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1    ADVOCACY CONFERENCE
2A LOT OF THE LANGUAGE USED IN THIS CONFERENCE RELATES BACK TO THE AMERICAN SYSTEM – SPECIFIC IDEAS MAY NOT BE USED BUT OTHER SUGGESTIONS CAN BE (CONTACTING LOCAL REPS TO BRING ATTENTION, ETC.)
3There were many smaller presentations during this conference, all of which were American, and they talked about their experience with advocacy and bringing attention to the FIRST Robotics Program within their state, and brought it to many State Advocacy 
4
5Conferences.
6Advocacy overview:
7OUR GOAL:
8Make government funds available to schools and 
9enable and support participation in FIRST programs, with an emphasis on engaging under-represented or under-served populations in STEM
10Sources of US public education funding for grade k-12
1150% – state
12Teams would have to focus on letting the STATE know that they exist, in order to put themselves out there
1341% – local funding
149% – federal fund
15US FEDERAL ADVOVACY – LARGEST PRIORITIES
16Making FIRST eligible to federal government programs that were previously not applicable for
17ESSA Title IV, Part A: Well-rounded educational opportunities, including improving student STEM engagement and supporting the participation of students in science competitions (such as robotics)
18Structured as block grants to states $1.65 billion dollars funding ‘authorized’ programs
19President Trump’s proposed FY19 budget at $0
20EES Title IV, Part B: 21st century community learning arts
21Helped make the state aware that they can send money on these types of activities
22Louisiana
23A team set up a tent and a field, hosted a free lunch and invited state governments/local representatives to show them what robotics was all about
24MAIN GOAL: Put yourself out there!!
25Coin Bill – another form of advocacy. Commemorative coin. This is to Congress. 
26Art is made by Dean Kamen’s dad
27THINGS TO DO TO ADVOCATE FOR YOUR TEAM AND THE FIRST COMMUNITY:
28Inviting local representatives to competition, or to your school
29Hold personal meetings with people in positions of power
30// look at provincial educational funding
31MOBILIZING STATE (PROVINCIAL) AND LOCAL AWARENESS OF FIRST
32Encourage governors, legislative leaders, commissioners of education, and School superintendents to attend events and become advocates within their states
33Encourage businesses to advocate on behfalf of FIRST and STEM funding
34Encourage first teams to lobby their state members of congress and governors
35Encourage teams to attend local school board and PTA/O meetings
36Seek to have robotics recognized as a 21st century sport and provide similar recognition and benefits as provided to other sports or activities
37Be inclusive in your activities by making sure the FIRST state leadership is aware of your efforts
38// don’t bother getting into political party comparisons. FIRST is an incredibly diverse and wonderful program, and even then, politics shouldn’t matter.
39
40FIRST NATIONAL ADVOCACY CONFERENCE
41Advocacy:
42CONNECTIONS CONNECTIONS CONNECTIONS!!
43
44STATE ADVOCACY
45State advocacy conference
46Advocate to elected officials on the importance of stem funding
47Build relationships with elected officials
48Commit. Commit. Commit
49Propose conference to your team
50Designate student leadership
51Commit to event and event date
52Find a a date when they’re in session
53Locate a venue
54Proximity to the Capitol
55Work ahead of time, January to October
56Collect costs and produce an information packet
57Promote the event
58Social media – easily accessible
59Website – main page add-on
60Flyers competition – bulk of attendance
61Network with other teams
62Register attendees
63Establish a deadline
64Set the max number of attendee spots
65Determine payment relative to the overall cost
66Create meetings with representatives
67establish a connection via email or call
68schedule meetings for after the ‘teaching’ half
69Other teams must schedule their own meetings
70Day of event
71Arrive early
72sign in, set up, student directory
73assign leadership roles
74mc, coordinator, manager
75be prepared prior to event start
76takeaways
77stay organized with event roles
78create connections with speakers
79plan early
80confirm all arrangements
81
82TAKEAWAYS – 1551 Rolling Thunder
83we decided to start small since we were new to this - we will add in visits to elected officials next year
84change time of the event o the afternoon. Minimizes needs for teams to stay over if they are out of town
85try to add in ‘field trips’ to local tech related businesses as a way to drum up businesses.
