Robotics Trip to Atlanta - Day 1

As a mentor for the HHS Robotics Team, I get to accompany the team to one competition a year. This year, it's the FIRST Championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta from April 12-14. If you're interested in the fun, you can see the webcast here.

A little bit of background: FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), the organization that runs the competitions, is committed to persuading young people that science and engineering are cool and deserve as much attention as American Idol. Each January FIRST announces a game. (Oooo, a game!) During the next six weeks, each team must design and construct a robot to play that game. For instance, this year's game is Rack 'N' Roll (animation here). It's played by two three-team alliances; each alliance must program their robots to strategically hang colorful inner-tubes on a large rack to score points. Competitions run several days to determine the seeding in a single-elimination tournament played on the last day.

The competitions have the look and feel of opening night of Return of the King - loud, cheering, costumed weirdos, face paint, and large crowds of Red Bull-abusing teenagers. It's pretty impressive. Dean Kamen, one of FIRST's founders, has said that he'd like their robotics competitions to be as popular as professional basketball. (If he aimed for professional hockey instead, we'd already be there!)

We left yesterday from school after 4th period. (No 6th period! Hooray!) The charter bus was much nicer than I was expecting - it had a decent TV/DVD system, faux leather headrests, and a bus driver that shamelessly rocked out to James Brown for miles and miles on I-81. During the twelve hour ride there, we watched the entire Star Wars saga (I say "entire" because the new ones don't count), Spaceballs, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Yup, Dean would be proud of us defying all those nerd stereotypes. Favorite nerd-ism overheard: "I bet I could outrun a Bantha." When arrived around 12:30, I checked everyone in, tucked 'em in (and took the wine out of their mini-fridges), and was in bed by 2. Not bad, especially considering that last year I didn't get to sleep until 6!

Today was a practice day. The pit crew unpacked the robot, checked it, and played six scheduled practice matches. Everyone was tired and pretty laid back. The robot was working fine from the get-go, but the software guys wanted to tweak code - they're never finished. I did some sudoku, listened to Cali's iPod (thanks, babe!), and wandered the pits. Highlight of the day: Autodesk, one of the big sponsors of FIRST, was handing out leatherman-like multi-tools after their presentations; some of the students got one.

Somehow our team ended up staying in a posh four star hotel, the Westin Peachtree Plaza, standing 73 floors tall in the heart of Atlanta, just down the street from the Georgia Dome. Towels are soft as newborn-bum, beds are stacked with dozens of pillows, and free wifi in the lobby. Not bad, eh? Some of the kids are in the pool now, some watching movies in their rooms, and others riding the glass elevator to the top floor to check out the view and the rotating restaurant. Only one frustration: with 73 floors, the elevators get a lot of use. Unfortunately, I don't know if these Westin elevators are up to the task. Sure, they're fast, but dumb as tar. I watched one bounce from the 45th to the 32nd back to the 39th, down to the 23rd back to the 30th, and so on as I waited for ten minutes for the thing to reach me on the 5th! They could learn something from C3PO!

What's up for tomorrow: opening ceremonies, the "robot parade" (don't know what that is, but I think it must be part of every nerd's paradise), start of qualifying matches, Dave & Buster's for dinner, hopefully victory and glory! Huzzah!