FIRST Robotics Competition Blog

We’ve got some important award submissions deadlines coming up! OK, the submissions really aren’t due until January and February, BUT – you really need to be planning now to meet those deadlines later. Every year, we get emails and calls from teams who missed deadlines asking for exceptions, and every year we decline requests, out of fairness to teams who successfully met the published requirements, and to make sure we can stay on track with the award selection process. You don’t want to be in the situation of having missed a deadline, and we don’t want you to be in that situation either! 

A good way to help make sure you meet these deadlines is to set your own internal target at least 24 hours earlier than the ‘real’ deadline. Even earlier is better, if you can manage it. This does a few things for you:

• It gives you a buffer in case something truly unexpected happens.

• It allows you to set a deadline time that may be more suited to your team’s particular circumstances (A 3PM Eastern Time deadline is a 4AM deadline in Beijing. Even my cats aren’t awake at 4AM.*).

• It helps you stay sane.

Here are the upcoming submission deadlines:

Full details on these award can be found here.

Oh, and I can’t help but let you know that we set up the full FIRST STEAMWORKS^TM field this week to do some filming. My reaction upon first seeing the completed field is best illustrated by the GIF below:

Frank

*OK, they probably are. Cats have their own agendas, it’s supposed to be part of their charm.