86include a visit/demo at the capitol
87change date – not so close to champs – possibly do a Sunday-Monday. Sunday for conference, Monday for capitol visits
88
89Steve Hyer – NAC founder – nac@firstnac.org
90Main Presenter – Jason Richards
91
92      SCOUTING WITH TABLEAU
93SCOUTING WITH TABLEAU
94This conference/presentation first gave an overview about scouting and its benefits/advantages, then went into 1640 and 2834’s scouting systems, and how it worked in a nutshell. Afterwards, the presentation went into how tableau worked, and then simulated/presented information as they would the night before alliance selections, or just visualizing the results/strengths/benefits and predict a match using accurate data through comparing the two alliances (two sets of 3 teams). Resources can be found at the very end, and it includes the site where the actual presentation can be found. Also apparently Tableau is free for students.
95
96SCOUTING OVERVIEW
97Strategy is THE MOST IMPORTANT part to winning a competition (aside from the robot itself)
98THE ADVANTAGES OF RELIABLE DATA
99Make informed strategic decisions to win matches
100Going into a tournament with a constant strategy will not win you matches. Every match is different!
101Knowing your partners
102Knowing your opponents
103// look at which teams/type of teams are the best for you
104Alliance selection
105Marketing yourself to other teams
106Determine which teams would be the best to align with
107Finding what robots best complement yours in playoff matches
108How to take advantage of your seed placement, whether it is low or high
109The advantage of having good data for a 2nd pick
110// always going to be defense bots, or good offense bots. Based on how alliance selection goes
111OTHER ADVANTAGES
112Gracious Professionalism
113Compare data if you want
114Seeing how different systems work, and comparing for the sake of learning
115Incentive to Pick
116TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
117Any form of scouting will be beneficial to your team, but implementing today’s strategies will bring your team to the next level
118ENHANNCING YOUR SYSTEM FOR REAL TIME DATA
119Determining a system for collecting and visualising your data in (near) real time
120Considerations when developing your system strategy 
121Data collection process – android? Online app? VS paper & data entry
122Internet connectivity, phone data signal strength
123// they use an internet connection with google sheets (is it suitable)
124// enough man power? You can alliance with other teams and cover up any bases.
125They can benefit by getting information that they scout, and share the information
126Using tableau
127Tableau is a data visualization software that can read data from a table, like excel, to be visualized
128TEAM 1640’S SCOUTING SYSTEM
1296 students in the stands that have 3 tablets, each one with a scouting app
130Each one is aligned with a position
131Once they’re done scouting, they display a QR CODE
132Use QR CODE to grab information
133After you’ve scanned all of them, they send the information to a google sheets
134Can pull the latest matches, pull into tableau, refresh laptop and information
135Go from the tableau app to tableau public, so that the other teams that are viewing it can see it as well
136TEAM 2834’S SCOUTING SYSYEM
1378 tablets
1382 for qualitative, ex defense
139Every 10 matches or so, they would send the information to a laptop
140Uses USB drives to send information to the members of the strategy team
141DATA ANALYSIS WITH TABLEAU
142Types of charts
143Bar/stacked bar
144Box and whisker
145Line
146Bubble, many more!!
147// this is just boosting what’s good about tableau
148
149//for issues regarding internet/device connection
150//use tethered connection, and most schools provide internet connection
151//data connection?
152// use Bluetooth and transferring information by USB
153// gracious professionalism. Squirching? (choosing a team that’s not in top 8 to accept your alliance even tho you know that they wouldn’t if they had the choice to) – it’s all just strategy at that point, not really gracious professionalism
154Internet connection? Another solution: pulling data from scouters via google forms and going into google sheets, to excel. Set up with Python script that’s at home, sending at intervals, it visualizes it and sends the team the concrete data
155
156// how to keep the tablets from dying?
157// have battery packs, charge every single night as well as during lunch
158// use inverter, use the practice batteries and charge the tablets lmao
159// power add, looks feels and is like a car battery, has a bunch of USB ports and can charge a laptop. Under 200 dollars
160APPLICATIONS OF TABLEAU AT COMPETITION – MATCH STRATEGY
161// this is just what they like to look at before matches, but it can look at any point(s) of information
162
163Filters teams (can just filter the 6 teams and pit 3 against one another)
164Look at medians. You can look at maximums, averages, etc.
