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Recent News
April 28, 2008

Dallas Regional - Mentors Needed (10:24 am)

The FIRST Championship wrapped up with a great season this year.
A new 2009 Dallas Regional has been added.
Therefore many new teams in Dallas and mentors are needed to make this a a success.
Signup for http://mentorsearch.us to see what teams and mentors are in your area.
You can also check the FRC registered teams in Texas, or see the FTC teams from Texas.
FLL also has the most # of teams in texas but they are not listed in FIRST’s database.


March 4, 2008

Lamar Robotics Builds the Future Generation (5:29 pm)

I have been helping out as a Mentor for the Lamar Robotics Team, so I thought I would post an article written by the team about FIRST as the 2008 Lone Star Regional Approaches.

“I’m having fun.  FIRST will help me get to the goal of becoming an Electrical Engineer,” said Paul Bunch, a sophomore attending Lamar High School.  Paul is a member of his high school’s robotics club, affectionately called the “Disco Bots”, when looking to compete in the FIRST Robotics competition.  Students are going beyond the typical public education at the Lamar Robotics club learning about engineering, design and robots.

The Lamar Robotics team is comprised of students and teachers from Lamar High School as well as volunteer engineers from Rice University and Texas Instruments. 2008 marks Lamar’s first year in the FIRST Robotics Competition. Through this experience, the group of volunteer engineers, high school students, and teachers have created a successful working relationship. Mentors assist students in the design and creation of the robot as well as teach the students the engineering process. The team meets on average of three to four days per week after school. Even though the number of meetings is limited, the learning cycle is fast paced so that it prepares the students to take on real world scenarios with very tight budgets.

“FIRST enhanced my creativity, enlarged my visions, and ignited my imagination to think bold and beyond the conventional methods.” said Chi Huang, a senior who plans to go into engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
Robotics brings together many different cultures including encouraging girls to participate in robotics building activities.  “Most of the critical parts on the robot are done by the girls on the team,” says Texas Instrument Mentor, Christina Lam.  “In addition to teaching me the importance of cooperation and dedication, FIRST has reinforced my interest in engineering and its applications.” says Keila Fong, a junior and a leading member of the team designated with driving the robot and wiring its electronics.
The students’ hard work will culminate when they take part in the three-day Lone Star Regional FIRST Robotics competition at the Leonard E. Merrell Center in Katy, Texas beginning on Thursday, March 20th.  The competition is free and open to the public.  More details are available at the Lone Star Regional website http://txfirst.org.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) launched its seventeenth FIRST Robotics Competition season on January 5th.  The FIRST Robotics Competition is an annual competition that helps students discover the rewards and excitement of science, engineering, and technology. Over 37,500 high-school students on more than 1,500 teams from Brazil, Canada, Chile, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the U.K., and every state in the U.S. are participating in this year’s competition.

In this year’s game, known as “FIRST Overdrive”, the teams have designed their robots to race around a track while optionally knocking down 40″ inflated Trackballs or moving a ball around the track, passing it either over or under a 6′6″ overpass. Extra points are scored for robots positioning the Trackballs back on the overpass before the end of the 2 minute and 15 second match. Forty-one regional competitions will lead up to the 2008 FIRST Championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, April 17-19. Since its beginning, FIRST has had a positive impact on students and academic communities. Research has shown that FIRST has significantly improved students’ attitudes about math and science and has fostered a culture of teamwork, leadership, and self-confidence [1]. FIRST Robotics participants are eligible to apply for over $9.5 million in scholarships from leading universities, colleges, and companies. In addition, interest in internship and employment opportunities with sponsoring companies has increased.

[1] Brandeis University’s Center for Youth and Communities conducted an independent, retrospective survey of FIRST Robotics Competition participants and compared results to a group of non-FIRST students with similar backgrounds and academic experiences, including math and science.
When compared with the comparison group, FIRST students are:

  • More than 3 times as likely to major specifically in engineering.
  • About 10 times as likely to have an apprenticeship, internship, or co-op in their freshman year.
  • More than twice as likely to expect to pursue a career in science and technology.
  • More than twice as likely to volunteer in their communities.

