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FTC Overview

What is a FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) team and what do they do?
If you visited a FTC team meeting you would see 6 - 10 kids, ages 14 to 18, working with a NXT LEGO Mindstorm Robot kit combined with a Tetrix robotics parts.  A few kids would be using the 1000+ parts in the kit to construct aTetrix Robot with motors, sensors (light, touch, ultrasonic-distance and/or compass) and the NXT brick that acts as the robot's computer. The robot would also have 3 or 4 wheels to help it move around. 

Other kids would be at the computer working on programming in either NXT-G, Robot C or LabView. They would be figuring out offensive and defensive game strategies for working with Tetrix parts to construct attachments for the robot push, pull or lift items on the playing field to achieve the tasks and score points. Click here for video of a previous season ’s game.*

Other team members are working on the team's documentation notebook keeping track of everything the team does. It charts their journey throughout the season.

The robot game always includes a short autonomous mode when the robot navigates and completes tasks on its own AND a longer remote control period when one or two players remotely control the movements and direction of the robot's wheels and motors to score points.

FTC CORE VALUES We ask that all teams read and subscribe to the FTC Core Values and gracious professionalism that are the foundation of the FIRST organization.

What every FLL team needs:

* Items that may be underwritten partially or completely by a team scholarship if your team qualifies.

What does a Coach do?
At team meetings, the coach facilitates the team’s progress, helping them with teamwork skills, helping them find resources, teaching the robot building and programming skills she/he learned at the ORTOP coach/team build-its and fests, serving snacks, and keeping the team on task.  It is up to the team members to solve the challenge. Much of their learning comes from web research and by trial and error. Coaches also take care of registering the team, ordering kit, and scheduling meetings. The coach may be assisted by a co-coach, assistant coach or a mentor.

Please contact us if you have questions.

Dividing line

FTC Team Members

Quotes from Team Members

“This is what I kind of wanted to be when I grew up. So this gave me the chance to do it. And you can’t really watch engineers do what they do. You have to do it yourself.”

"The most fun you'll ever have while wearing safety glasses"

WHO IS A FTC TEAM MEMBER:

FTC Age Policy

The FIRST Tech Challenge policy on the age of team members can not have completed their senior year in high school. Students who are 13 years old in 8th grade can participate if they are ready for a high school program.

FTC Registration

NATIONAL TEAM REGISTRATION: ALL teams wanting to compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge must register with the national FIRST organization and pay a $275 registration fee. Teams can order the robot after paying the registration fee. Tetrix Robot information

National FTC Registration opened on May 4, 2009. FTC Competition Kits can be ordered at time of registration. The FTC Robot kits ordered May, June, July and August will ship in September. There will be a separate registration for the ORTOP FTC Challenge Championship to be held in February or March of 2009.

FIRST TECH Challenge Frequently Asked Questions from the 2009 Season.

To register your team with FiRST for the 2009 FTC Season click here. Later in the season you will need to register with ORTOP so your team can participate in the Oregon Championship Tournament. See below

QUALIFYING AND CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT REGISTRATION: ORTOP Scrimmage ONLINE Registration will be available in November. At this time we anticipate that all teams will be invited to participate in Qualifying tournaments - Feb 6 at OMSI, Feb 13 at Oregon State University. Cost $75 for a qualifying touranment, $50 for the Championship.

FIRST Tech Challenge Tetrix Robot Competition Kit

The FTC Tetrix Robot Competition Kit, a new kit using Tetrix metal robot structure will be used by all teams. FTC kits can be purchased with FTC Registration. ORTOP encourages you to read all about the new bot at the FTC blog .

FTC 2010 KIT OF PARTS COSTS

FTC Team Costs 2010

The Tetrix robot can be taken apart and reused for multiple seasons.

Information, Pictures, Video Links:

The FTC Blog Spot

FTC Communication- ORTOP e-Newsletters & Other FTC Communication

2010 - 2011 ORTOP-FTC e-Newsletters - details of ORTOP-FTC e-newsletters will be logged at this location. An overview email will be sent to ortopftc when e-newsletter is updated.
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8/31/10 - Samantha Training Call scheduled for Aug 31st has been rescheduled for September 14th. FIRST apologizes for the the inconvenience.
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8/30/10 -
1) SAMANTHA TRAINING CALL SCHEDULE PROVIDED BY FIRST - FIRST CALL- August 31 at 4:00 PDT (7:00 EDT).