165You can look at the capabilities of each team, ex. How many cargos they usually score on a rocket, etc.
166Medium vs sum. This can handle outliers if there are any.
167Look at information. If there’s nothing in sums, it’s likely that they’re a defense bot, and it can be compared to qualitative data to verify.
168// losing match
169Different objectives
170//team value and value (amount of points)
171Going to the main match, you can look at which teams are good at which aspects of the game, via both the sums and averages. Red median vs blue median.
172
173ALLIANCE SELECTION AND SIMULATION
174Look at total elements scored (good reference for how good teams are)
175Cycle time: has a little button on the tablet 
176Sandstorm totals for elements as well.
177Climb, double checking that the teams we want to pick can do what we scouted (check accuracy)
178PICKLISTS
179Turns subjective things into objective. Defense quality (ramming, pinning)
180Levels increase as the team does more.
181Offensive type scoring – scoring points
182Defense type scoring – keeping teams from scoring points
183Team number, and driver ability. Flexibility, and would have to compare with things in pit scouting
184THE NIGHT BEFORE ALLIANCE SELECTIONS
185Look at the delivery
186Look at the total delivery trends, and per match, how many cycles they’re going through.
187give defense bots a level from 1 to 5 for how good they are at defense
188SCOUTING MEETINGS
189main objectives
190predicting who will be in the top 8
191strategies that they want to exhibit
192experiment with tableau
193
194Resources:
195www.team2834.com
196tableau is free for students
197www.team1640.com
198grab the presentation from 2834 and 1640
199
200more collaboration – work more with google drive?
201//tailor everything according to what your team wants
202scouting representatives from (1640?) say:
203we use blue alliance’s data in the beginning of the matches.
204the OPR (from Blue Alliance) is based on the alliance PARTNERS, and even though a bot may not have done much, they would still get boosted by the alliance partners
205we only use the data that we collect
206
207// commenting; are they good when they’re being defended.
208//cycle times – button “not cycling” (not doing offensive stuff: crossing the line)
209// time shifts or match shifts? Don’t do any more than 2 hours, because after that, people lose their focus
210
211//What’s your opinion on using success rates for element placements? (didn’t get answer cus time)
212     MENTAL HEALTH
213MENTAL HEALTH CONFERENCE – FIRST WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – APR 24th 2019 
214This conference covered main mental health issues presented in many if not all FRC teams. They give general symptoms for each one and go a bit into detail about how mentors can be observant and help when need be. 
215COMMON MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES IN TEENAGERS
216ASD – Autism Spectrum Disorder
217Characterize by marked difficulties in behaviour, social interaction, communication, and sensory sensitivities
218Referred to a spectrum for a reason, there is no one definition of what autism looks like in people of any age
219Common symptoms:
220Inappropriate social interaction
221Poor eye contact
222Compulsive or repetitive behaviour
223Trouble empathizing with others
2241 in 59 children
225More common in males than females
226
227ADHD – Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder
228Characterised by continuing inattention and/or hyper activity impulsivity that interferes with daily functioning or development, very energetic in general
229Occurs in approx. 9% of 13 to 18 y/o’s
230General symptoms include
231Fails to pay attention or makes careless mistakes
232Does not appear to listen
233Struggles to follow through on instructions
234Fidgets and has difficulty remaining seated
235Talks excessively and blurts answers before questions have been completed
236Interrupts or intrudes upon others
237Are more common in males than females, due to the general every day behaviour exhibited
238BROAD STROKES, everyone is a little different
239
240Depression
241Depressed mood that affects thoughts, feelings, and daily activities, including eat, sleeping and working
242Occurs in approx. 13% of 13 to 18 y/o’s
243Examples include depressive disorder, postpartum depression, and seasonal affective disorder
244Lack of vitamin d, in some cases, that contribute to the depression
245General symptoms include
246Depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day
247Diminished interest of pleasure in activities
248Significant weight loss or gain
249Insomnia or hypersomnia, presents as lethargy in either case
250Observable restlessness
251Diminished ability to think or concentrate
252Is the one that is harder to see sometimes, because there’s always the possibility of teenage angst
253Looking for changes when they’re dangerous
254A way to tell the difference between teenage angst and being depressed. It isn’t being sad, it’s the feeling of emptiness and hopelessness
