DMC Volunteers with US First Robotics Competition

DMC was happy to be a part of the FIRST FTC (First Tech Challenge) high school robot competition here in Chicago.  

John Sullivan and myself with Chris Weaver of NI braved the fierce field of competition to assist as, you guessed it, Software Inspectors.  Our role was to ensure the science and technology-interested high schoolers had done their homework and had a functional, updated, and *safe* control software running on their robot.  Invariably when volunteering at an event like this, you spend an hour performing inspections and the rest of the day helping teams tweak electrical, mechanical, and software components.  Needless to say, it was right up our alley.

FIRST ("For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology") is an organization founded to inspire students in engineering and technology.  We teamed up with our partner National Instruments and a few other good-intentioned companies to volunteer at the two day event held at IIT.  More than 30 teams competed this year from Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan.  The competition this year was "Hot Shot!".

"HotShot! is played on a 12’x12’ square field with two off-field scoring goals. Two alliances – one “red” and one “blue” – composed of two teams each, compete in matches consisting of a 30-second autonomous period followed by a two-minute driver-controlled period. The object of the game is to score more points than your opponent’s alliance. Points are earned by releasing the balls from the Ball Chutes in autonomous mode, by shooting balls into the goals in the center of the field (high or low) in both autonomous and driver-controlled periods, and shooting balls into the off-field goals during the last 30 seconds of the match."

Good times.  Maybe next time I'll be able to do some scouting for future DMC Engineers!