Blog Posts

Volunteer Corner Spotlight - Adnan Abdulally – Region Head Referee

11/4/2019

Name of the team(s) you are currently involved with, name of school and location:

I do not have any association with any teams or schools. It keeps me unbiased in making referee calls.

Tell us a little bit about your history with FIRST and what you currently do with the FTC program in the San Diego region:

My history with FIRST has always been with refereeing. I started around 4 years ago and quickly worked my way up as regional head referee. My job is to recruit and train head referees for all the events, answer any rules related questions that get escalated to me, and referee for events like the San Diego Regional Championship.

What do you most enjoy about your involvement with FTC:

My favorite part of refereeing is seeing the kids succeed in accomplishing something with their robots for the first time. Whether it’s getting their robots to score something in autonomous that they never did before, or to hang for the first time, that look of joy that they get is priceless.

When you’re not doing FTC, what do you do for a living:

I am a Senior Software Engineer at Printivity, an online printing company. I work on the company’s website and internal software tools.

Tell us an interesting factoid about yourself that people might be surprised to learn:

I own and run a non-profit organization called Active Lifestyle Nerds (ALN) that has over 7000 members. ALN’s goal is to build and grow the adult nerd community in San Diego.

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Volunteer Corner Spotlight - Pamela Meistrell, San Diego Region Volunteer Coordinator

10/30/2019

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Name of the team(s) you are currently involved with, name of school and location:
My husband David Warner is working with two teams this year – RSF Intergalactic Dragons and RSF Dark Voyager at the R. Roger Rowe School in Rancho Santa Fe. I don’t work directly with any teams.

Tell us a little bit about your history with FIRST and what you currently do with the FTC program in the San Diego region:
I became aware of FIRST when my husband helped form an FLL program at his school back in 2012 then started going to the FTC competitions in 2014 when he formed his first FTC team. In 2015 I took the plunge by coordinating league meets, twice a year, at the R. Roger Rowe School along with Cory Hoover. In 2016 I joined the Steering Committee for the FTC West Super Regional yearly Championships which took place in Washington State. I’ve been to Worlds twice and am still in awe of the spectacle! I became very involved with the San Diego region in 2018 and became its Volunteer Coordinator this past season.

What do you most enjoy about your involvement with FTC:
When a team does something really well at an event and everyone starts screaming and jumping up and down . . . it makes my heart sing to see that pure joy.

When you’re not doing FTC, what do you do for a living:
I have my own graphic design business.

Tell us an interesting factoid about yourself that people might be surprised to learn:
I was born in Alaska and in 1987 my job with Alaska Special Olympics provided me the opportunity to fly to Nome. It was January and sixty below zero! I dressed in some traditional Eskimo clothing and “mushed a dog sled” along the Bering Sea!

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Speaker from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech on 11/9

10/30/2019

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The Clueless #11212 would like to invite you to an exciting outreach and connect event! A speaker from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech will be presenting about his research. This will be followed by a discussion of the new season’s challenge. Teams will be able to receive mentorship from demoing veteran teams.
Date: 11/9
Time: 5:30-8:00
Location: The Cambridge School (12855 Black Mountain Road)
Schedule: 5:30-6:30 - JPL Presentation; 6:30-7:30 - FTC Demos and Collaboration; 7:30-8:00 - Snack and discussion
Please RSVP here by November 3rd.

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The 2020 SEAP and NREIP Summer Internship application period remains open until 1 November, 2019 at 6:00pmEST

10/23/2019

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If you're the parent or friend of a high school or college student interested in a science or engineering career, please share the word!

NIWC Pacific works with two summer internship programs designed for exceptional high school students and collegiate students who have an interest in a future career in the science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) fields.
These internship programs provide an opportunity for students to participate in research at a Department of Navy (DoN) laboratory during the summer.
The goals of these programs are to encourage participating students to pursue science and engineering careers, to further their education via mentoring by laboratory personnel and their participation in research, and to make them aware of DoN research and technology efforts, which can lead to employment within the DoN.
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The Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP) is for high school candidates:
Lab specific eligibility criteria can be found here: https://seap.asee.org/participating_labs

Additional NIWC PAC specific information:
1) High School students MUST be 16 years of age by 31 December, 2019.
2) SEAP Program dates are 15 Jun – 7 Aug, 2020.

Online application link: https://seap.asee.org/apply
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The Naval Research Enterprise Internship Program (NREIP) is for collegiate candidates:
Lab specific eligibility criteria can be found here: https://nreip.asee.org/labs

Additional NIWC PAC lab specific information:
1) NREIP Program dates are 1 Jun – 7 Aug or 15 Jun – 21 Aug, 2020.

Online application link: https://nreip.asee.org/apply
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Element Recycling Event!

8/11/2019

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Cal Games Results!

7/16/2019

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Congratulations to the following teams at the #CaliforniaStateGames
Rover Ruckus:
(1st) Winning Alliance (Gold Medal)
- Captain: 4216 Rise of Hephaestus
- 1st Pick: 8081 Team Knights of the Lab Table
(2nd) Finalist Alliance (Silver Medal)
- Captain: 14295 Team Operation T.A.C.
- 1st Pick: 10298 Team Brain Stormz
(3rd) 3rd Place Alliance (Bronze Medal)
- Captain: 11128 Team Inspiration
- 1st pick: 10092 Team Green.Griffins
***Challenge results***
Programmer's Heaven:
- 1st 10298 Brain Stormz
- 2nd 4216 Rise of Hephaestus
- 3rd 12525 Wolf Corp
Speed Racer:
- 1st 7553 Team Loki
- 2nd 4216 Rise of Hephaestus
- 3rd 10298 Brain Stormz
Hang Time:
- 1st 4216 Rise of Hephaestus
- 2nd 10298 Brain Stormz
- 3rd 8606 RSF Intergalactic Dragons

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League of Amazing Programmers FTC programming class July 22-26

7/10/2019

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“The League of Amazing Programmers is a non-profit school which in the past 13 years has been offering after-school/weekend classes in Programming (Java, Python, Unity and Wed Design) and Electrical Engineering to students in 5th to 12th grade. This summer, the league is introducing one week skill-shops for students interested in learning how to program FTC robots. The first of a three course sequence will be offered the week of July 22nd at the League’s Carmel Valley campus. This course will cover the basics of hardware setup using the REV Expansion Hub, GitHub revision control, Android Studios setup, configuration and Navigation and FTC DevKit. The students will program FTC legal reference robots to move, follow a simple path and to manipulate its arm and claw. Prior basic Java programming knowledge is a prerequisite. The cost of the course is $360, and the classes are held July 22nd-26th 3-5pm. For more information, please visit the League’s Portal or contact

Keith Groves (keith.groves@jointheleague.org) or
Babak Aryan (babak.aryan@jointheleague.org)”

Thanks,
Babak

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