255
256Anxiety Disorders
257Characterized by feelings of excessive uneasiness, worry and fear
258Occur in approx. 32% of 13 to 18 y/o’s
259Examples include generalized anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and phobias
260General symptoms include
261excessive worry and anxiety occurring more days than most others
262Individual finds it difficult to control the worry
263Restlessness or feeling on edge
264Being easily fatigued
265Difficulty concentrating
266Irritability
267Sleep disturbance
268They’re not always massive ones, could have tiny ones where they need to take some space for themselves
269Letting a student step away, and not letting other students make a big deal of a student stepping away
270
271Eating Disorders
272Characterized by extreme and abnormal eating behaviours, such as insufficient or excessive eating
273Occur in approx. 3% of 13 to 18 y/o’s
274More common in females than males
275Can be caused by a lot of other disorders, and rarely occur in a vacuum
276Usually caused/rooted from self confidence
277Examples include anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and binge eating disorder
278Anorexia nervosa
279Restriction of food intake leading to significantly low body weight
280Intense fear of gaining weight
281Bulimia
282Recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by purging
283Occurs on average at least once a week for three months
284Binge eating disorder
285Recurrent episodes of binge eating
286Binging is NOT associated of purging
287Be aware of your students, and keep an eye out for symptoms before they become problems
288
289BUILDING A POSITIVE MENTAL HEALTH ENVIRONMENT ON A FIRST TEAM
290How to make your build space a safe space
291Listening
292Letting students know they can come to you
293You aren’t there to fix every problem or give advice, depending on the situation, you are there to listen
294Respect
295Don’t judge students for coming to you for help
296Avoid “talking down” or trying to “parent” them, that is not necessarily why they are coming to you
297Confidentiality
298Students should know that they tell you will remain between the two of you
299Be clear that if they come to you and you have a legitimate concern that they are at immediate risk of harming themselves or others that you will have to break this confidentiality
300“I’m not going to be the reason that you end up dead. Because I didn’t tell someone.”
301For certain problems, you can’t fix it, but you can help them manage if to prevent it from becoming a major problem
302Talking to them as peers, another human being, instead of talking to them as adult vs students. Don’t tell them what they SHOULD be doing, what they SHOULD be feeling, as that would turn them off from going to you in the future. Ppl feel how they feel, as they won’t feel like you’re really listening. students need to know that it’s ok to feel how they feel.
303
304KEY SIGNS OF POTENTIAL SUICIDE RISK
305Withdrawal from family or friends
306Drastic personality changes
307Can be a positive direction
308A switch from seemingly depressed to happy or content can be a warning sign
309It may mean that they have decided to end their life soon, and is happy to be done with suffering
310A major red flag
311Giving away possessions
312Content/accepted their fate, or what they’re going to do with their life
313Talking or writing about suicide, even jokingly
314As a mentor, if there’s anything that looks like a serious problem, I would follow up on it even if they’re known to be joking
315AWARENESS
316You probably see some kids more than their parents do, and as such, you’re their surrogate parents in a way, so you have this obligation to keep a look out for them
317
318RESOURCES
319National suicide hotline (American) – 1 800 273 8255 (he couldn’t find a Canadian one oof)
320The Trevor project and hotline – 1 866 4 U TREVOR
321Specifically focused on LGBTQ youth
322The JED foundation
323Resources focused on reducing the stigma students feel about having, seeking treatment for, or even just talking about emotional problems
324
325THE PRESENTATION WOULD BE POSTED ON chief delphi AT SOME POINT
326
327AFTER THE PRESENTATION – DISCUSSION AND QUESTIONS
328Some people pretend not to care because they don’t want to talk about it
329Getting people to talk about it, being open with conversation
330Hey, I have ____ and instead of coming in 5 days a week, it’s healthier for me to come 3 days a week
331How you get mentors and students to see that mental health is not an individual problem, but a problem that has to do with the team
332Focus on getting as many people to approach the mentors, so it’s clear that it’s not just one person
333It’s a group effort
334The more people that says it is a problem, it’s more likely for people to respond to it as a problem
335Breaking things down to more manageable chunks
336No one should be there 5 days a week
337Prioritizing, and being accepting of people’s limitations
338Strategy for dealing with people on the autism spectrum?
