 1540 Organization Chart

Time Requirement

•  It will take over 1500 person hrs to make a competitive FRC robot.

• Data Point: Last year Team 1540’s 24 student members logged 2,100 student-hours over six weeks.

•  Teams with mentors doing much of the work MIGHT be less.

•  Team 1540 requires students to log at least 50 hours in the fall and 50 in the build season. Average was 116

Sample Time & Certification Log Name Grd Lab Hrs Ext Hrs Total Meet Fab Dsgn Air Elec SW Mktg Web Other Competition Department(s)

Alex Liem 11 108.98 108.98 15 C2 I C2 C2-Video Mech, Video, Control

Amanda Cahn 11 45.97 7 52.97 14 C2 C1 C2 Mktg, Mechanical

Anne Gilleland 10 78.92 19 97.92 13 W1 I Mgr2 W3 I I-Comp Analysis Control

Anthony Eden 12 151.55 151.55 15 C1 Mgr3 Software, co-captain

Benji Lin 10 57.45 5 62.45 13 C2 C2 Software, Mechanical

Casey Currey-Wilson 10 90.73 13 103.73 14 C2 Software

Eli Skeggs 10 66.62 33.5 100.12 13 C1 C1 C2 CoMgr C-Comp Analysis Comp Analysis, Web, SW

Eve Lowenstein 10 96.13 20.7 116.83 14 C1 Mgr2 W3 C1 Control

Gene Yamamoto 10 43.25 15 58.25 14 C2 Mechanical

Hannah Ashley 10 0 9.5 9.5 10 W1 C2 Op Mgr Marketing, Ops

Henry Gordon 12 136.18 136.18 14 C3 C1 C2 Mgr3 Comp Mgr3 Mktg, Comp Analysis, Mech, Design, Chairmans, co-captain

Ian Jones 10 45.52 22 67.52 12 C2 C2 Mechanical

Keegan McCarthy 10 150.33 4 154.33 15 Mgr2 C2 C2 C2 C2-Video Mech, Mktg, Video, Design Lukas Stracovsky 9 77.22 77.22 14 C2 C1 Mechanical

Lynne Stracovsky 12 33.87 23.6 57.47 13 C2 C1 CoMgr Web, Mechanical

Marina Dimitrov 10 121.43 14.5 135.93 15 C2 I C2 C2 C-Comp Analysis, C-Chairman’s

Mech, Mktg, Chairmans, Control, Comp Analysis

Michael Elliott 9 47.9 14.5 62.4 12 C2 Mechanical

Owen Chapman 10 41.33 10.5 51.83 13 C2 Mechanical

Paramintr Tienpasertkij 11 67.28 67.28 14 Mgr3 C2 I I C2 Mechanical, Design, Web

Peter Smith 9 59.38 59.38 13 C2 C2 W1 Mechanical

Rohisha Adke 12 86.1 9 95.1 14 C3 C1 Chairman’s Mgr Chairman's, Mech, Design, co-captain

Thomas Newlands 9 0 62 62 12 C-Animation

Tucker Gordon 10 109.75 19.9 129.65 15 C2 C1 C2 C2 I Mgr2 Video, C-Comp Analysis

Mechanical, Video, Mktg, Comp Analysis

Tyler Quatraro 10 43.2 9.8 53 14 C2 W1 C1 W1 Mechanical

Build Season Schedule

•  http://www.ifirobotics.com/docs/schedule.xls

Behind the Scenes

Registering Your Team

• Go to TIMS https://my.usfirst.org/frc/tims/site.lasso

• Register for a Regional • Register for a Kickoff •  Teams must submit

payment by 12/02/11 • Rookies pay $6,500

Veterans $5,000. $4,000 2nd regional

Sample Budget $6,500 Registration for a regional $2,700 Additional materials $500 Practice field components $200 Shipping crate (optional) $100 Robot cart $100 Publicity materials $500 T-shirts & marketing $0 Robot shipment –FedEx? $400 Pre/Post-season events. Total:$11,000 not including

tools and shop fixtures

Fundraising • Deb Mumm-Hill, FIRST Regional Director

•  For NASA Grants be sure to read the white paper: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2167

Facilities – Facts • Building robots is messy – hard floors are best • Building robots is noisy • Robots sometimes need 10’ + headroom • Need safe place to store tools and parts •  Ideally a place where you can make a mess and

leave it. •  Internet Access • Carpeted place to test robot • Need a bathroom available •  You don’t NEED a machine shop

Facilities (con’t)

• High school shop • High school science classroom • High school theater scene shop •  Parents garage •  Local machine shop • Church basement •  Local company that can loan you space •  Portable classroom • Cafeteria

Tools and Equipment – Must Have

Costco: $197 for all three

Tools – Must Have

• Hack Saw and Miter Box $35 • Good wire crimper $60 •  Soldering iron 40W $15 •  Two power drills, 12v or higher. Lithium Ion or

NiMH strongly preferred $140 each • Drill Bits $25 up • Dremel tool set $75 • Bench Vice $50 up • Approx $1,000 for all essential tools

Tools – Really Nice To Have

•  Heat Gun $70 •  Drill Press $250 up •  Bench Disc Sander $200 up •  12” Power Miter Saw with 96 tooth blade $270 up •  Miter Saw Stand $100 up •  Hand Power Jig Saw or Sawzall $89 up •  Bench Grinder (for steel) $65 •  Abrasive Cutoff Saw (for steel) $90 up •  Multimeter $30 up

•  Total for a good starter shop: $2,000.

Tools to Aspire to (or Get Donated)

• Band Saw $700 up • Cold Saw $1,000 •  Second Drill Press $250 up • Manual Milling Machine +tooling $2,500 up •  Table Saw $500 up • Metal Lathe and tooling $1,200 up new • CNC Milling Machine $6,000 up • Welding Equipment?

Sources for Materials Web Sources •  AndyMark.com •  Mscdirect.com •  Mcmaster.com •  Alliedelec.com •  Banebots.com Locally (Portland Metro) •  McGuire Bearing •  Multicraft Plastics •  Warden Fluid Dynamics (80/20) •  Norvac •  Winks Hardware •  Metals Supermarket

Strategy & Regionals

Strategy – Do it All or One Thing Well?

•  Sometimes there’s a need for robots specialized in one aspect of the game or another.

• Rookies more likely to get picked if they are really good at something key rather than mediocre at everything.

• Rookies are frequently not in the top 8. Focus on what it would take to get the attention of one of the top eight teams.

• Have a competitive analysis team from year 1

Pit Appearance Matters

Pit Appearance Matters

Pit Judging

•  The Judging process is done by volunteers who are human

•  Students need to prepare for the pit judging

• Drop everything to talk to judges or ask them to return.

Conclusion: Don’t Go It Alone

•  Join Oregon FRC Distribution list www.groups.google.com. Search for FRC-Oregon.

• Get a mentoring team … better yet, take two. • Read the FRC Coaches Handbook and

Mentoring Handbook • Chief Delphi.com • OregonFIRST.org

Q&A