2) ORTOP FTC Scholarship APPLICATION PROCESS IS OPEN for new rookie teams, new additional teams at schools and organizations and veteran teams.

3) FTC Kick-off is on Sept. 11th at Hillsboro High School! Be there for the BIG REVEAL of the 2010 FTC Game plus workshops and more.
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6/25/10 - Summer FTC Update

1. SAND in the CITY - July 17th - Pioneer Courthouse Square - FTC Team Members needed to volunteer for our "Robots in the City" tent at the Sand in the City. If you can't bring your HotShot Robot, we have 4 Tetrix Try-it Bots for the guests to run on the May Madness field. We need FTC Volunteers to assist them. If you want to play May Madness and we'll group teams into a specific time slot.
TO VOLUNTEER OR SIGN UP TO PLAY MAY MADNESS: EMAIL: Questions@ortop.org

(Thanks to John DeLacey and Kevin from Benson HS FTC for spending most of this week at ORTOP repairing and building NXT and Tetrix bots for this event).

2. FTC SCHOLARSHIPS - If your school or org is considering starting a second/third NEW team AND you think you want to apply for an ORTOP FTC Scholarship for the NEW team - DO NOT REGISTER WITH FIRST yet. You must go through the ORTOP scholarship process first, be awarded the scholarship and then register. We did received a number of $500 and $1100 NEW Team scholarships through FIRST but the there are very exact procedures in place. I hope to have the FTC Scholarship applications up next week. Also, we'll be making some FLL to FTC Scholarships available to FLL teams moving up. Please spread the word!
ORTOP is planning to fund some Returning Team Assistance Scholarships as well.

3. News from the mothership - FIRST Place, Manchester, NH. Ed Epp, Oregon FTC AP and Cathy Swider, ORTOP attended the FTC Partner Conference last week. It was a great week learning new things and connecting with other FTC Partners. Ed and I presented on the ORTOP FTC Fests. The presentation was well received. If you didn't know it, Oregon is one very few states providing workshops for FTC teams. Oregon offers the most workshops and the most scrimmages. We made contacts with representatives from LabVIEW and PTC. We hope to add those workshops in the fall.
Goodbye, Bluetooth and Hello, Samantha (wi-fi)- This is the biggest news from the conference. Our new communication device will be wi-fi. It was designed by John Toebes, an engineer from CISCO and an FTC Coach. We really liked it. It's in production now. Look for it to be shipped in August. ORTOP is getting a BETA unit in July. We'll be asking for volunteers to help us test it out.

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6/3/10 -We had a great time at RoboShock 2010.
Oregon State Robotics Club did an amazing job putting on the event, under the leadership of Nate Edwards (founder of Edwards Robotics Company) and Taj Morton, President, OSURC (and OSU FTC Qualifying Event Volunteer Coordinator). Our FTC OSU and Championship Pit Manager Jacob Keeton was on had as well to wrangle teams. Thanks to Dale Jordan for designing the additional field elements and finalizing the May Madness game rules.

10 FTC and 10 FRC and 2 FLL teams participated. The new FTC May Madness game seemed to go over pretty well. I’d like some feedback from teams that participated in RoboShock. It was interesting to have a one-on-one robot game. Balls were scored with some frequency. The defense play was a needed strategy. We had some really close matches. In fact, we had to have a play off for the 4th spot in the elimination rounds. In the end it was Untitled-8, Short Circuits, Tigard 750, and Outback Robotics in the elimination matches. We added some corrugated plastic for added challenge in the final rounds. In the end a good time was had by all. OSURC gave out some trophies and some awesome tool boxes with tools as awards. I have a bunch of pictures to post on facebook: ORTOP:FIRST Tech Challenge. Had uploading problems yesterday, will try again.