339Work more with what they’re passionate about, what’s in their comfort zone
340Specific projects that they would work with
341Harnessing the energy for good?
342Help them feel like they’re a functioning member of the team
343Don’t make them feel ostracized, that they’re weird
344Make them feel worthwhile and accepted
345They’re humans, and they deserve to feel accepted
346If kids could only come a few days a week, how do you make them feel more in the loop/updated?
347Lists and whiteboards
348Carrying over things to do from previous days
349Schedule people on certain days?
350Diff groups of people on each day helps build comradery 
351People are overlapping in timing, and will get to know people a bit more
352If someone who is suffering from a mental disorder, feels that they’re not being worthwhile to the team, how do you help them?
353For mentors, keep them involved and pull them in
354Ask them what they’re working on, and if you could help or if they want to help you
355keep an eye out for them
356skipping meals, if they’re regular, could be a warning sign of sorts
357even if it’s not major, it is still on the scale
358being observant
359when talking to them, don’t talk down to them. Talk to them as a human being
360“Hey I just wanted to check up on you, and I noticed that you were being a bit down, are you okay?”
361If it’s something that you do often, then it won’t be as weird, since it’ll be known to be a common thing
362
363FINAL CLOSING THOUGHT:
364IT COSTS NOTHING TO BE A GOOD PERSON
365     EFFECTIVE STRATEGY
366THIS IS THE KARTHIK PRESENTATION. 
367He used the old presentation with a few additions. “//” are comments that weren’t brought up in the actual presentation, and some relevant ideas to presented points are just jotted down. You can also just refer back to the Scouting presentation from 2012, but some of the comments are more updated in regards to takeaways?
368PRE-INFO
369The best teams will never say that they’re done, because there’s always going to be something to improve on. There’s no such thing as a perfect robot.
370Sometimes some people are imposing limits on you because those are the limits that they’re setting on themselves. They can’t see themselves doing that, and that would reflect onto you.
371STRATEGIC DESIGN
372How do we set out goals?
373a robot that does well at competition
374Some teams prefer creativity and ingenuity over consistency
375Beware of the “cool factor”
376it can be fun, but sacrificing effectiveness hurts your partners 
377GAME ANALYSIS
378read the rules!
379Knowing the specifics can help with obscure situations
380Examine every possible way to score points, no mater how obscure
381Ex. Laps (2008). Hanging on the bridge? (2012) full court shooting? 
382Examine every possible way to prevent your opponents from scoring
383Capping robots (2004), giant walls (2013)
384Understand the ranking system
385Ex. Win-loss-tie, loser’s score, own score plus double the loser’s score, coop bridge, no winning, etc.
386Paradigm shift!! – 2015
387Designing for RPs
388Our team with the rocket during 2018-2019
389It’s analyzing where it’s going
390They designed against it, and planned that while it may hurt them during regionals, they got boosting for where they intended on going
391Consider possible strategies
392Leads into overall robot designs
393CHOKE HOLD STRATEGIES
394A strategy which, when executed, guarantees victory independent of any action of your opponents
395Determining if one exists should be the first step in game analysis
396First tries to design games with no reasonable chokehold strategy
397Even if one existed, it would be v difficult to perform
398Try to find one, single, finite task that overwhelms all other possible ways of scoring
399Trying to find a chokehold strategy will make you break down the game, and find out the best strategy for the game
400COST-BENEFIT ANAYLSIS
401For each task you must compare the difficulty of accomplishment to the reward for doing so
402Balancing easier than scoring (2012)
403Floor pickup versus hanging (2013)
404This is where the strategic vs coolness factor often pops up
405Vision tetras vs hanging tetras
406The biggest most FRC teams fail, is because they try to do too much
407Ex. When a team made a mech that can do all 3 levels really badly, so they choose to focus on cargo-ship instead. Was it really that successful? especially when you could’ve spent that 3-level-rocket mech time on the OP cargo-ship mechanism?