    • To find FIRST Robotics Competition events and teams in your area, visit http://www.usfirst.org and click on the map in the top right corner.

    For Texas FIRST Robotics updates, look to the http://txfirst.org to see the teams from the Houston Area that will participate in the Lone Star Regional.
    To see the Disco Bots and Lamar Robotics in more detail , please go to their website http://discobots.org


    January 15, 2008

    FIRST Robotics Kickoff 2008 (9:44 am)

    Manchester, NH, January 5, 2008 – FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) launched its seventeenth FIRST Robotics Competition season today with a Kickoff at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, NH, hometown and headquarters of FIRST. The FIRST Robotics Competition is an annual competition that helps students discover the rewards and excitement of science, engineering, and technology. Over 37,500 high-school students on more than 1,500 teams from Brazil, Canada, Chile, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the U.K., and every state in the U.S. are participating in this year’s competition.
    At the Kickoff, all teams were shown this year’s game field for the first time and received a common kit of parts made up of motors, batteries, a control system, and a mix of automation components – but no instructions. Working with mentors, students now have just six weeks to design, build, and test their robots to meet the season’s engineering challenge. Once these young inventors create the robot, their teams participate in regional competitions that measure the effectiveness of each robot, the power of collaboration, and the determination of students.
    In this year’s game, “FIRST Overdrive,” students’ robots are designed to race around a track knocking down 40″ inflated Trackballs and moving them around the track, passing them either over or under a 6′6″ overpass. Extra points are scored by robots positioning the Trackballs back on the overpass before the end of the 2 minute and 15 second match.

    Teams across the nation and in Brazil, Canada, and Israel watched the Manchester Kickoff proceedings via NASA TV broadcast or Web cast from 49 local kickoff sites, many of which also offered workshops and a chance to meet other teams. The Kickoff agenda included presentations by FIRST founder Dean Kamen; New Hampshire Governor John Lynch; FIRST advisor Dr. Woodie Flowers; FIRST chairman John Abele; FIRST president Paul Gudonis; and NASA program executive Dave Lavery.
    In 1992, the FIRST Robotics Competition began with 28 teams and a single 14 x 14 foot playing field in a New Hampshire high school gym. This season, more than 1,500 teams – including a record 316 rookie teams – will participate. Forty-one regional competitions will lead up to the 2008 FIRST Championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, April 17-19.
    Since its beginning, FIRST has had a positive impact on students and academic communities. Research has shown that FIRST has significantly improved students’ attitudes about math and science and has fostered a culture of teamwork, leadership, and self-confidence. FRC participants are eligible to apply for over $9.5 million in scholarships from leading universities, colleges, and companies. In addition, interest in internship and employment opportunities with sponsoring companies has increased.
    To find FIRST Robotics Competition events and teams in your area, visit http://www.usfirst.org and click on the map in the top right corner.

    For Texas FIRST updates, look to the http://txfirst.org to see the teams from the Houston Area that will participate in the Lone Star Regional.


    October 3, 2007

    Neural Network in Magnetic Flux Leakage Applications (10:57 am)

    I’ve done some searches for interesting papers that I’m investigating,

    • Invariance Transforms on MFL Signals (IEEE, Magnetics)
    • Neural Network Inversion Algorithms of MFL signals (Applied Physics Jounral)
    • Neural Network compared to Sensitivity Analysis based onfinite element technique for optimization of permanent magnet generators (IEEE, Magnetics)

    September 28, 2007

    Magnetic Flux Leakage Research (5:31 pm)

    Many different papers cover robots and experiments in MFL situations


    September 27, 2007

    FIRST Lone Star Ideas (7:09 pm)

    I’ve made a brainstorm list of different FIRST Robotics regional websites with great ideas,