South Super Regionals 2018 Postmortem

By Charlotte, Ethan, Tycho, Austin, Janavi, Abhi, Karina, Kenna, and Evan

Task: Reflect on our accomplishments in South Super Regionals

Judging

Strengths
In previous presentations, we have had difficulty with timing and conveying everything we have to in the allotted time. This time, we got all of our information across and had enough extra time for some questions and good discussion with the judges.

Weaknesses
Although we did improve our timing, due to a lack of practice we had some poor/awkward transitions, and we had to shuffle a bit every time we needed to demonstrate something we have made which made for awkward periods of silence. Also, we tended to ramble, so with practice or by making a script we can be more precise. We didn't stress connect/first specific events and we didn't stress the year round deployment of or outreach program as much as we usually do, so we didn't get any visits to our Mobile Learning Lab from judges. The main logistical error we had was that one of the computers didn't have the latest version of the presentation on it, and we couldn't download it because the venue didn't have internet connection. As always, we were lower on energy then we could have been, so we may have come off as less enthusiastic as we really are.

Opportunities
The greatest improvement we can make is practice: with practice we can make our presentation crisp and flushed out to avoid those awkward pauses. To avoid the awkward shuffling to the presentation box, we can have every person hold different versions of the grabber. We are going to make a bar with every version of the octoplucker because this would be helpful to demonstrate. Also, FIRST specific events are very important to us and the judging.

Threats
Our Mobile Learning Lab is going to be at an Earth Day event during Worlds, so we will not be able to share it/give judges tours.

Robot Performance

Strengths
At Supers, we had the best gripper flipper that we have had yet, it worked alright and it looked nice so it impressed the judges. Our robot didn't die during matches which is a welcome improvement. We won 2nd place innovate award for our REVolution system. Also, we noticed our robot has good speed and maneuverability.

Weaknesses
We were ranked 32/36, so overall our robot game was weak. We assembled our final Supers robot too late, so we didn't have nearly enough driver practice.

Opportunities
Driver practice is key. In the weeks leading up to Worlds, we are going to avoid major robot changes and practice driving the robot as much as we can.

Threats
In Worlds, we are going to face the toughest competition we have thus far, so we are going to have to work very hard to stand a chance.

Scouting

Strengths
This time, we had things to hand out to teams that we visit and those that stopped by our pit. We made 1000 business cards and a lot of keychains that we 3D printed previously. Also, we visited a lot of pits, both in Kilrain and Pemberton, and made friends with teams, connections that will continue into Worlds. We even took pictures of everyone's robot and made a collage, pictured below.

Weaknesses
Our pit was disorganized and crowded, we were having. A few members of our team got sick, so there was a lot of sitting around and looking lazy. Apparently they will not be supplying chairs at Worlds, so that should help. We aren't known for being particularly high energy, but it is essential to be active in the pits on competition days.

Opportunities
By Worlds, we hope to have completed the awards case that we had planned for Supers, and hopefully we can create more Roman inspired items to give our pit a more unique touch.

Journal

Strengths
Our engineering journal was effective in portraying the progression of the robot design. It had an enormous amount of posts that show all of our accomplishments this year. The many posts we made for the REVolution system probably helped us catch the attention of the Innovate judges.

Weaknesses
Some of our sections were a bit empty, such as our control section which only has 6 posts and the business section.

Opportunities
Before Worlds, we are going to organize the posts into their respective awards a bit better as well as writing abstracts for each award and why we are good candidates for them. We are running out of space in our binder, so we are going to split it into two which will be nice so two judges can read our information at the same time. For our control section, we are going to add an Open CV post, which is something we talk about in our presentation but we don't have many details about it in our journal.

Threats
When we split into two binders, a judge may mistake each on for a full journal, so we must make it clear on the cover of each journal that it is only half.