NEXT TIME TO PLAY “MAY MADNESS” – SATURDAY, JULY 17, 2010 – IN PIONEER COURTHOUSE SQUARE – AT “YOSHIDA’S SAND IN THE CITY” This is a HUGE event attended by more than 65K people. OMSI, ORTOP and Oregon FRC has a free 20’x20” Tent for all three days. The FTC May Madness Field will be set up on July 17th. I’d like to run a May Madness mini-tournaments -- if we get enough teams --- between 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm. If your team (or a few team members with your bot) can participate… please email Cathy Swider. This is a HUGE opportunity to expose many kids/parent sto FIRST.

FTC Registration - IS OPEN!!! Teams should have received an update email today from FIRST.

FALL SEASON - Team Coaches - The ORTOP FTC Committee would like some feedback from you as to your plans for next year! Is your school going to expand to more teams, stay the same (or dare I even say....not participate next year)? And what's your financial needs for next year. We are aware of school budget cuts and need to know how it will impact your teams.

ORTOP's 10th Year Celebration! - This fall marks ORTOP's 10th FIRST LEGO League season. We'd like to celebrate by inviting more Oregon and SW Washington kids to participate in our program. To recognize our teams that help in these efforts, we're going to build a giant LEGO birthday cake. Each time your team members volunteers to promote FLL/FTC/Jr.FLL or volunteers to help in other ways we'll add a LEGO brick with your team number to the ORTOP LEGO Birthday Cake. Let's get the word out! Email questions(at)ortop.org will what your team has done and we'll add your LEGO Bricks.

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5/14/10 - RobotC - Extended until August + more info :-)
This just in from FTC HQ in Manchester, NH.....
“The folks at Carnegie Mellon have agreed to offer a bridge to get teams, coaches, and mentors to the next season by providing a patch. If you go to this website http://www.robotc.net/ftc/ you can extend your current version of RobotC through August. Thanks to the people at CMU Robotics.”

AND...Software Renewal Purchases for Returning Teams

The software renewal kit will ship June 15th to teams who have purchased it for the 2010-2011 season, even if Samantha is not available.  In that case PITSCO will do a second shipment to send out the Samantha module. (NOTE: Samantha is the wireless module each team gets with the software renewal update.) See ORTOP-FTC Newsletter - 5/12/10 for details of the software renewal package.

Read the rest of the story on Ken’s blog: http://firsttechchallenge.blogspot.com/
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5/13/10 - May Madness - Game Description Released
For our2010 FTC summer activities - we'll be playing May Madness, a Tetrix robot game inspired by half court basketball and past FTC challenges. First time to play will be at RoboShock@OSU on May 28th. 10 teams signed up, more slots available. ORTOP will pay the RoboShock entry fee for FTC teams to play.
Next time to play will be Sand in the City in Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland- July 17 or 18.
Click here to see the May Madness Game Description and Rules

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5/12/10 - Did your ROBOTC license expire?
ORTOP FTC teams:
Carnegie Mellon University(CMU) – the provider of Robot C – included a expiration date in your FTC Team RobotC software license. CMU considers the RobotC license sold to FTC teams to be a one season license.  Robot C purchased through FTC for the Hot Shot season, ceased working on May 1st which CMU deems to be “the end of the season”.
From a CMU Representative: “If teams still have a licenseID from the first year of FTC with TETRIX, they can use those to download the latest public version (2.02) and activate their copy of ROBOTC. Otherwise, we're advising teams to purchase a 30 dollar single user license if they wish to use ROBOTC during the off-season or make due with the 30-day trial that is available with the public version of ROBOTC.”

