To followup regarding the last post, I wanted to give some facts regarding 2011′s FIRST scholarship winners. In 2011 there were nearly $15 million in scholarships available from 150 scholarship providers. Of all the scholarships available in 2011 (and there were a TON) 16 students from TX received scholarships. in the following amounts from the following institutions

• ASME Auxiliary ($5,000)
• BAE Systems FIRST Inspiration Award ($1,000)
• Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida ($5,000/year)
• ITT Technical Institute ($9,000/year)
• Olin College of Engineering (half tuition-approx. $20,000/yr!)
• Raytheon Company ($1,000)
• Texas A&M ($1,500)
• University of Texas at Arlington ($11,000/year)
• University of Texas ($2,000)

This information and more can be found at FIRST‘s web site of 2011 scholarship winners.

Glancing through the list of scholarship winners I was hoping to see more winners from Texas. I hope this year more students put forth applications! FIRST involvement looks spectacular on a college resume: you’re problem solving, working in teams, creating web sites, business plans, communicating, etc!

On a parting note: FIRST has published this most updated news sheet regarding FIRST scholarships including important notes from specific universities and upcoming deadlines including CHANGES in deadlines. Please print it out and put it at the top of your To Do list.

Well there are two important things really:

#1. Sustainability Grants are still available for Texas Workforce Commission teams funded last season. Your team has until January 2, 2012 to get your application in to FIRST in Texas to collect $1,255 in sustainability funds. Always be thorough in submitting the application being careful to submit all necessary documents that are required for consideration.

#2. It’s time to research and apply for FIRST scholarships! Currently there are 150 scholarship providers issuing scholarships valuing nearly $14 million! Keep checking back because FIRST will post more opportunities as they become available. Just scrolling through them, deadlines start as early as January 1, 2012. Currently eight are specifically for schools in Texas. Nine can be used anywhere. These scholarships are mostly for juniors and seniors in high school. Be thorough in your application. Make sure you provide all information needed including additional documents. Make sure you update your high school resume, keeping it concise with only necessary items that will make you shine! Most importantly, pay attention to deadlines and make sure you qualify for the particular scholarship before you spend time applying for it.

Your time off is well deserved but invest some of your down time in activities that you can take care of now without the stress of school leaving you little time and energy.

Relax and enjoy!

Happy Holidays!

FIRST in Texas makes it easy for anyone interested in joining a FIRST team as a mentor. Simply fill out the Mentor Match Up form linked here and available on the FIRST in Texas web site under Get Involved. Visit www.usfirst.org to get more information on the different pipeline of programs available to volunteer for.

The Texas Workforce Commission funds will go to sustain the 162 FTC and 22 FRC teams that generated from a similar grant that was awarded in 2011 to new FTC and FRC teams in Texas. With these new funds provided by the Texas Workforce Commission each FTC team funded in 2011 is eligible to receive up to $1,505 covering kit costs and shipping, FTC program fees, a Texas Qualifier Competition registration and registration to the Texas FTC Regional Championship should the team advance. FRC teams funded by the Texas Workforce Commission are eligible to receive $5,000 to fund competition kit costs and registration fees. This grant will also supply startup funds for 40 new FRC teams throughout the state. Teams funded by the Texas Workforce Commission in 2011 and interested new FRC teams that will compete for the first time in 2012 are required to fill out a grant application form available on the FIRST in Texas website www.firstintexas.org.

Teams applying for grants through FIRST in Texas should be thorough in their application and provide all documents requested in the application upon the application’s submission.

The FRC and FTC competitions are FIRST’s upper-level competitions designed for high school participants. The FRC runs on a larger scale model, producing larger robots than the FTC counterpart. FRC competitions take place on game fields as large as 27’x54’. These teams average 25 students per team. FTC teams consist of up to 10 students per team and design robots to compete on competition fields as large as 12’x12’. Both competitions receive a unique game challenge each year and a variety of awards are offered recognizing various aspects of the competition such as design, creativity, entrepreneurship, rookie inspiration, a website award, among others.

FIRST in Texas is supported by companies interested in cultivating STEM initiatives within the state. FIRST in Texas’ sponsors and partners include the Texas Workforce Commission, jcpenney, Greater Texas Foundation, Time Warner Cable, Lockheed Martin, and National Instruments.

