FTCNJ Tuesday Newsday - October 11 2022 ... (Sent via Google Group)
Vince Frascella
Greetings Newsletter Subscribers and FTCNJ Coaches
This email is being sent to everyone on the existing Newsletter Distribution list.
As always, you can very easily opt-out from receiving it. (See that process at the bottom of this email.)
Remember that the updates are shown in blue bold text. If you are a weekly reader, you can just quickly scan the BLUE to see what is NEW.
The black text is included for completeness sake and for our new readers.
HEADLINES:
October Practice Day Events : It is almost event day, but there is still a bit of room in all THREE events. Just a little room. Apply ASAP, if interested.
Official Competitions Begin : The Northern and NE Edge Leagues kick off the new season with official Halloween Meets, not Scream-ages.
Related to the above : … 6 Matches Per Team in Period #1 … Bonus Meet Process!
Quick Links:
LEAGUES & CONFERENCES, TEAMS & HUBS
MEET REGISTRATION, MEET CAPACITY, AM/PM MEETS
FIRST NEWS
FTCNJ NEWS – Leadership Caucuses, STEM Girls
OFF-SEASON ACTIVITIES
Raritan Valley Science & Technology Showcase (October 1st/2nd)
Thanks to our great volunteers – Randy G, Chris K, Narmada K, Leslie M, and Daniel H. Thanks also to our amazing coaches and their teams (below).
We thank all of participating team coaches and volunteers who have completed our post-event survey. Lots of great feedback and ideas!
If you have not yet filled out the survey or need the link again, please address this. We really appreciate all input.
It’s our intent to flow the FTCNJ feedback to the event organizer, who is holding a review on Oct 15th. The Mall is already expressing interest in next year….
Saturday
3774 (Hive Voltage) - Bayonne
4890 (AArcHive) - Bayonne
7040 (Cyber Falcons) - Hillsborough
7350 (Watt NXT) - Edison
8812 (Cyber Raptors) - Hillsborough
8902 (Cosmic Goose) - Glen Rock
9889 (Cruise Control) - Flanders
11697 (TECH-tonic) - East Brunswick
16102 (Short Circuits) - Princeton Junction
16557 (Honey K-Ohm) - Bayonne
19823 (Jolly Blue) - Bloomfield
Sunday
6037 (W.A.G.S.) - Cherry Hill
6934 (Transisters) - Farmingdale
9848 (Mechanical Pioneers) - Mulica Hill
9853 (Chatham Cougars) - Chatham
11248 (// Cougars) - Chatham
12441 (GearView) - Mulica Hill
12636 (IHA Blue Eagles) - Twp of Washington
16367 (Krypton Warriors) - Parsippany
17670 (Raider Robotics) - Scotch Plains
Practice Days (October 2022)
Making progress on your PowerPlay Robot? Need help? Need time on an official PowerPlay Field? Practice Days can help with all of this!!!
Similar to Outreach Scrimmages, these are unofficial events at which students can “compete” in the afternoon and tinker on bots in a stress-free environment in the morning.
The event will feature an official PowerPlay field and teams wll shaking out the new year’s “PowerPlay” robots. Bring that robot, no matter what shape it is in.
Even though the Information Packets for this weekend’s Saturday and Sunday Practice Days have been sent, there is still room for 1-2 more teams.
Yes, this includes the Saturday (Oct 15th) Practice Day at Payne Tech (Newark). Its registration has re-opened. If you were interested previously, here’s one last chance to get in.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd98FKnY-3OpWcnbw3SNl4iKA9Ax4l-OwG_Sk5JfKe8BJaZeA/viewform
o “Central NJ Practice Day” – Sunday October 23rd. Co-hosted by Highland Park OWLS and Princeton STEM Academy Teams at Highland Park High School.
o “Southern NJ Practice Day” – Sunday, October 16th. Co-hosted by Toms River FTC Teams at Toms River High School North.
o “Northern NJ Practice Day” – Saturday, October 15th. Payne Tech, 498 West Market St, Newark, NJ
LEAGUES & CONFERENCES, TEAMS & HUBS
Season Plan – Conferences
Once again there will be 4 Leagues in FTCNJ with each comprised of 2 Conferences of 20-25 teams, organized by county. (Shown on attachment)
Remember, all teams in a League may compete at any Meet within that League, regardless of Conference.
Only in February’s League Tournaments must teams play only at their Conferences season-ending tournament.
POWERPLAY Season Team Registration OPEN
164 of the 165 have registered; while one more registration is currently pending.
152 of the 164 are returning teams … and 12 registered rookies.
As of this moment, 180 FTCNJ Teams have registered or confirmed their intent to do so for the upcoming season.
WELCOME Rookie Teams!
· A big WELCOME to our 12 brand new teams, below.
