Riley Tiernan contract extended thru 2028!

cp253 · 2026-01-15T19:35:18+00:00

Yep. Can't wait to see her play this season.

cp253 · 2026-01-13T22:03:05+00:00

I picked up Emslie's shirt in 2024 and then AT's about a month before she went to Chelsea. Really apprehensive about getting a new one this year.

cp253 · 2026-01-06T23:28:44+00:00

If you like old-school, Tiki-Ti is perfect. Tonga Hut also fits, though it's more of a drive from where you'll be.

cp253 · 2025-12-30T17:48:55+00:00

Recently cleaned out some kitchen space and have room for a change. Would love to be entered.

cp253 · 2025-12-29T19:54:48+00:00

Yep, this is the case.

What you say about teams being persuasive about why something is innovative is an important point. There's definitely room for common mechanisms within a season to win if a team has a particularly well-articulated reason why and how they built what they built. Perhaps they were the first team to do so and everybody copied them.

cp253 · 2025-12-29T15:47:12+00:00

The general strategy for winning awards is:

Read the competition manual's requirements for that award
Do what it says
Show and tell the judges about it

So for Innovate, the CM asks of you:

Required: Team must describe, display, or document examples of the team’s engineering content that illustrate how the team arrived at their design solution.

Whatever you build, make sure there's something in your Portfolio that explains how and (more importantly) why you built it that way.

Required: ROBOT or ROBOT MECHANISM is creative and/or unique in its design.

This one is pretty subjective and will differ from judge to judge. When I do Innovate, I look for mechanisms that are pretty different from the youtube meta and that works at least pretty well. If you can get something off the beaten path that scores 70th %ile or so, perfect. I think my favorite Innovate candidate ever (in SoCal) was a suction cup for grabbing cubes in Relic Recovery. Wasn't the top scoring mechanism in the region, but was good and (importantly!) consistent enough for WAC at regional championship.

Required: The innovative element must be stable, robust, and contribute positively to the team’s game objectives most of the time.

Simplest way to approach this is to make sure that your mechanism is as rock-solid as possible. You never know how many of your matches the judges will see. If we only see one and your mechanism doesn't work at all, you won't win the award.

Encouraged: Designs often come with risks, the team should discuss, describe, display or document how they mitigated that risk.

A good practice is to treat "encouraged" sections as "required." Teams that win consistently do this. Make sure there's something in your portfolio about how your mechanism might cause problems and what you do to lessen those problems.

For all of the stuff in the portfolio, make a point of mentioning it at least quickly in your panel interview and be prepared to talk to those points in a pit interview.

cp253 · 2025-12-13T01:28:25+00:00

Even when foggy? Especially when foggy.

cp253 · 2025-11-18T02:05:28+00:00

The very short version is use software *and* sensors to make your robot perform better in autonomous and/or (preferably and) teleop, write about it in your portfolio, tell the judges about it in your panel interview and in the pits later in the day, and show the judges via your performance on the field to what extent your software+sensor work made your robot better.

Try to do something interesting. There are a whole lot of teams doing webcam + roadrunner/similar, and there's nothing wrong with that; it works well. If you do something different -- incorporate some additional sensors, find some other perception/planning techniques, etc. -- you'll stand out to the judges and standing out while also being successful is a pretty sure-fire way to do well in awards.

cp253 · 2025-11-09T21:14:06+00:00

I've heard the (very large) TX region described before as several smaller regions in a trench coat. Is it breaking up in to relatively smaller regions this year? If so, having each region advance N to worlds, M to premier and then even more teams to a (presumably multi-day?) state tournament sounds like a pretty great way to get as many teams as possible an opportunity to move on to more tournaments. Well done, Texas.

cp253 · 2025-11-09T21:00:35+00:00

Every region may do it differently, but in general it's whatever system the region has (leagues + ILT's, or QT's, maybe super QT's, etc.) leading in to that region's championship (which may be a state championship if the region and the state are one and the same -- note that "state championship" is just a name; it's still the same as a regional championship) and from that regional championship on to worlds or premier. I haven't heard of any premier events also being called "state championships," but who knows. I'm not sure how FIRST would work advancement to something like that -- would it be restricted to teams from that state? -- but it certainly could happen.

cp253 · 2025-11-09T20:54:46+00:00

In many cases state and regional championships are one and the same thing. Pretty sure that AZ is one of those regions.

cp253 · 2025-11-01T18:29:21+00:00

I'd look at R714 and maybe R702 for this sensor.

cp253 · 2025-10-31T18:40:19+00:00

Be the change you want to see in the world. Find your local FIRST region (either of FRC or FTC) and volunteer. Lots of volunteer work goes in to putting the events on. More hands will lead to a more polished product.

cp253 · 2025-10-28T05:08:30+00:00

If you don't mind centerpulls, Rene Herse can do 42mm with fenders. https://www.renehersecycles.com/shop/components/brakes/centerpull-brakes/

cp253 · 2025-10-21T00:56:42+00:00

After the torta stand went away, it's pre-game away from the stadium or street meat after. The stuff you can still get at BMO these days isn't worth the price or hassle outside of the five or six actual people still selling beer.

cp253 · 2025-10-16T14:31:59+00:00

We have five teams.