“The ClickedIn platform takes advantage of Time Warner Cable Media’s full suite of marketing solutions, promoting deals through e-mail, TV and its online properties. This robust set of promotional outlets helps to drive traffic to the ClickedIn portal, www.clickedin.com, and provides local businesses with a more integrated approach to local marketing,” a Time Warner Cable press release stated.

The service will be released in the Austin, San Antonio and Dallas markets as pilot programs and is expected to expand to additional areas. In an effort to support our FLL affiliates in Austin, San Antonio and Dallas, check out ClickedIn and reconsider which deal finder you use most often. FLL affiliate partners work hard throughout the state to grow FLL in their regions, host FLL competitions and other educational STEM events for potential and current FLL participants.

FIRST in Texas is grateful for Time Warner Cable’s support in nurturing one of the beginner FIRST programs right here in Texas. For more information regarding ClickedIn, please read the linked press release.

After planning a successful first year Regional FIRST Robotics Competition in San Antonio, the Alamo Region set its sights on providing teams with an additional opportunity to play during the off-season. Teams will compete in a modified version of the 2011 FRC game, LOGO MOTION, on an official field provided and
staffed by AndyMark, Inc. Additionally, Texas Robot Round-Up will provide teams with other unique opportunities, such as a Mentor Tournament, Robot Skills Challenge, and workshops and presentations on a variety of topics, including LabVIEW.

Texas Robot Round-Up is an opportunity for FRC teams, both veteran and rookie, to come together one more time to share experiences, learn from each other, build new friendships, practice and compete with their robots, and have fun. This is also an opportunity to bring new team members, mentors, and sponsors up to speed on what FIRST is really all about.

Texas Robot Round-Up has been made a possible through the generous sponsorship of FIRST in Texas, National Instruments, and Time Warner Cable, the assistance of central Texas teams, and volunteers from
across the country. We truly appreciate all your support!

For more details on the event, please see: http://www.alamo-first.org/component/content/article/1/112-2011-texas-robot-round-up-frc-off-season-competition.html

We look forward to seeing you soon! Go teams!

Jess Jankowitsch
Assistant Regional Director & Volunteer Coordinator
Alamo Regional, FIRST Robotics Competition

We wish all teams the best of luck in St. Louis!

Check out the Championship online!

As the Assistant Regional Director and Volunteer Coordinator of our first week, brand new, joint FRC/FTC event that also happens to be one of the biggest Regionals in FRC, I can tell you that all of us on the Planning Committee and the Executive Advisory Board have been working tirelessly to produce a truly exceptional event. We hope all of the teams are excited for some fierce competition. I’m sure all teams will be coming prepared to demonstrate their gracious professionalism and show off the products of six weeks of hard work and dedication. Team members can look forward to receiving special Fiesta style medals commemorating the inaugural event. Students are encouraged to take a tour of scholarship row and the displays that many of our sponsors will have set up at the event. We also encourage  participants to talk with a host of VIPs and special guests, including a few familiar faces from FIRST head quarters, about why FIRST and the Alamo Regional are so important to you!

The Alamo Regional is grateful for all its volunteers and sponsors, including Co-Sponsors: FIRST in Texas, Time Warner Cable, NASA, and JCPenney; Leaders in Technology: The Greater Texas
Foundation and the City of San Antonio; Captains of Innovation: Rackspace, TIER, and UTSA; Friends of the Future: Lockheed Martin and National Instruments; and Robot Boosters: AQTS, BioMed SA, Medtronic, Port San Antonio, Tech Sage Solutions, Texas Public radio, UT Health Science Center, J.M. Waller Associates, Inc., and Akimeka. The Alamo Regional could not happen without your support!

We look forward to seeing you soon! Go teams!

~Jess Jankowitsch

Assistant Regional Director & Volunteer Coordinator
Alamo Regional, FIRST Robotics Competition

Today North Texas FRC teams had the opportunity to bring their robots out to Richardson ISD’s J.J. Pearce High School and practice for competition on a full sized playing field provided by Lockheed Martin a sponsor of the Dallas FRC Regional. By 1:00pm six teams were present practicing game strategies like driving, picking up tubes, placing tubes on pegs and throwing tubes onto the field. In doing so teams were picking up new strategies and working out kinks along the way.

