Team 6700 XBOTS & ILITE Robotics teams will be hosting a scrimmage on January 26th 2019 from 10AM to 1PM at the Aux Gym at Battlefield High School. We hope this gives teams who are going to states time to practice and hang out with other teams.
We have limited spots open, so please let us know as soon as you can if you are interested by emailing team XBOTS (mailto:xbots.team@gmail.com ) before 1/15/19. If there are more teams signing up than can be accommodated, we will chose by lottery and let everyone know by 1/19/19.
Address:15000 Graduation Drive, Haymarket, VA
Location: Auxiliary Gym.
Time: 10AM to 1PM
Please note that Battlefield HS will also be hosting STEAM Expo on January 26th.
You may contact Brian Shepard (bshepard@pwcs.edu) if you have questions about directions, facilities, or the STEAM Expo, and nagesh.chintada@gmail.com if you have any questions about scrimmage.
We will have a certified referee to help make the event run smoothly. If you are participating, plan to stay between 10 and 1 to have maximum fun!
Thank you so much for your patience with FIRST Chesapeake as we work to find a balance between keeping our teams safe during winter travel, and providing the needed qualifier slots to accommodate our teams for the remainder of the FTC season.
We hoped that by this afternoon we would have a definitive answer about the FTC Reston Qualifier on Sunday the 13th. Unfortunately, due to underlying circumstances, we have to ask you to be patient just a little longer. At this time the Reston qualifier status remains "pending due to winter weather" Please look for an email from Kristin Clemons tomorrow evening with the final determination.
If the circumstances dictate that we cancel the qualifier at Reston this weekend, Please know, we fully understand the amount of effort our students put into their robotics season and want to do whatever we can to give them an opportunity to compete. While we have not yet made the final determination to cancel, in order to be proactive, we are working towards an alternative date now.
Thank you.
The FTC SWCC Richlands Qualifier this Saturday the 12th has been cancelled due to snow, but will be rescheduled. We hope to announce a new date on Monday. Thank you.
*UPDATE 1/12/19- FTC SWCC Richlands Qualifier has been rescheduled for Saturday 1/19/19.*
Reprinted from firstinspires: http://firsttechchallenge.blogspot.com/2019/01/hello-teams-once-again-im-pleased-to.html
Once again, I’m pleased to let you know that FIRST Tech Challenge will invite teams to apply for a waitlist spot for the FIRST World Championship tournament that serves their region. As we expand the event to 160 teams in both Houston and Detroit, I’m glad to have the opportunity to share the excitement of this grand event with even more students!
Here’s what you need to know about the waitlist:
- Your team can apply for the waitlist for the Championship Tournament that serves your region through the team dashboard at firstinspires.org.
- The waitlist is open now, and will remain open through February 14, 2019.
- We will do one drawing for each event, on February 15, 2019.
- Teams who have already participated in their State or Regional Championship Tournament, but have not advanced will receive an invitation from FIRST on February 18th, and will have one week to let us know if they do or do not plan to attend.
- Teams who did not earn their way to their State or Regional Championship Tournament will receive an invitation from FIRST on February 18th, and will have one week to let us know if they do or do not plan to attend.
- Teams from regions that have not held their State or Regional Championship Tournament will only receive an invitation after their event has taken place.
- Approximately 12 waitlist spots have been allocated for each of the two World Championship Tournaments
- Teams from the US and Canada must be fully registered in the FIRST Team Registration System. The Lead Coach/Mentor 1 and the Lead Coach/Mentor 2 must be screened.
- Teams from Mexico and outside North America must be fully registered in the FIRST Team Registration System and a Lead Coach/Mentor 1 and a Lead Coach/Mentor 2 must be assigned to the team.