408The best tasks to perform are those which are relatively easy, yet provide big points
409Remember denying your opponents 10 points is just as good as scoring 10 points (at least in terms of win/loss)
410De-scoring/defencing is often much easier than scoring (2003, 2013)
411Opportunity costs
412Time, space, weight, cost, etc.
413Real costs
414PRIORITY LISTS
415Two separate lists
416Desired robot qualities
417Things like speed, power, agility, centre of gravity
418Ex. Prioritizing being light and quick to be able to zip across the field
419Desired robot functionality
420The things you want your robot to be able to do
421Shoot balls, climb bridges, traverse field
422At this point you can merge the two lists, and decide on a drive system and functionalities
423This list determines all direction of design for the season
424What should be #1?
425Drive – SUPER IMPORTANT
426If everything else fails, you still have your drive train
427You can have a plunger on the robot, and still do stuff
428Drive train is the core of the robot, and when all else fails you can pivot
429“the best defense bot this year was 771. They threw resources into the drive trains and stayed as a low robot, because they prioritized defense.”
430Mecanum drive is bad to pivot with. Very agile. But if you’re using mecanum drive with tank drive, you’re just throwing away money $$$
431What should be #2?
432Acquire/release
433Doesn’t have to be from the ground, can just take from the loading station
434Acquisition time is the killer, because the extra time is what increases your cycle time (input)
435You can have a super quick and impressive LOOKING robot, but if it takes several tries to get the game piece, it just kills you in cringe
436MAIN GOAL: TOUCH THE GAME PIECE, AND YOU OWN IT
437TAKE IT AND SPIT IT OUT. DON’T BOTHER GARGLING
438What should be #3?
439Score
440SIMPLICITY AND THE GOLDEN RULES
441Always build within your team’s limits
442Evaluate your abilities and resources honestly and realistically
443Limits are defined by manpower, budget, experience
444Avoid building unnecessarily complex functions
445On the other hand, as you get more experienced, start cautiously pushing a few boundaries
446If a team has 30 units of robot and functions have a maximum of 10 units, better to have 3 functions at 10/10instead of 5 and 6/10.
447Jack of all trades, master of none
448
449Alumni often come back, and help with the amount of experience that they have with both the team as well as first
450
451FOR SHAHED -
452If you plan on coming back as an alumni, take your time
453Take that first university year and find out who you are
454There are plenty of other robotics events/programs at your own university, and once you gain that diff experience, you’d be even more valuable to your team once/if you come back
455FIRST isn’t going away, so take your time and live your life first (get it? The FIRST organization?? Prioritizing?? Lmao)
456
457Turrets? – 2054 and 118? 254 took 2 events to figure out the turrets?
458The amount of experience that certain teams have is scary, and it often roots from the alumni and the amount of experience DEVELOPED OVER THE YEARS
459Stay simple
460The amount of work that you need to put into crazy and complex designs, as impressive and creative as it would be, would be your problem at competition if it breaks
461Some things aren’t exactly bad ideas, but they can be EXPENSIVE ideas
462SIMPLE. WINS. 
463It would be good on all your sub-teams, and doesn’t fuck with anyone’s heads
464simplicity
465TRADEOFFS
466The key to deciding upon a design is to evaluate the trade-offs
467eg. Speed vs power, complexity vs durability, shooting vs balancing (high CoG (centre of gravity) vs low CoG), wide vs long
468making the right choices based on your analysis will determine the fate of your season
469make sure trade-offs are consistent (hard to do when the design is always changing)
470remember the golden rules, team who try to do more than they’re capable of tend to fail
471there’s no shame in building a simple robot!
472Having time to practice and drive is very important!!!
473Don’t go too deep into your priority list
474// how do you handle students that are too stuck on the lower parts of the priority list, and they’re part of the design team?
475You cannot please everyone at once, and it’s never a democracy. It’s a consensus
476Leaders need to take charge, and be understandable/understanding
477‘we have to abandon everything beyond #6, we have to focus on #3 and #4
478“1114 students are the best at throwing away good ideas, for BETTER IDEAS”
479// the leadership need to exhibit what they want to create
480//leaders need to embody the characteristics that they want to develop. 
