Best Tech Day Yet!

[Andrew Barrett-Sprot]

Hi,

I'm happy to say the last tech day was the best tech day we've had. We managed to build about 1/3 of an arena for students to test their robots in. The arena is pretty large, so we couldn't build an entire test arena. 5 teams turned up, and we managed to give tours of the more locked off areas of the Southampton University campus, so they can make more informed decisions about their choice of university.

We saw some very impressive robots, including this one: https://www.flickr.com/photos/theorangeone/33510163301/

It seems Tech days are more useful to teams the closer they are to the competition, so I'd encourage having tech days a week or 2 before the competition in the future.

Things we could have improved on:

- There was still a team that arrived without a guardian, this needs to be communicated to the teams even more clearly.

- Lightning talks should be held early in the day; we held our talks at 3pm just before a team had to go. If we hold lightning talks as soon as teams have all arrived, at about 11am, it means the talks can act as an ice breaker, allowing teams to communicate more throughout the day, and share more information.

- Holding code tutorials: We decided they weren't very useful a week before the competition, however teams really liked getting proper tutorials on how to program the kits in the last tech day.

Thanks,

Andy B-S

[Peter Law]

Hi,

> I'm happy to say the last tech day was the best tech day we've had. We
> managed to build about 1/3 of an arena for students to test their robots in.
> The arena is pretty large, so we couldn't build an entire test arena. 5
> teams turned up

Awesome news! Keep up the good work Andy!

Thanks,
Peter