Extra Curricular Activities, Students

Panthers compete at the Austin FTC Double Qualifier

Report by TMI Robotics Parent Debra Barnes

Team 6221 Members: Hector Castillo, Joaquin Castillo, Morgan Garbett, Chad Harthan, Jennifer Nash, Osman Sharaf, Annie Umer. Not pictured: Fe Cajiga-Pena, Ian Vaughn.
Team 6219 Members: Jack Chance, Austin Miller, Chris Nash, Parker O’Berg, Umer Salman, Nicholas Sandoval, Andres Suarez-Domit. Not pictured: Ryan Vaughn.

Congratulations to TMI Panther Robotics for their performance at the Austin FTC Double Qualifier on Saturday, January 25, 2014.

Both TMI teams exemplified the FIRST values of Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition. In the first qualifying match, Team 6219 loaned their alliance partners safety glasses and at the end of the day, after all matches were completed, our two teams jumped in to help the Field Set Up crew disassemble all four playing fields prior to the awards ceremony.

Team 6219 was the finalist for the Think Award and also a finalist for the Core Values Award.

Team 6221 won the Connect Award and was also a finalist for the Motivate Award.

Both teams now advance to the Alamo FTC Championship hosted at Rackspace, February 7-8. (This is a two division event.)

 

Award descriptions:

Think Award – This award is given to the team that best reflects the “journey” the team took as they experienced the engineering design process during the build season. Judges will be most interested in Engineering Notebook entries describing the steps, brainstorms, designs, re-designs, successes, and those times when things weren’t going as planned. A team cannot be a candidate for this award if they have not completed the section of the Engineering Notebook describing the team’s experience.

Core Values Award – This award celebrates the team that demonstrates that friendly competition and mutual gain are not separate goals, and that helping one another is the foundation of teamwork.

Connect Award – This award is given to the team that most connected with their local and engineering communities. The recipient of this award is recognized for helping the community understand FIRST, the FIRST Tech Challenge program, and their team. The winning team is exploring opportunities available in engineering, science and technology.

Motivate Award – This award celebrates the team that exemplifies the essence of FTC through team spirit and enthusiasm. They show their spirit through costumes, a cheer, or strong team identity. This team has also made a collective effort to make FIRST known throughout their school and community.

Tournament Structure:
Alamo FTC Championship winners will advance to the FTC South Super-Regional Championships – one of four to be held in the US: West Region, North Region, East Region and the South Region. The FTC South Super-Regional Championship will be held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Center, in San Antonio, February 26 – 28, 2014.

For the FTC Championship, Texas will advance 30 teams to the FTC South Super-Regional Championship. The most of any southern state. The breakdown by Championship in Texas is Alamo-14; Houston-4, Arlington-8; Lubbock-4.

Advancement criteria will follow the same pattern as qualifier events:
1. Inspire Award Winner
2. Winning Alliance Captain
3. Inspire Award 2nd place
4. Winning Alliance, 1st team selected
5. Inspire Award 3rd place
6. Winning Alliance, 2nd team selected
7. Think Award Winner
8. Finalist Alliance Captain
9. Connect Award Winner
10. Finalist Alliance, 1st team selected
11. Rockwell Collins Innovate Award Winner
12. Finalist Alliance, 2nd team selected
13. PTC Design Award Winner
14. Highest Ranked Team not previously advanced
15. Motivate Award Winner

Again congratulations to Team 6219 and Team 6221. Go Panther Robotics!

A big THANK YOU to Dr. Travis Waddington for all the long hours to support the TMI Robotics Program. We appreciate all you have done and continue to do for our future engineers. THANK YOU to Mr. John Brady for continuing to support TMI Robotics and taking time out of your weekend to spend the day mentoring our teams in Austin. THANK YOU to the Vaughn family for your help in setting up the robotics building and our practice field. We appreciate all you have done!!!

And a final THANK YOU to all the parents who have and continue to support our program; the early morning driving, the last nights patiently waiting for practice to end, the dinners and snacks!! It has been fun seeing all of our students learn and grow with the program.