481// everyone is supposed to be working towards the same goal
482Every award in FIRST is a team award, even the Woodie flowers award
483TRADE OFFS
484Try to maximize functionality with simple additions via modifications or mechanisms
485Score out of an intake, instead of an intake loading a scorer (?)
486Intake as a device to line up your robot
487Be careful, as it may be hard to change on part without affecting the other
488Transition points make it killer, and it may sound simple in thought, but is very difficult in practice
489When making trade-offs, remember your initial priorities!
490Let your strategic priorities dictate design!!!
491
492OTHER STRATEGIC DESIGN TIPS
493This strategic analysis is a MUST
494There’s a tendency to skip this stage, and to head straight into design and implementation
495// you must know what your robot wants to do before you design it
496You must know what you want to do before you can figure out how to do it
497Be realistic when evaluating strategies
498how many game pieces do you think teams were scoring per match this year? (2019)
499guesses – 3, 6
500actual – 2.5
501rules of thumb:
502elite teams can do 8 full field cycles per match (cpm) in perfect conditions (pc)
503the best teams will do this only a handful of times in a season
504middle tier teams can 4 cpm in pc
505middle tier teams usually average 2-3 cpm in matches over a season
506BE REALISTIC
507INCORPORATE CPM INTO NEXT YEAR’S SCOUTING SYSTEM/SHEET
508There are teams that will copy other teams, and those teams are the dangerous (?) ones
509Teams would usually copy each other, and those with the resources to do so are scaryyyy
510// fav teams were the bucket robots. They just took a piece at the ls, and plopped it into the cs at 90 degrees
511OTHER STRATEGIC DESIGN TIPS
512Remember, you have partners. It’s ok to depend on them for certain tasks (how much you leave to them should be decided by the golden rules)
513however, be careful not to leave too much in your partner’s hands, albeit capable
514Independent vs dependant tasks
515Try to identify the different types of robots that will exist
516Go through the different permutations of alliances
517Eg. How would we do paired with type X, versus type Y and Z
518SCOUTING
519An area that is often neglected by many teams
520Offers a great opportunity to get a leg up on the competition
521Excellent way to involve more students
522Crucial for:
523Predicting your opponent’s strategy for future matches
524Essential for alliance picking
525Especially crucial in getting a good second-round pick
526Most FRC teams act in very static ways, even down to which game field pieces they like. Forcing a team to play the right rocket when they tend favour the left rocket, can screw them over in tiny ways
527// not just data, but seeing where they go on the field
528ADVANCED SCOUTING
529Regional results from current and past seasons
530Match scores, awards, seedings, draft positions, eliminations results
531Can further analyze data to find patterns
532Lease squares scoring estimation, other custom metrics
533Commonly known as OPR
534Calculating the CONTRIBUTION that a team made towards
535High correlation between past success and future success
536// average contribution of that team
537//plus-minus
538
539Not the amount of points they scored, but the amount of points that they facilitated/contributed
540Look into how NBA and sports scouting go
541Look into the actual logic
542Refer to strategy mentor??
543
544OPR
545Calculated contribution/OPR
546How do I know how well a team has performed without watching their matches?
547Could look at average score, but that only tells part of the story
548Let each tea’s contribution be represented by a variable
549For each alliance, let t, +t, +t, =s, where s is the amount of points scored by the alliance
550Solve the matric
551Now you have calculated the average contribution of each team throughout the regional
552How valuable is this data?
553Depends on the game!!
554OPR IN 2019
555Was pre useful/good
556This game is fairly separable, and teams complete tasks independently from their partners
557Interesting stuff with component panel and cargo OPR’s
558Linear scoring, each task is consistently worth the same amount of points
559Ample numbers of playing pieces, so three offensive robots rarely choke each other out
560The amount of points are limited by the amount of game pieces available
561Even better, the use of component OPRs
562Thanks to FIRST for providing scoring breakdowns for matches
563
564//if you can keep good records about what stuff you’ve done for FIRST, it can help boost any data-analyzing position out there should you want to apply, or if you’re interested in in
565
566PIT SCOUTING
567make sure you check out every team at the event
568start on day 0
569take pictures of every robot
5703 views, get the team number in the shot
571Things to look for
572Functionalities
573Type of drive train
574Number of wheels, traction/wheels type, gear, motors
575Quality of construction
576Ask questions
577// make fun of your own friends, not strangers. Don’t feed someone false information.
