Today was a welcome heads down calm day after this weekend’s busy FIRST event. 

I woke today to the great news that our OnBoard printed circuit board program for high schoolers  gave out it’s 900th grant this morning !!!!

When  we started OnBoard a little  more than a year ago, we committed to give 1000 grants.. and we’re closing in on that goal. I feel very good about that.. and its timely.. with the latest tariff craziness, the PCB’s we’re making just doubled .. a $50 pcb is now going to be $100 !

On my way in to work.. I ran in to my friend Gavin  and his wife and two beautiful kids. Gavin was Sam’s friends.. I’ve known him since he was 5 (I think !).. It’s so great to see him living his best life and workign at BETA !

I usually cant blog about stuff in work.. but this is weird enough to share.  More than a year ago, a group of folks ordered an animatronic copy of our beloved electronics lead, Andrew. The device looks like the Zoltan figure in the movie Big.. but it’s 100 times weirder !b It even talks like Andrew.. and dispenses tickets with BETA’s cultural points

Any day that starts liek this has got to be good…

and it was !

nite all. nioe sam

-me

I got back mid mornign to see soem more robots compete.. the finals woudl staryt after noon. Energy was still super high.. and the stands were  full throughout the day..

Lunch was at the Harris – millis dorm. .I remember staying here a coupel of times qhen I waz up here in the1977 1nd 1878. My freind Sandy was up here.. and thats how I fell in love with vermont !

the lines for lunch were longgggggg.. but the food was great.. 

THen came soem awards.. not the tournament… but the ones for leadership, ingenuity, etc..

I had to leave before the final matches were played.. but I do knwo that soem vermont teams did well enough to go to the district finals next week.. and .. from there if they are lucky to the world evets the week after in Houston.. 

So mamy great robots.. smart and creative kids and cool robots..
My mind almost exploded with fun !

best of luck to the teams that are progressing from here !
Go Vermotn !!!

nite all, nite sam
_me

 

The day is finally here.  (and its a snowy one !) .  Vermonts first ever New England  FIRST Robotics Challenge  (FRC) Qualifier.. actually its the first FRC event ever in Vermont. This si the culmination of  the work of sonme  very talented people (Joe Chase, Mark Drapa and the rest of the FIRST iN Vermont org) , the UVM College of Engineering Math  nd Science and and very generous 4 years of  grant from the Argosy Foundation..Thanks to all those folks, Vermont has more than doubled the number of students participating in competitive robotics at all levels ..

Huge thanks also to to the university of Vermont for being our hosts this weekend. We have 32 teams here to compete from all over the North East..   counting the teams, their family and friends, and a very healthy crowd of local visitors we had more than 1000 attendees at the event.. The bleachers at Patrick Gym were crowded from Saturday morning untl the event closed at 3 PM on Sunday. 

The good folks at Ben and Jerry’s had donated over 500 scoops of their finest .. and three of their finest scoopers. .. includien Michaella here.. who was on an  FRC robotics team when she was in high school in Massachusets !

What a day !!!.. THe stands at patrick Gym were full all day.. we estimated abotu 1000 people throuigh the day..
and theres another day full tomorrow. 
THanks to everyone for making this happen!!

good luck robot people !!!!
nite all, nite sam !

-me  

this mornign diane and I took a very quick hike up tot eh duzbury window. Its kind of half 2winter still and half spring. Nothing green yet.. but not much white. Lots of ice so we had our spokes on

We always pass this cool rock with a small pond underneat. It’s still frozen ofver. We put a samstoen on it to see when it would fall through ala joes pond in the northeast kingdom.  

At 5:30 I arrived at my friend John A’s house for a really nice gathering that he and friend Emily had organized to introduce folks that were in town for the big FIRST robotics competition (FRCC) event this weekend. This is the first event like this ever hosted in Vermont.. so we got ogether officials from the FIRST robotics leadership  and the FIRST in Vermont leadership >   as well as soem FIRST students . We also had some local business leaders. It was a wonderful gathering.. lots of new interos , lots of plans made !.   This is the start of big things for FIRST in Vermont ! and the provost from UVM .. our host for the event !

Huge thanks to John and Emily for making this happen !

So excited for this weekend !

Nite all, nite sam
-me