SouthWest Robotics in Science Education (SWRiSE) is organizing FTC, FRC, FLL, SUMO, Botball, and Follow The Line contests in June at the San Diego County Fair. Register your team by Friday, May 12.  https://sdfair.com/contests/summer-of-robotics/

Summer of Robotics schedule
Saturday, June 3: FIRST® Robotics Contest
Saturday, June 10: FIRST® Tech Challenge Contest
Sunday, June 11: Follow The Line, SUMO matches, and FIRST® LEGO® League Contest
Saturday, June 24: Botball® Robotics Contest

​from Steven Chen, FTC 11128 Team Inspiration Captain
---------- Forwarded message ----------
We are happy to announce that with your help AB 624 passed the Revenue & Taxation Committee last week.  It is currently in the Appropriations Committee.  Teacher support letters will help move this bill to the next stage.  Please ask your teachers for support of this bill.  You are welcome to forward the email below with attachments when asking for support.
 
Thank you!
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dear Teacher,
 
AB 624 is a robotics tax credit bill that Assemblyman Brian Maienschein is carrying. This bill would create a 50% tax credit for donations (up to $10,000) made to “STEM clubs that participate in robotics competitions” aka Robotics Clubs. The intent of this bill is to help support STEM education and get our students as involved in these fields as early as possible so that they feel encouraged to pursue careers in the growing STEM fields. (Refer to attached fact sheet)
 
The California Teacher Association (CTA) has taken an “Oppose” position on this bill although they believe in its intent, simply because tax credits take money out of the general fund, which they are big defenders of. Their position is very standard even though the bill is limited to a $1 million cap. I know that sounds like A LOT of money, however it is in fact a very small piece of the general fund, and seeing as the tax credit is 50% of donations, this would mean up to $2 million could be donated to our clubs.
 
Attached is also a support letter for this bill. If you could fill out the support letter and scan and email it to nadra.mamou@asm.ca.gov , your support will show the Appropriations Committee (the committee where all bills dealing with any type of fiscal amount are heard and often killed) that this bill would in fact support robotics clubs and students STEM education.
 
This is time sensitive so we need these letters emailed to Nadra ASAP or by Tuesday, May 2, 2017.
 
Thank you for supporting this important bill that will give proper funding to robotics clubs.
 
Warm regards,
 
Steven Chen
FTC Team Inspiration Captain
 
Madalyn Nguyen
FTC Team Inspiration Outreach Ambassador
 
Tracy Nguyen, O.D.
FTC Team Inspiration Outreach Liaison

This is somewhat belated, but we have not found an official posting at FIRST yet.  This listing is from the FTC subreddit.

Congratulations to 10092 Green.Griffins for being named finalists for both the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award and also PTC Design Award!!


Awards
Volunteer of the year: Bob Atkinson

Judges’ Award: 10165 Apex Predators

Toolbox Judges’ Award: 3188 Squiggle Splat Bang

Compass Award Nominees: Krishnan Duraiswami 4855, Chase Rainwater 9879, Ms. Sue 12527
Compass Award: Krishnan Duraiswami 4855

Promote Award Nominees: 7300 Guzzoline Robotics, 5795 Back to the Drawing Board, 3595 Schrodingers Hat
Promote Award: 3595 Schrodingers Hat

Control Award Nominees: 2856 Tesseract, 3491 FIX IT, 3595 Schrodingers Hat, 7172 Technical Difficulties, 8045 Gromit’s Grommets, 9915 Robo Thunder
Control Award: 8045 Gromit’s Grommets

Motivate Award Nominees: 417 S.K.I.D, 3526 Marlbots, 4962 Rockettes, 8176 Steelhead, 9879 Root Negative One, 10247 Trinity BaCoNeers
Motivate Award Winner: 3526 Marlbots

PTC Design Nominees: 4717 Mechromancers, 5795 Back to the Drawing Board, 6299 ViperBots QuadX, 10092 Green.Griffins, 12527 Fast Dragon, 12537 Gearing Wings
PTC Design Winner: 6299 ViperBots QuadX

Rockwell Collins Innovate Award Nominees: 2856 Tesseract, 3595 Schrodingers Hat, 7013 Hot Wired, 8815 Iron Eagles Silverbot, 10060 Klamath Coyotes, 10092 Green.Griffins
Rockwell Collins Innovate Award Winners: 3595 Schrodingers Hat

Connect Award Nominees: 4628 Suit Bots, 5714 Shambots, 7209 Tech Hogs Robotics, 8651 Wait For It…, 8908 Robo Mojo, 11121 Fishy Business, Inc. (FBI)
Connect Award Winners: 5714 Shambots

Think Award Nominees: 3491 FIX IT, 6510 CyberSharks, 6990 Static Void, 7172 Technical Difficulties, 8404 Quixilver, 8668 Error 404: Team Name Not Found
Think Award Winner: 6510 CyberSharks

Inspire Award Nominees: 2856 Tesseract, 3491 FIX IT, 8471 The Ducks, 8668 Error 404: Team Name Not Found
Inspire Award Winners: 3491 FIX IT

​https://www.reddit.com/r/FTC/comments/66xjao/info_ftc_houston_worlds_awards/

The other half of FTC is having their World Championship in St. Louis now - here are links for those interested in seeing the results. As of this posting, there are about 10-12 qualification matches left for each division.

