Say Watt? (Team 3539) from Edison, NJ, represented the United States and won the Russian National FTC Championship on February 9, 2013 in Moscow, Russia.  They won the Think award, Captain of the Winning Alliance, and Inspire award in order to qualify for the World Championship that will be held in April in St. Louis, Missouri.   They competed against 14 teams from Russia, Romania, Mexico, and the US and were the winning alliance captain.    In the process of winning the televised event, Say Watt? allied with the Russian Team 14 and had a high score of 504 points in the final match.   Many of the team members attend the Middlesex Academy for Science, Math, and Engineering.    Others attend JP Stevens and Metuchen High School.  This will be the fourth year in a row that Say Watt? has attended the FTC world championship.   The team designs, builds, and programs a robot to compete in a contest that is fought on a 12 foot by 12 foot enclosed plexi-glass field where four robots battle to score the highest number of points in this season’s challenge.

Say Watt Wins Inspire

Team Members of Say Watt? win the Russian National FTC Championship on February 9, 2013 in Moscow, Russia.  From left to right Frankie Carr, Tahrima Rahman, Jake Silverman, Ayushi Pathak, Yash Parekh, Ronit Sharma, Varun Gupta, Parag Sheth, and Colee Carr, Picture by Stella Carr.

Say Watt is hosting the fourth annual Frozen Frenzy Qualifier.   This year, we are hosting with our friends at Timothy Christian School.   We will have 24 teams and two fields plus a practice field.   Say Watt will not be competing, except to fill in, but Watt the Hex and the Timothy Tigers will be vying for an invitation to the NJ State event.

Say Watt? went undefeated in the qualifying rounds and then got help from its alliance partners, including our good friends, the CHS Cougars, to win the Qualifier.   There were some very exciting matches at the competition.   Say Watt’s biggest challenge in the qualification rounds was against our old friends the Nanogurus.   In a 2-on-1 match that quickly became a 1-on-1 match, Say Watt was able to barely outscore the Nanogurus.   All but three pegs had rings.  Two empty pegs from the Nanogurus and one empty for Say Watt. 

Say Watt enjoyed the trip to Potsdam.   The team did really well until the finals when we lost.   Say Watt was disabled in both of its two losses in the finals (unfortunately, we rarely win when we are disabled).    We did get second place for the Inspire and captain of the Finalist Alliance, and the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award, and we learned a lot about our robot.

While there, we had a lot of fun, although someone forgot the Xbox (Mr. team captain) and we did not have our traditional late-night Halo war the night before the tournament.   The weather hit a balmy 13 degrees Fahrenheit, but at least we had snow and could throw some snowballs and play snow frisbee.

Despite losing the match and tournament in the teleop, the most memorable moment of the tournament for us was the final game of the finals when both Say Watt? and their opponent scored a ring in autonomous.   Say Watt scored the blue ring on the medium peg and RoboGamers on the low peg – picture below.   Say Watt was disabled at the start of the teleop, so the ring scored in autonomous was our only score, but it was an awesome autonomous. 

We are heading to Potsdam to compete on Friday November 30.  

Anyone interested can watch the event via live streaming after 11:30 on Friday:

Clarkson.edu/live    

 Cheer us on!   There will be several familiar competitors with Robotux, Team Tardis, and Robogamers.

As promised, here is a copy of the slides used by SayWatt? to teach the RobotC class:

Introduction to RobotC (updated)

Check later for sample programs.

Say Watt/Watt The Hex staffed the RobotC training course at the NJIT Training day with eight RobotC qualified kid, seven robots, and one coach.  With all the people there, it made the class go fairly well.   Everyone was able to get the 3.08 version of RobotC loaded and talking to a robot.  They were all able to make a robot move in autonomous and teleop.   We worked with the ultrasound and IR sensors.   We did both autonomous and teleop programs with wait-for-start so they were competition eligible and we also used the rotation sensors.    I am working to post the training class and the associated programs as quickly as I can.  

 We also had a couple of kids in some other programs and want to particularly thank Steve Pendergast of Pope John in the robotics 202 class on convincing Say Watt team members that I should spend a little more money.   Thanks Steve…   Seriously, it was a good class.

Say Watt and the Moetorama Wizzards 5916

WTH and WAGS

Say Watt and the Watt The Hex rookies participated in the Moorestown Maze that was hosted by our friends the MFS Foxes.   We got a chance to work with two great rookie teams.   The rookie teams that go to these outreach events seem to do well in the regular season and this year is no exception.  I fully expect both of the teams we worked with to make it to the state championships this year!

Despite some last minute scheduling challenges, I think everyone had a great time at the outreach event.   The JFLL kids had some great lego time.   The FLL kids were able to design and write a couple of programs and build soem attachments to score on a competition field.  Teh FTC kids got to see a couple of matches and then worked to build brand new robots.   They split into groups and worked with CAD using PTC’s CREO or they wrote software for the robots they built.    We also got to talk to a couple of potential coaches.   Best of all, we actually finished on time,  I was driving away with a full car at 7:17.    Finishing on time is an extremely rare occurance at a FIRST event, happening less frequently than getting to a state championship!

All FTC team members, parents, friends,  family, people interested in joining Say Watt Robotics next year, former Say Watt/Watt The Hex people, and  teachers should try to attend from 8 to 9 on Tuesday night at First Baptist Church of Metuchen (225 Middlesex Ave, Metuchen).   We will be in either the third floor upstairs or chapel downstairs (there will be signs).   We are going to run on a very tight schedule, so please don’t be late.  Primarily, I will be giving out awards for this past year and recoginizing everyone’s contributions.    I will also have a few statistics on the various teams and I will share my vision for next year  (it has shifted several times over the last month).    I am writing my thoughts out to make sure I don’t drone on and actually keep it to an hour.  Seniors especially should attend.    If anyone wants to help with setup, we will probably get there around 7:30 and need to carry the robots and trophies to the room.   There will be opportunities for team shots or family photos with all the trophies that were won this year and the robots.    Please wear your team T-shirts for the photos.