Greetings VEX Community,
Welcome to the 2010/2011 VEX Robotics Competition season. It’s going to be the biggest and best ever and we can’t wait to see your teams at tournaments around the world!
**RECF INTRODUCTION
**
This monthly newsletter is published by the RECF - Robotics Education and Competition Foundation. We are a non-profit foundation setup to promote STEM education through robotics competitions. Been to RobotEvents.com? That’s us. Your one-stop shopping for Robotics Events around the world. We have also partnered with VEX Robotics to take over planning and management of the VEX Robotics Competition program and events around the world. In addition to VEX, we’re proud to work with and support many of the top robotics/technology education and competition programs in the world such as BEST, Botball, FIRST, TSA, and more.
ALMOST 1,000 TEAMS
We’re glad we had all the Welcome Kits ready and so many events listed early this year, as there will clearly be more teams than ever before this season. It’s only August and we are already approaching 1,000 teams, before the school year has even started for most. Amazing! No way to know what the final team count for this season will be, but it will clearly blow away the total of just over 2,500 teams that participated last year. Don’t worry; we’ll make sure there are enough welcome kits and places to play to support all the teams this year.
ALREADY OVER 180 EVENTS
It’s hard to believe, but over 180 events are posted for the 2010-2011 season already – and it’s just August, so there will be even more to come. We’re thrilled that so many event partners are committed to providing teams in their areas a place to play, and that teams will have so many opportunities to play over the season. Go to RobotEvents.com to see where the closest ones are to you. Don’t forget to check back every few weeks, as we are just starting to add events and more get posted every week.
WANT TO HOST AN EVENT?
We’ll help you do it! Just contact us here for details: [email protected]
REGISTER YOUR TEAM TODAY
Go to RobotEvents.com to register your VRC team today to ensure you don’t miss out on all the latest information. It’s only $75 for the first team at a school, and only $25 for each additional team! Once the payment is received, you will get a Welcome Kit that inlcudes Sample Game Elements (for the first team only), Team License Plates, Flags and some other goodies!
VEX ROBOTICS ALL-STAR CHALLENGE AT ESPN’s WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS® COMPLEX at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
The 2nd Annual VEX Robotics All-Star Challenge event at Disney World is open for registration. The event will be Nov 11-13 in Orlando Florida. We have some tremendous hotel packages that include park passes and airport transportation. Registration and hotel booking details are at the All-Star Challenge event page at RobotEvents.com. We’ve been working with the ESPN and Disney coordinators all summer, and they’ve got some great plans to make the 2010 All-Star Challenge an amazing event.
One possible addition is a College All-Star Challenge. ESPN and Disney have told us that if enough college teams want to play, they’ll add space for a College tournament. We’ve opened registration to see how many college teams want to come and play – so sign up now if interested and we’ll officially confirm the tournament in September.
As an added bonus – the winning College team will get a grant that covers the entire VEX Robotics World Championship registration fee!
ROUND-UP GAME INFO & ANIMATION
This years game is “Round Up.” Several events have already been run to rave reviews! Get all the details, rules and view the game animation here.
NEW VEX PRODUCTS
Here is a list of items you may want to check out:
NiMH Battery, 7.2V 2000mAh - same power, smaller form factor
NiMH Battery, 7.2V 3000mAh - same form factor MORE power!
Smart Charger - charges ALL VEX batteries!
Performance Tool Kit - outstanding tool set for building VEX robots
VEXnet System Bundle - the new Cortex system
LCD Module - add some user friendly IO to your system.
Motor Controller (for the new 2-Wire Motors)
2-Wire Motor 269 - No Clutches, Similar Torque and Speed to 3-wire motors
2-Wire Motor 393 - No Clutches, comes with high speed gear option and 60% more torque than the 3-wire motors!
NEXT MONTH…
·World Championship News
·On-Line Challenge Update
·New VEX Products and more …