VOI Meets the Hamlin Legologists
S. Seo
Date: 01/19/14
Time: 11AM – 1:30PM
Members present: N. Yeap, C. Zhang, S. Seo
On January 19, Nelson, Claire, and I made a trip to San Francisco to talk to the FLL team The Hamlin Legologists at Celsius & Beyond. The company contacted me late last night, around 10PM, asking if we could come do a presentation for them before heading over to The Tiny Leprechauns to do a similar presentation. We took our opportunity to spread the word about FTC, and we accepted the offer. There was some hectic last-minute schedule changes, but I discovered that three of VOI could attend. Youngju would arrive later for The Tiny Leprechauns presentation instead.
At 11AM, I met Claire and Nelson at the Yeap residence to pick up the robot, some blocks, the router, controllers, and presentation boards. The car we were taking was not big enough to fit the game field’s ramp or pendulums, so we left them for Youngju to bring when he came in his minivan.
When we arrived at Celsius & Beyond, it was about 12:15PM. We began setting up when we realized that we forgot to bring controllers. We notified Youngju immediately of this so he could bring controllers. Also, our router was not working properly. However, I re-used our demo program to demonstrate the capabilities of the robot.
We presented to the Hamlin Legologists about the differences between FLL and FTC, why FTC is so interesting, the structure of a tournament, and our specific robot and how it’s applied to this year’s game. We talked about our journey as a team, and encouraged the students to continue their FIRST experience on to FTC. The kids were about fourth graders, so they did not seem very interested in the technical details; instead, they were impressed by the robot and what it could do.
After answering any and all questions, we packed our things back into the car and made our trip several blocks away to do a similar presentation for The Tiny Leprechauns. On our way out, I asked Auritte, the owner of Celsius & Beyond, if she would be interested in sponsoring our team. She said she would talk it out with my brother, who is an employee there.
This event allowed us to reach out to the existing FIRST community. We met an FLL team and encouraged them to continue on to FTC in several years when they were old enough. We are considering mentoring them if they choose to do so. We have successfully spread the word about FTC, and we hope that it makes an impact on the lives of the kids we talked to. This event also allowed us to practice a presentation that we are sure to re-use during other outreach events.