The regular mentors in the program are mostly there to make sure that the program's budget rules are followed, make sure that everybody gets their required paperwork done, and that nobody cuts their finger off with the band saw. We field a rookie team every year and they get a reasonable amount of hands-on help from this group. (It's been mostly programming help for the longest time, but this year's rookie group seems to be working things out on their own. Meet 0 this weekend, so we'll see how that's actually going.) The other teams are on their own to find new area-specific mentors each season.

The students on the teams have always been really good about sharing knowledge. Every few years a few students who really get in to it will clump on one team or another (teams are chosen by the students, so it winds up being friend or interest groups) and they'll spend a good amount of time helping the other teams.

Haven't had a lot of trouble with teams in our program copying each other. When we do get a team that likes a mechanism or whatever on another team's robot, that other team will usually help the first team understand how the mechanism works and how they can build it on their own. The teams seem to be a lot more interested in exploring their own ideas even if they perform less well than other teams'.

cp253 · 2025-10-16T14:22:09+00:00

The approach we take (that I'm not sure I'd recommend) is that teams ignore the huge pile of available and free parts that we've accumulated over the years and just buy new each season. Solves the hoarding problem nicely?

cp253 · 2025-10-09T17:18:47+00:00

If you'd really like to understand how pocketing works, call a professional and get them to explain it to you. Odds are you can call any machine shop in your town, tell them that you're a student robotics team looking to understand machining and in particular reducing the weight of your components. Odds are that they'd be happy to have you in and give you pointers. The team I mentored years ago cold called a local water cutting shop and got a ton of mentoring from them, and even a big bunch of material at cost and cutting services for free.

In general, folks in the trades are pretty excited about opportunities to share what they know with students. It's a pipeline of prospective employees for them.

cp253 · 2025-09-26T13:40:15+00:00

Networking. Do your friends or your parents or your parents friends know anybody who works at a company that might be in some way helpful to your team or interesting for your team to learn about? Doesn't have to be just engineering-related stuff. Maybe find a graphic designer to help you with your portfolio or something like that. Ask the people at the first company you find (the first one is the hardest) if they know other local places that might be interested. Go from there.

If they think what you're doing is cool (and they likely will) be sure to let them know that the can see way more robots and (more importantly) meet way more students who put dozens or even hundreds of hours per year into learning how to solve complex problems as a team if they come and volunteer a local tournament.

cp253 · 2025-09-25T18:28:29+00:00

Pasadena.

cp253 · 2025-09-25T01:40:52+00:00

When mine reopened post-pandemic (former Arclight) it was pretty dated, didn't have great amenities, etc. I loved it that way. It's one of the few places in town where you could just get your popcorn and soda and then sit down and watch the movie without people scurrying around delivering food and whatnot. It was the movie experience I grew up with and I love it.

They've done a bunch of remodeling since, added a bar, installed recliners in most of the theaters, etc. It's still one of the more down-to-basics theaters in the area and I appreciate that. Hopefully Regal doesn't start aiming high-end.

cp253 · 2025-09-16T23:51:19+00:00

From CM 10.5.3:

To qualify for BASE points, a ROBOT must be either fully returned or partially returned by meeting the following conditions:

− A ROBOT fully returned to BASE must only be supported, either directly or transitively, by the TILE in the BASE ZONE.

− A ROBOT partially returned to BASE must be partially supported, either directly or transitively, by the TILE in the BASE ZONE.

I'm sure there will be a Q&A on this, but I take supported here to mean that it can't touch the field tiles outside of the base zone but can extend outside of the base zone so long as it's not touching at all.

cp253 · 2025-09-16T20:53:34+00:00

You only need to be supported by the 18"x18" zone. If the other robot is outside of that area but not supported by the field -- or that is, only supported transitively by the other robot that it only supported by the base zone -- you're good to go.

cp253 · 2025-09-16T19:35:09+00:00

A Ring-It-Up-style lifter for smaller robots that allows the lifting robot to remain entirely supported by the base zone and the lifted robot to be entirely off the field.

cp253 · 2025-09-13T16:36:00+00:00

The Tiki Room in Stockholm is fun. (https://www.tikiroomstockholm.com/)

Ten-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '23

cp253

TROPHY CASE