· And, ….there is one more team with a Temporary # and pending registration.
o 22348 (Minds of Steel) - Robbinsville
o 22261 (Hornet Blue) - Holmdel
o 22219 (MORT JR) – Budd Lake
o 22062 (Cyber-Tigers) - Tenafly
o 22050 (Pirate Robotics) – Egg Harbor City
o 21995 (Aquinas Trojans) - Edison
o 21807 (Incinerators) – Edison
o 21767 (Quadra) - Edison
o 21630 (Argonauts) - Somerset
o 21505 (HHS Robotics FTC Raiders) - Hillsborough
o 21480 (C3 Loco-Motors) - Elmer
o 21226 (RoboRaiders) - Hillsborough
Expansion Hubs for our Rookie Teams!
· We are hearing that REV is beginning to ship Control Hubs to Rookie teams. Yay!!!
· As our new folks receive their permanent hardware, FTCNJ will facilitate getting the loaned hubs back to their generous owners.
· Super kudos to the veteran teams who’ve stepped up to loan Expansion Hubs…
o 11241(Blue Steel)
o 7149…(Enforcers)
o 16367(Krypton Warriors)
o 14481…(Princeton STEM)
o 7040…(Cyber Falcons/Raptors)
o 17009 (Steel Magnolias)
o 13302 (MKA Robotics)
· Thanks to the Cyber Falcons/Raptors for offering more Hubs. It looks like we will not be needing to deploy any more.
· The patience of our rookies and the super support of our veterans is really appreciated. Great GP and spirit!
COMPETITION NEWS
World Championship Allocations
In case you have not heard, New Jersey has been allocated three advancements to the World Championships in April (Houston)
State Championship – March 12, 2023
The FTC New Jersey State Championship will be held on Sunday, March 12th
In-Person Judging is anticipated at the State Championship, as well as at League Tournaments.
It is also our goal to have “Practice Judging” at four of the Period #3 Meets; one for each League.
Meet Registration, Meet Capacity, AM/PM Meets
Have you submitted your Meet Request yet? …AT THIS POINT, your team should really have submitted the Meet Requests including any Bonus Event requests.
If you are a coach who has not submitted the request yet, please do it now …or let FTCNJ know the nature of your problem.
Here is the Registration link that coaches can use. : Event Registration and Acceptance Criteria - FIRST Tech Challenge - New Jersey (newjerseyftc.com)
· FTCNJ is again holding six Meet choices per League (3 Saturdays, 3 Sunday). Teams can pick three plus apply for bonus Meets.
The attached “Executive Summary” shows the sites and locations of the events. Thanks very much to all of our returning hosts and our many new hosts!
24 Team Capacity
As promised in last week’s Newsletter, capacity information has now been added to the website for the season’s Meets.
The previous email explained that a handful of Meet will be AM/PM configuration in order to support 24-teams. Those Meets are ….
o Saturday, November 5th – Northern League Meet at Don Bosco Prep, Ramsey
o Sunday, November 20th – Upper Central League Meet at Dickerson School, Chester
o Saturday, November 26th – Upper Central League Meet at Grace Church Recreation Center, Randolph
o Sunday, November 27th – Southern League Meet at Girl Scouts Pgm Activity Center, Farmingdale
o Saturday, December 3rd – Essex County – West Caldwell Tech, West Caldwell
Further Notes:
§ Sometime shortly after an AM/PM site has >16 teams registered, FTCNJ will solicit AM or PM preference info from coaches.
§ As can be seen, some of those solicitations will be beginning very shortly.
§ Finally, there are 3 sites whose AM/PM status is being validated by site visits in the coming week: Nov 20th, Dec 11th, and Jan 7th
Period #1 Meets Begin!
The new season is off to a howling start with two brand new hosts supporting Halloween Weekend Meets.
Best of luck to the Highlanders (of Governor Livingston) and Crusader Robotics (Bergen Catholic HS) for their inaugural hosting endeavor.
Continuing our Halloween tradition, teams are encouraged to decorate themselves and their haunted pits. Teams often bring extra Spirit to these events.
- 10/29/22 Halloween Saturday – Meet (Northeast Edge League) – Governor Livingston High School, 175 Watchung Blvd, Berkeley Heights, NJ
- 10/30/22 Halloween Sunday – Meet (Northern League) – Bergen Catholic HS, 1040 Oradell Avenue, Oradell, NJ
Period #1 Meets feature 6 MATCHES PER TEAM!
The above Meets (Oct 29th and Oct 30th) and ALL Period #1 Meets will provide each participating team with 6 Matches, rather than 5 Matches on event day.
Consider that ‘extra match’ to be a perk for readying your robot early and coming out to participate in a Period #1 Meet.
Thanks to our nifty Lead Scorekeeper and generous supporting volunteers for helping to make this happen.
Robot not quite perfect? You now have a “throwaway match” during Period #1! Come out. Try! Learn! Iterate! Have fun!
Last Chance to Register & “Bonus Meet Process”
As posted on the FTCNJ Website, 2 weeks prior to event date, teams on the Wait List are offered Bonus Slots until the event is best filled. [We also ask “accepted teams” for reconfirmation at that time.]
So, for instance, if you are interested in the Oct 29th or Oct 30th event as a primary choice and have not applied, your last chance to register is Oct 15th (for Halloween Sat Meet) and Oct 16th (for Halloween Sun Meet).
This is the timing of Wait List assessment (i.e., Bonus Slot disbursement) throughout the season. Don’t miss out!