As in previous seasons, this is not a first come – first served waitlist. When teams apply, their team number is entered into a lottery. Team numbers are weighted using the following criteria:
Receiving one lottery entry:
- Rookie Teams
- Teams that attended a World Championship event in April of 2018
- Inactive Veteran teams that returned in the current season
Receiving two lottery entries:
- Teams that were Rookie Teams in the 2017-2018 season
- Teams that last attended the World Championship in April of 2017
- Inactive Veteran teams that returned in the 2017-2018 season
Receiving three lottery entries:
- Teams that were Rookie Teams in the 2016-2017 season
- Teams that last attended the World Championship in April of 2016
- Inactive Veteran teams that returned in the 2016-2017 season
The maximum number of lottery entries for any team is 11.
If you have questions about how the waitlist works or applying, please send them to JoAnn at FirstTechChallengeTeams@firstinspires.org, and include “Championship Waitlist” in the email subject line.
Good Luck!
JoAnn Halloran, Program Manager
FIRST Tech Challenge
We are aware of this weekend's weather event and are monitoring it closely. Please check back here often for updates.
Any changes to our event schedule will be determined by the policy of the event venue or hosting school district.
Because of this, we recommend that all travelling teams make hotel reservations that are refundable.
In case of inclement weather the day of any FIRST Chesapeake event, please call 804.464.8945 after 5:00am for updates.
As always, please take care during your travels.
The PayPal link on the Virginia Event Registration page has been fixed. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.
If there is a problem with the link again, please go to the Donate page and use the PayPal link there.
Virginia Council on Women (Council) will provide one scholarship to a high school junior or senior in each of five geographic regions across the Commonwealth.
CONTEST ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS:
All applicants for the Virginia Council on Women STEM Essay Contest must:
- Be a Virginia resident
- Be enrolled in a Virginia-based high school
- Be a high school junior or senior girl or identify as a girl
- Be planning to attend an institution of higher education to include but not limited to a community college, four-year college or university, trade or technical school
- Be planning to pursue a STEM major
- Have a minimum 2.5 GPA
Contest ends: Friday, February 22, 2019
https://www.commonwealth.virginia.gov/advisory-boards/council-on-women/stem-essay-contest/
Reprinted from Firstinspires: https://www.firstinspires.org/
Here is some information we think will help you prepare (though can you really be 100% prepared?). For those of you who don’t want to read through this (it’ll be familiar to those that have been around for a while), I’ll summarize the deadlines (all are noon, eastern):
- 1/5 – Kickoff:
- Kickoff Kits distributed
- encryption key posted
- unencrypted game specific content posted
- replacement parts system opens
- FIRST Choice Round 2 begins
- New Virtual kit items posted
- 1/9 – official Q&A opens (details to be posted shortly after Kickoff)
- 1/10 – FIRST Choice Round 2 ends, priority lists locked.
- 1/11 – missing/damaged kickoff kit item replacement parts requests due
- 1/14 – AndyMark sends Round 2 notification emails
Kickoff Kit – Sizing Info
In addition to finding out 2019 season details on Saturday, each team attending a local Kickoff will also leave with this year’s Kickoff Kit items. We’re giving a deliberately vague “heads up” with to what kind of sizes, weights to expect so you can make accommodations to get the goods back to your build space. This information is also now published in the “Kickoff Kit” section of the Kit of Parts page.
Every team will receive a Black Tote (~12 in. x 27 in. x 17 in., ~33 lbs.) and a set of separate items of assorted shapes and sizes, collectively ~30 lbs. with no one item weighing more than ~14 lbs. Separate items would fit in a backpack if it weren’t for a few long (48 in.), narrow pieces.
New (“rookie”) teams will also receive a Gray Tote (~12 in. x 27 in. x 17 in., ~34 lbs.) an additional separate item that weighs ~13 lbs.
Teams that did not opt out will also receive a Drive Base Kit (~7 in. x 7 in. x 33 in., ~29 lbs.)
Kickoff Kit - What if something’s missing or damaged?
We strongly recommend that one of the first things you do after Kickoff is to inventory your Kickoff Kit. If anything is missing or damaged 1) we’re so sorry! and 2) you need to let us know and we’ll make it right.