​Edison Division livestream (named for Thomas Edison, inventor, businessman
https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires_edison
Edison scores and rankings​
https://ftcscores.com/event/1617-worlds-stlouis-edison

​Ochoa Division livestream (named for Ellen Ochoa, engineer, first Hispanic woman astronaut, Director of Johnson Space Center)
​https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires_ochoa
Ochoa scores and rankings
​https://ftcscores.com/event/1617-worlds-stlouis-ochoa

​online scores for FTC by Purple Alliance
https://ftcscores.com/

links for all livestreaming at FIRST World Championship
​https://www.firstchampionship.org/watch-live

The #2 seed alliance from Franklin Division: FTC 724 RedNek Robotics Wun, 4216 Rise of Hephaestus, and FTC 8651 Wait For It... won their third Finals match against the Jemison Division winning alliance to become the Overall Winning Alliance at 2017 Worlds in Houston!!

​In addition, 8471 The Ducks were a finalist for the Inspire Award!

​CONGRATULATIONS to both teams for their awards! And congratulations to 10092 Green.Griffins for advancing into the Jemison Division Semifinals!

During Alliance Selection this morning in the Franklin Division, 4216 Rise of Hephaestus was the first pick of 724 RedNek Robotics Wun, the captain of the #2 seed alliance. And in the Jemison Division, 10092 Green.Griffins was the second pick of 5667 Robominers, the captain of the #4 seed alliance. Congratulations to both teams for advancing into the Semifinals!

​Here are the results for those Semifinal matches:

Further congratulations to 4216 Rise of Hephaestus for winning their Semifinals matches! They now advance to Division Finals and hopefully to Overall Finals!

​The teams are in the Judged Awards Ceremony now, and after pits are cleared, the Finals for both FTC and FRC will be staged in Minute Maid Park at 2-6pm Pacific time today.  Scores should show up here http://houston.worlds.pennfirst.org/
and hopefully they will have a livestream available at one of these links:
https://www.firstchampionship.org/watch-live​
https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires_jemison​
https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires_franklin
​
Come and cheer on Rise of Hephaestus!!

After 9 Qualifying Matches at Worlds, San Diego teams had very respectable results:

Franklin Division
6th seed - 4216 Rise of Hephaestus
12th seed - 8471 The Ducks
​
Jemison Division
7th seed - 11128 Inspiration
12th seed - 10092 Green.Griffins
33rd seed - 3848 Shockwave
​

Alliance Selection will take place Sat morning at 8am, followed by Semi-Final matches at 9:15-10:15am. There will then be a break for Judged Awards Ceremony, and packing up of pits, followed by Finals matches at 4-8pm. All times are Central time. See previous blog post for links to the livestream and results pages.

It's the last 2 days of competition at the Houston FTC World Championship! The matches are being livestreamed on Twitch.TV, and the results are online! We have teams in the top 15 of each division so come cheer them on! As of this posting in Franklin Division, Rise of Hephaestus is 14th, and The Ducks are 19th. In Jemison Division, Inspiration is 10th, Green.Griffins is 11th, and Shockwave is 33rd, but rankings are constantly changing!

Just to remind everyone, San Diego FTC Leagues have 5 teams currently at Worlds: 4216 Rise of Hephaestus and 8471 The Ducks are in the Franklin Division, and 10092 Green.Griffins, 11128 Inspiration, and 3848 Shockwave are in the Jemison Division. Each Division has 64 teams and 144 qualifying matches total. Those qualifying matches finish up today, and the alliance selection takes place Saturday morning with Semi-Finals matches from 9:15-10:15am. It appears that Finals will take place at Minute Maid Park at 4-8pm. [All times are Central Time, so 2 hours earlier for us in San Diego.]
​
​The match list, score results, and current rankings are online for each division (and for Finals tomorrow) at this site: http://houston.worlds.pennfirst.org/  Make sure you click on the correct division to see the results, and if you click on a particular team in the Rankings, a popup will show you their results so far and which matches still remain..

​Franklin Division livestream with 4216 Rise of Hephaestus and 8471 The Ducks
(named for Ben Franklin - inventor, scientist, politician)
​​https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires_franklin

Jemison Division livestream with 10092 Green.Griffins, 11128 Inspiration, and 3848 Shockwave
(named for Mae Jemison - engineer, physician, first African-American woman astronaut in space)
​https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires_jemison