Category Archives: kickoff

KICK-OFF 2020

2020 Field Design with a Special Guest!
2020 Field Design with a Special Guest!
FIRST FRC has officially started their competition season! On Saturday of January 4th, MOE students and mentors arrived at Dupont’s building 700 at 10:00am to catch FIRST’s live feed. The game this year is Infinite Recharge.

But before the livestream of the game, students, mentors, and alumni viewed a moving tribute to 18-year-old Kendrick Ray Castillo who sacrificed his life to save his fellow students from a school shooter in Colorado. Kendrick loved robotics and was a member of FIRST FRC Team #4418, Impulse. Let us keep him and his family in our thoughts and prayers.

Then, Brandon Stewart gave a brief presentation on the expectations and instructions for Slack to the team. All parents, students, and mentors should be on Slack and check regularly and note their expected attendance. Slack is an essential tool for the team to communicate and share ideas.

Finally, the game launch started at approximately 10:31am and Infinite Recharge RISE went live. Programming mentor Lou Rossi was present in New Hampshire. This year, FIRST partnered with Disney and LucasFilm to bring us a Star Wars themed game all about energy. Star Wars actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, and Mark Hamil along with BB8 helped introduce how FIRST teams will provide energy to help FIRST City rise.

Afterwards, we were introduced to Larry Cullen, the new president of FIRST, who showcased a touching memorial to Woodie Flowers, a prominent face in the FIRST community who passed away in October. Woodie was known for coining “gracious professionalism” which is part of the ethos of FIRST and is something all FIRST teams try to emulate.
Next was the Kit of Parts which is part of the resources for teams and includes the Kickoff Kit (a box of parts delivered to teams at the start of the season), FIRST Choice (items available via an online menu in exchange for credits issued to all teams), and the Virtual Kit (products available directly from the supplier either via download or direct order).
At 10:53am, founder of FIRST, Dean Kamen came on the broadcast and hinted that asteroids were hurling at FIRST City, robots and students would be used to protect FIRST City by working together. The joint partnership came from Kamen believing in the link between science fiction , great imagination and inspiration. The energy theme came from Dean’s idea that people take advantage of energy and the access of energy determines everyone’s standard of living.

At last, at 11:13am, R2D2 appears to reveal the live playing field and the game animation. You can watch the game design video on FIRST’s YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmiYWTmFRVE

Then, the long awaited passcode to the game manual was released and MOE team members went to unlock it to find out more about the game. Students read and discussed the manual over lunch and called up Lou Rossi who was present at the actual field to ask questions. A big thanks to all the parents who graciously provided and served lunch for us!
Everyone then split into groups to discuss and study different elements of the game and then regrouped to present our findings.

Thanks everyone for a successful kickoff! Go MOE!

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MOE Heading to Deep Space

MOE was watching the live stream during Saturday’s Kickoff Video where we found out the how the entire field will look for Destination: Deep Space and all of the rules. After the live stream was over, we all discussed how this game could go, what to think about while designing the robot, all specifications in the game manual and many other things. Many students have smart ideas including ways to climb onto the third level, different ways to use the sandstorm period to our advantage, etc.

We cannot wait to see how everything plays out in our first competition in Westtown and all the competitions that follow.

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2018 Kick-Offs

P1000647_editedThe 2018 game for this year, FIRST POWER UP, has just been announced and the entire team is excited and ready for the build season.

P1000637_editedEveryone was more than prepared to open this year’s game manual and was waiting for it to be announced; having to see all the different rules and the different functions for it will be important to us all. Although it can be tiring, it’s always necessary to go in. The live broadcast revealing the new game and field for this year was something we all loved to watch, especially with the bit of laughter here and there. P1000663_editedAlthough it will be a difficult one to build this year (just like any other year), our team is determined to do our best to make it work and build a great robot. We can’t wait for all the competitions and to get on that new field!

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MOE Mentor Brian West at the Global Kickoff Event

Our own Brian West attended the 2016 FIRST Global Kickoff event in Manchester, New Hampshire — check out this interview from the evening before the big game reveal!

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Check out the MAR Kickoff Video

Featuring our own Arynn! You can’t miss her in her MOE green!

 

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MOE Represented in MAR Kickoff Video

On Monday, December 28th, our own Arynn H. traveled to Hatboro-Horsham High School in Horsham, PA to slip some MOE green into the Kickoff Video for Mid-Atlantic Robotics.

“It was a lot of fun to meet the other teams and a cool experience to be in a professional looking studio,” Arynn says. “When I got there, I was pretty nervous but Mrs. Carol introduced me to the other teams. I was the only one from a Delaware team there [and the only rookie], so everyone was new to me.

“Thirteen different teams were represented. Once in the booth I read off the teleprompter and at the end told one funny rule for new members to beware. First they had to make sure the shirt and feathers wouldn’t be registered as the green screen. Can’t wait to see them all at the competition, and thanks to the Hatboro-Horsham school for hosting!”

kickoff video
Arynn gets her close-up

Filming the Kickoff video is becoming a growing tradition — more students are predicted to participate next year.

The video will be shown at all three MAR Kickoff events on January 9.

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