The process we use to get information from you is built in to the registration system and available from noon (Eastern) on 1/5 to noon (Eastern) on 1/11.
Please know and understand that we will not process requests that don’t use this system for teams who received their Kickoff Kits on or before 1/11/19. (If you’re a “MySite” team who received your kit after 1/11, please email us within 2 business days of receipt of your Kickoff Kit with any missing/damaged items.)
To report anything missing or damaged:
- Your Lead Coach/Mentor 1 or 2 logs in to your team’s account.
- Click on the “Payments and Product” drop down menu and select “Order Replacement Parts”
- Enter the shipping information for where you’d like the replacement parts sent.
- Use the “Subkit Container” filter to navigate to the parts you need to report.
- Click the “Add” button for the item that’s missing/damaged.
- Specify the quantity missing/damaged, include an explanation, and click “Save.” The list will auto save when you add an item, so you can come back to it later.
- Once your list is complete, hit “Submit Request.” You can only submit once, and you must Submit before noon (Eastern), 1/11 for your request to be processed.
FIRST Choice: Round 2
FIRST Choice opens for Round 2 of Priority List orders from 1/5 to 1/10 (noon Eastern, emails with what each team is getting will be send by AndyMark by the end of the day on 1/14). We’ll be employing the same Priority List Process used in Round 1 and issuing additional credits to each team’s account. Any unused credits from Round 1 are carried over. Details on all this are in the FIRST Choice section of the Kit of Parts page.
Virtual Kit – New Items Coming!
Additional Virtual Kit items will be posted to the Virtual Kit section of the Kit of Parts page (with any corresponding voucher codes posted to teams’ registration accounts) at noon on Saturday. Don’t forget to check them out too.
The Down Low on Downloads
A plea: Please do not re-host or redistribute the content posted by FIRST. All are welcome to post links to our content as long as the content itself remains on our servers. The content could change at any time after Saturday’s Kickoff (though after Kickoff, we promise that we try to only change things we think are really broken), and by linking to our content instead of hosting, we can make sure everyone is getting the most up to date information.
You can get a jump on the rush Saturday by downloading some files now. They’re encrypted, so you can’t access them until we give you the encryption code during the Kickoff broadcast (find information about the Kickoff broadcast here).
We post them now though, because for many, it’s easier to have them locally on their device, and then using the key, unlocking and opening these files immediately and without needing internet access.
Here’s what we’ve encrypted and posted (all links automatically download, approximate file size noted if download > 100MB, all other content to be posted shortly after the Kickoff broadcast):
DESTINATION: DEEP SPACE Game Manual (link lives on the Game and Season page)
Kickoff Kit Checklists (links live on the Kickoff Kit section of the Kit of Parts page)
DESTINATION: DEEP SPACE Drawings (links live on the Playing Field page)
- Team Drawings (all)
- Team Drawings (Half-Field)
- Team Drawings (Reduced Field)
- Field Drawings (evergreen)
- Field Drawings (DESTINATION: DEEP SPACE specific)
- Layout and Marking Diagram
- CAD Models (SolidWorks) (file size ~273MB)
VR and Other Field Assets (links live on the Playing Field page)
- PTC’s Vuforia VuMark
- Photo Album – WPI (file size ~340MB)
- SolidWorks’ downloadable, zipped executable (file size ~630MB, unzip with encryption code and run the .exe on a VR-ready machine with attached support HMD like HTC Vive or Windows Mixed Reality) and its User Guide
Q&A System
We’ll post more on this shortly after Kickoff but wanted to give you a heads up that the official Q&A system will open at noon (eastern) on Wednesday, January 9th. It opens a few days after Kickoff to give teams some time to digest the game manual (and then read it again).
Event Rules
In addition to the rules in the game manual, please remember to review the event rules here. This webpage also includes information on how you should report medical and non-medical incidents.
Thanks for reading through to the end, and good luck this season!
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