“We’re going to try to go as fast as possible in two minutes, get as much tubes as possible up there,” Jamal of FRC Team 2948 said in regards to the strategies his team has picked up since coming to the practice field opportunity. “For our rail system we tried to be really accurate with the height and make sure it’s at the right height really fast,” Jamal added about the team’s srategy to elevate the robot high enough to place tubes on the pegs.

Today is the only day the practice field is available for the teams’ use and it has been open from 9:30AM with a closing time of 3:30 PM. The challenge area teams face to utilize this opportunity is to have a working robot. Many teams were put behind schedule as this month’s winter weather closed schools and related activities. Teams are working hard enough as it is to meet Tuesday’s shipping date, when all robots must be crated and shipped off until their team’s regional event.

While many of the teams present today were polished veteran teams, one rookie team made it out with a well built, working robot. FRC Team 3802 of Prince of Peace Christian School was able to test their robot and learn from the veteran teams around them. This team’s robot’s strengths will be blocking for their alliance and it can also deploy a mini robot.

If you’re not familiar with this year’s game strategy it’s worth checking out.

“I’m really impressed with the game this year. The visuals are just stunning,” Dr. Leslie Jutzi a team mentor for FRC Team 704 said. “It forces communication, collaboration and team work like we haven’t seen before. “

Dr. Jutzi was impressed with just how critical communication among the team is for this challenge as team members work together from opposite sides of the field. This includes communicating from one side to the other because the driver may be blinded by hanging tubes as well as directing the driver on grasping and hanging tubes on pegs.

Many thanks to FRC Team 1745 of J.J.Pearce High School for hosting the practice field and the teams that made it out. The opportunity would not have been possible without the dedication of Lockheed Martin. Best of luck to the teams that made it out and all teams in Texas!

So yes, FIRST serves to inspire young people but time and time again, professional engineers and technologists who are introduced to FIRST get completely taken with the game challenges and the opportunity to innovate that they find a way to get involved.  FIRST inspires mentors to inspire young people.

“Seeing kids apply knowledge to scientific applications; Seeing sweat put into their own real world engineering creations; Seeing kids get excited over technology; That’s why I’m a FIRST robotics mentor,” said Joe Varnell, a Lockheed Martin employee and a third year mentor to South Grand Prairie High School’s FRC Team 704. “Plus, I get to play with robots.”

Mentor Joe Varnell pictured second to last on the far right.

Mr. Varnell serves FIRST in multiple ways while still committing his time to team 704. He shares his history with FIRST below.

“I started working with FIRST team 704 several years ago,” Mr. Varnell said. “I started by helping out a couple of hours a couple of times a week during the robot build season. I could see the excitement as the robot came together and as work was being put into the Chairman’s award presentation.

I thought it was great that the kids were giving up their time after school to build a Robot. I then went to the Dallas FIRST Robotics Competition event with the team. There was a stadium filled with kids and their Robots. Hundreds of kids were in the stands cheering for the Robots as they competed and hundreds of kids in the pits frantically working on repaires or last minute improvements on their Robots. Everyone was helping each other, teams helping other teams; it was Coopertition, the combination of cooperation and competition, in action.

That year, we went to the world championships, the Georgia Dome, the super bowl of FIRST robotics, the ‘Big Enchilada’. It was excitement beyond all expectations; Kids with youthful energy on the level of any traditional sporting event being put into technology and engineering event. The stadium was a patch work quilt of teams. Kids with team colors, from the top of their sculpted, painted hair, to the bottom of their multi-colored duct taped shoes. All that youthful energy and excitement over engineering creations, built in 6 weeks, by kids. It was amazing! I was totally hooked as a mentor.

Now I mentor FIRST team 704 and help as many other teams as I can with guidance and knowledge, and work elementary school Robot fanatics to High School robot fanatics.  I also work as a volunteer at FIRST Competitions.

Being a mentor, I knew I was helping shape the future of the world. Helping kids unlock their potential, helping kids learn about science and engineering, and helping the kids build something they can see operate in real situations. Plus, I get to play with Robots! Nothing could be Cooler,” Mr. Varnell said.

If you are interested in connecting with a team in your area, FIRST in Texas provides a form allowing
the organization to match you with a team near you. Fill out a form today and get connected!