ORTOP and many other FTC Affiliate Partners are very unhappy with this situation. We understand that many of you are doing outreach events and/or participating in events like RoboShock or the TechDays in The Dalles or NW Career Expo. This turning off of the software is unfortunate but out of our control. ORTOP has expressed how this situation is interfering with FTC teams trying to expose others to FIRST® or advance their team skills or just continue to have fun with their robot.
FIRST® is trying to work out something with CMU.
AT THIS TIME WE HAVE TWO WORK AROUNDS!!!!
  1. TRY ROBOT C for 30 Days http://www.robotc.net/download/nxt/ This gives you a 30-Day trial of Robot C 2.02.  A slightly different version than what you worked with during the season. It will be what’s used this fall.
  2. After the 30 days you can purchase a license. A variety of “seat” options are available.
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On the FTC Kit of Parts page for the 2010-2011 season it refers to the Software Renewal kit. I am investigating when these are activated after purchase. 
991544 2010 FTC Software Renewal Kit - $69
A low-cost option for veteran teams who need only to renew their software licenses and get the new wifi module. Veteran teams can buy this kit and reuse their existing TETRIX™ and LEGO® MINDSTORMS® components. Included are:
    • Install CD and one-year FTC team license for LabVIEW Education Edition
    • Install CD and one-year, 3-seat FTC team license for ROBOTC 2.0
    • Install CD and one-year FTC team license for PTC’s Pro/ENGINEER 3D CAD/CAM design software
    • WiFi communication module


    Other FTC Communication Sites

    Check the national website for team forum access.

    FTC Blog Spot

    FACEBOOK------ ORTOP: FIRST Tech Challenge --Like us !

    TWITTER

    CLICK HERE FOR FTC e-mail BLAST Archive from FTC Headquarters

    Really Good Resources: Registration, Ask the Game Designers a question, programming questions, buying additional parts, LEGO Tech Support.

    How to contact ORTOP FTC: Send questions to Ed Epp, Cathy Swider and our FTC Fest Committee

    FTC HOT LINKS

    FOR INFORMATION REGARDING OREGON FTC FESTS, QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT AND THE OREGON FTC CHAMPIONSHIP, CLICK HERE

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    2009-2010 HOT SHOT LINKS!
    2010-2011 season links updated on Sept. 11, 2010, FTC Kick-off Day.

    HOT SHOT GAME DOCUMENTS -Coaches Manual, Game Manual, Game Overview, FTC KIt Bill of Materials, FTC Game BOM, FTC Field Construction Guide

    Hot Shot Game Animation and Download

    2009 Programming Information

    HOT SHOT and FTC Logos

    FTC GAME ARENA

    Ordering FTC Field Tiles for the Field Floor

    The official tiles used for the FTC field floor are sold through
    CLICK HERE to link to Soft Tiles the vendor for the official FTC Field Floor.
    They are offering FTC teams a 10% discount.
    To get the discount you must place your order by PHONE 888-477-6532(toll free) (9am – 5:30pm EST).
    Ask for the 2’ x 2’ gray tiles 5/8” thick and tell them you are a FTC Coach.
    12’ x 12’ field = 36 tiles = $187.92 + about $50 S & H.
    You still get the discount if you order less tiles.

    Ordering an official FTC Field arena -
    Teams can always make field walls from MDF board but if you want the official arena used in competition, it can be ordered from Andy-Mark, Inc at a cost of $749 plus shipping & handling.

    FTC Field Elements
    Every season the FTC field elements change because there is a new game. FTC issues a Bill of Materials (BOM) and Field Construction Guide on FTC Kick-off Day (September 11, 2010). Parts, drawings and vendors are given. Most materials can be purchased from Home Depot and put together with tools owned by most home do-it-yourselfers.

    Past challenges utilized PVC pipe, plywood, metal pipe, plexi-glass, corrugated plastic, etc. Teams cannot purchase already assembled or partially assembled FTC Field Elements. Some teams reduce their costs by using less expensive materials or only buidling a partial field. For example: Instead of building 4 ball chutes, teams elected to build 1 ball chute just to practice releasing the balls.

    FLL CONSENT FORMS must be brought to every event attended by FTC Team members, coaches and mentors. For students under the age of 18, the forms must be signed by a parent or legal guardian. Coaches and mentors can not sign the forms except for their own children and themselves.

    2009-2010 FIRST Consent Form in English: A form must be completed for each team member and adult volunteer. Bring the forms to qualifying event.

    2009-2010 FIRST Consent Form in SPANISH: A form must be completed for each team member and adult volunteer. Bring the forms to qualifying event.

    FTC Questions and Answers

    ORTOP FTC Q & A -- At US FIRST