Checksum Arcanius

Earlier today, I was a referee at the FIRST Lego League Washington State Championship. The Titan Robotics Club’s Nanocrushers, a team composed of 7th and 8th graders, competed there today, after securing their spot in the championship after achieving the top score at the Issaquah qualifying regional one week ago. Working very well as a team, they were able to score an amazing 355 point out of 400 possible. Two unlucky events conspired to prevent the Nanocrushers from scoring a truly astronomical 395 in one of their three matches. At the end of the day, only one team scored higher, with 360 points. In addition to their great competition play, the Nanocrushers also won the 2nd place Robot Design award. I believe that they were the only team at the competition to win two awards. Not even the State Champion Garden Gothic Lawn Gnomes were able to pull that off.

Overall, I would say it was a great success, hopefully a portent of great things to come from these kids and the whole Titan Robotics Club. Congratulations to the Nanocrushers!

- Glasses
- Tripod

I just purchased a new tripod. Soon I will purcahase new glasses.

I just consumer whored.

A lot has happened since my last real post — not only because my life has been considerably busier than usual, but also because I haven’t made a significant post in quite a while. So, I’m sure to forget something, but here is a synopsis:

- Went on a hike up Mt Teneriffe, near Mt Si, with Dave, Larry, and Tim. Dave, Tim and I summitted (see photos here)
- Took Statistics Midterm
- Went to Atlanta for the 2006 FIRST Robotics Competition Championship (Wednesday-Sunday two weeks ago)
- Talked to police officers while in Atlanta over a misunderstanding about patio usage at a hotel (we happened to be on the patio when someone threw something off, and we apparently got blamed)
- Left Atlanta with no awards, but got to watch some really exciting elimination matches on the Newton field
- Took two midterms my first full day back from Atlanta
- Crashed into a car on my way to work (Monday, one week ago)
- Paid the guy I crashed into for damages
… Guy I crashed into gave me his car (Now we are friends)
- Now I drive that car around
… It has nice cold air conditioning, a radio, and no rear window (my fault) or seats (taken out to carry more stuff by previous owner)
- Got statistics midterm back — 50% (WTF?!)
- Got Bioengineering midterm back — 87%
- Got ML programming assignment back — 20/30 — FACK
- Got ML midterm back — 65/75 — thats about right
- Took Discrete Structures midterm — felt good
- Hiked Rattlesnake Ridge, the long way, with Nick from work
- Won a couple of frisbee games

The 2006 FIRST Robotics Competition Chamipnship is this week. I leave tomorrow, Wednesday the 26th of April, at 1:30pm for Atlanta, Georgia, where the competition is being held. This means I am missing almost three entire days of class (I’ll make my one Wednesday Morning class). Unfortunately, this is pretty much the worst time ever for me to be gone, as I am also gone during two scheduled midterms, a three-hour lab, two three homework deadlines, the Engineering Open house, and a Men’s frisbee game. So I have been hard at work getting everything that I can done before I leave. One midterm I’m taking early, sandwhiched between my Wednesday morning class and my drive down to the airport (thanks, Mom!). The other midterm I’m taking as soon as I get back, which is the same day as a third midterm, which I am missing the review session for. The homeworks I’ll be turning in tomorrow — although I have yet to finish two of them! Fortunately, Microvision remains very flexible with me and I have tomorrow off (usually an 8-10 hour day) so I can get all of my stuff done for this trip. Speaking of tomorrow, since I’ll be missing my bioengineering lab on Thursday, I’m helping set of for this week’s lab tomorrow mornign. Oh, I’ll also be writing the report for last week’s lab sometime tomorrow or wednesday, and I’ll probablly submit it electronically from Atlanta.

Fun times.

I have successfully cleared my school schedule and purchased (expensive!) tickets, so I will be headed to Atlanta for the 2006 FIRST Robotics Competition Championship. You heard it here first.

This last weekend, I attended the FIRST Robotics Competition’s Pacific Northwest Regional. This year’s regional was packed with talent, with the best West-Coast team (254), us (492), another two-time champion (753) and old-schoolers such as Tacoma’s 360 and Los Altos’ 114. We knew the going would be rough, especially with a robot not performing to our high expectations, but we were still pretty disappointed after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. The TRC is also pretty accustomed to getting a few awards at our home regional. Past years have seen at least one, and usually two or three awards coming our way. So when it came down to the last award, and we still hadn’t won anything, some of the Titan’s faithful were feeling a little low. But I had my camera rolling as the following took place:

The Regional Chairman’s Award was created to keep the focus of the FIRST Robotics Competition on the ultimate goal of transforming our culture to one where youth aspire to careers in science and teechnology. This award honors the team that, in the judges’ estimation best represents a model for other teams to emulate and which embodies the goals and purposes of FIRST. Among the factors that the judges evaluate are: concrete examples of mentorship between students and engineers, demonstations of how a team inspires others in its school, community and beyond to share the excitement and fun of engineering, and finally, compelling stories about how the partnership has impacted the lives of those involved. This is FIRST’s most prestigious award. The winner of this award will be invited to the 2006 Championship in Atlanta where it will compete against the winners of the other 32 regionals for the Chairman’s Award. And now, here are what the judges have to say about this regional Chairman’s Award team:

This team is widely recognized for the impact on the FIRST community. They host kickoff, pre-ship events, and (OH MY GOD!) (laughter)… and you can download their code on their website. This team has perpetuated itself through active recruitment and FIRST Lego League mentoring. They have grown to a team of 49, including 21 girls. These Titans of the Community exemplify the meaning of FIRST by all acounts. The 2006 Regional Chairman’s Award for the Pacific Northwest Regional goes to team number 492!

For the first time since 2002, I am missing the Pacific Northwest Regional.

I wish all of the Titans the best of luck, and I will be seeing them tonight. I can’t wait to get down there.