578Ex:
579Pit Scouter: Hey how many wheels does your robot have, and what type are they?
580Team Member: 33. All swerve drive.
581PS (new to FRC, is oblivious, trying to figure out if they should stay in the program): Cool! Thanks!
582*PS brings information back*
583PS: They have 33 swerve wheels.
584Their team: …lmao what and you actually believed them?? Haha u loser lmao
585*PS is ridiculed oof*
586// pit scouting is based on respect and honesty
587
588MATCH SCOUTING
589Watch every match
590Things to keep track o:
591Match score
592Points scored by each team
593Scoring attempts and failures
594Penalties
595Autonomous modes, starting positions
596General strategy and tendencies
597Drivers and human players
598How fast do they react after autonomous
599//teams that go directly and quickly to the joysticks/controls have a drive and passion to get to the controls, and drive/passion is definitely better than someone who’s doing it for kicks and not really as submerged in the game
600Make sure you capture this data for ALL the teams in the match
601Keep track of cycle time, load to placing, placing to load, etc., and comments on how long it takes for them to acquire the game pieces
602// bumper quality, it’s transparent. If they care enough to replace the bumpers after getting destroyed, then they at least care about appearance lmao
6031 team of at least 3-6 people
604Very tiring, some people have a hard time focusing for an entire day
605Rotate team members, allow time for ample breaks
606Forcing people to scout will result in unreliable data
607Make it fun!
608A team with a culture that respects scouting will result in better scouts
609People are very good at recognizing busy work
610Sim bucks
611// the best scouts in FIRST tend to be the ones that are appreciated by their team
612// give the Scouting Team food, more pep talks (if they agree that it helps with morale), be more flexible with scheduling scouters, stay upbeat for the sake of morale, have snacks ready
613SIM BUCKS
614Gambling
615Betting, which teams will score more than which one?
616Sometimes, students would flip through the data before making a bet
617// most ppl use averages, it’s good, but it’s also unreliable. The data can vary
618AVERAGES VS MAXIMUM – DATA ANALYSIS
619Averages and maximums are confused greatly by FRC teams
620Averages include matches where you don’t move because your radio lost power
621Averages include matches when you got defended for 1:30
622Teams usually say “average” when they mean “maximum over perfect conditions”
623Beware of strategists who use these terms interchangeably
624It’s crucial to have your own data
625Not a bad idea to work with 4 items
626Min, min > 0, avg, max
627Orrrrr, with so few data points, look at everything
628
629With this year’s game, there’s a huge difference between when a team isn’t being defended against, compared to undefended
630Compare states, and compare things for UNDEFENDED AVERAGE, and DEFENDED AVERAGE
631Create a baseline (the bar) for teams, and then compare (using defense teams?? And how well they perform against?) (if they’re below or higher than the initial bar)
632look at defense teams versus the best teams, and how the team scores.
633The best team is usually the team that scores the best under defense?
634Think of it as a wilder beast in the wild. the predator doesn’t go after the fastest one, it goes after the slowest. 
635Don’t always defend the best team
636ALLIANCE SELECTION
637The entire process is dependent on scouting
638Make a prelim pick list on Friday night
639Review scouting data
640Discuss criteria of idea partner based on elimination strategy
641Rank teams 1 through the 28 based on established criteria
642The do not pick list
643Should you have one or is it excessive? Karthick doesn’t say no cus we have no time lmao, what whatever
644If a team goes up to you to give you info, there’s a good chance that they’re there to mess you up (if they’re not a well established team with a good reputation)
645FINAL COMMENTS
646Read the rules
647Come up with a clear consistent strategy for how your robot will play the game
648Remember the golden rules
649Scouting is the easiest way to make your team more successful at competition
650The road of the coach cannot be understated
651Each first match is like a highspeed game of chess, you need to have a well –
652LOOK AT THE PRESENTATION POSTED ON THE SIMBOTICS SITE
653LOOK AT THE SIMBOTICS WEBSITE AND HIS @s (FOR FURTHER INFORMATION)