FIRST NEWS!
SDK 8.0 Release
Programmers: The new FTC SDK version 8.0 has been released! This is the minimum version allowed for competition this season.
Get it here: https://github.com/FIRST-Tech-Challenge/FtcRobotController
Do read the Release Notes. You may have to change the way you initialize I2C devices.
There's also a warning about broken compatibility with the popular EasyOpenCV and FTC Dashboard libraries.
FTC SIM Grant
Rookie FTC teams who leverage the FTC SIM tool, developed in Canada, may want to check this out! https://www.firstroboticscanada.org/ftc/sim/grants/
Participants need to use the FTC SIM tool to do the exercises in this block-based (or Java) programming that's relevant to FTC, and earn "lightning bolts" that go towards the grant eligibility.
Though only (140) of these $1000 grants were available, we are hearing that many are unclaimed. FTCNJ Rookie teams should really consider this. $1000!
FTC SIM as Programmer Training Tool
Even if you are not a rookie team, you may want to take a serious look at FTC SIM as potential training tool for your programmers.
It was discussed at the recent Coaches Caucus and, after just a brief review, more than one coach commented on the high quality and potential usefulness of FTC SIM. Pretty impressive!
Here are some links for those potentially interested:
· Access to FTC SIM
· Overview Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AReLrefnN_tfnVjEDhB8fn27WKeeQ38TMlNm02PcP78/edit#slide=id.p1
FIRST TECH CHALLENGE New Jersey News
Coaches Caucus Returns (Accomplished - Oct 7th) ß 1st Friday of the Month
New and veteran coaches met at 8pm to discuss Kick Off, Workshops, and other topics of mutual interest.
Thanks to all of the Coaches who attended and participated on October 7th. Our topics included:
1. Getting the most out of the Practice Days
2. Getting ready for your first official Meet
3. Transitioning from Brainstorming to CAD / Prototype to Commencing Build
4. Assuring that your Engineering Notebook/Portfolio is off to a good star
5. Dealing with technical challenges, OpenCV, FTC SIM
Our Coach Presenters included: Deepak M, Marie A, Rich M, Katherine R, Joe L. Thanks folks! Great job by all !!
Notes were sent to all registrants/attendees.
Are you a coach who is missing out on these discussions?
The next Coaches Caucus is November 4th! (The link to be included in next week’s Newsletter.)
Captains Caucus Returns (Oct 21st) ß 3rd Friday of the Month
Coaches should encourage student leaders to attend. Notes are distributed to attendees and their coaches following the sessions.
On Sept 16th, student leaders discussed: Season Start-Up Topics, Mechanical Design, and Outreaches for Recruiting Sponsors, Mentors & Members.
Thanks to our Breakout Room Facilitators: Eldrin B (Reboot), Michael D (FIRE), Vincent F (Clearview), Shruti M (Outer Galaxy), Kyle T (Enforcers) and Chase W (FIRE).
A sample (i.e., the Meeting Notes from Sept 16th) was distributed to all coaches. High quality, valuable input. Did it raise more interest?
The next Captains Caucus is October 21st. https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMoc-qqqz8tHN0KDjMWCgyVDCg9_Xyh1x1K
Retired FTCNJ Team Selling Actobotics Hardware
FTCNJ has been contacted by a former coach of a South Jersey team.
All of the students in this private/neighborhood team are now beyond high school.
Parents are interested in selling the robotics hardware, no longer in use.
Here is a link to photos of the hardware. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12vt2jMNFZKgUAdiNcDPTqod3_1vLeTJF?usp=sharing
If interested in offering a bid, contact FTCNJ and we can pass along information
VOLUNTEERS – “FTCNJ Tech Crew” Initiative
Thanks to the folks who attended the FTA Tech Crew Zoom on September 22nd
Attendees included representatives from: Princeton STEM Academy, Pope John, Dynabytes, Jdroids, and Cruise Control. Thanks for stepping up to help!
We appreciate the help by some of these folks at the Bridgewater Outreach and others have signed on now to help at various Practice Days. Pretty terrific!
This space will continue to cover the progress being made and to recognize the individuals/teams stepping up.
STEM GIRLS News!
STEM Girls New Season – Opt In
Unless you have opted-in since the closure of the Freight Frenzy season (e.g., April 30th), you should opt-in now to continue your connection with the STEM Girls organization.
Otherwise, per FIRST policy, the email addresses of STEM Girls participants during our previous season will be deleted (“forgotten”) within the next week.
Simply use the link below to “opt-in” and receive the periodic notices of STEM Girl Happenings!. You can “opt-out” at any time!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfca5j11yjtAW6OJmRzbbwKyrSOrt8a5tty9SojZkwYLJLvCw/viewform
Our next newsletter will be on October 18, 2022.
If you have any questions, comments, or needs as you read this newsletter, simply write back and we’ll be happy to assist.
Making that comment here, rather than embedding it throughout the long newsletter above.
Thanks again for the interest in FIRST Tech Challenge New Jersey and being part of our community
Thanks much, Vince Frascella
FIRST Tech Challenge New Jersey
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