The time between the Kansas City Regional and the Razorback Regional was hectic for members of the Chairman’s team. The presentation had to be written and rehearsed. Team interviews were conducted and compiled into the three minute video. Judges books were printed.

We were very excited to be a part of the inaugural Razorback Regional held in Fayetteville, Arkansas. For most of the season, 35 teams were registered and waiting to attend. As the weekend drew closer, more teams began to register at the last minute and the final count was 42 teams, including 12 rookie teams. Unlike Kansas City, when we arrived there were only a few modifications needed to be made to Sherman and we were able to get on the field shortly after lunch time.

While our drivers were testing out the field, our mentors and other team members were busy helping other teams get their robots ready for inspection. It was a busy day. Meanwhile, our Chairman’s team was busy going around to the pits promoting our Hero Project to help Disabled American Veterans.

With so many rookie teams present, match results were pretty unpredictable. We were able to perform pretty well over the course of the weekend. We even started to get confident enough that we could pull off a 7-disc autonomous. But when one disc went into the hopper upside down, it shut us down and caused us to lose our final match on Saturday. We ended up as the 3rd seeded alliance and chose 3284, Camdeton Lasers and 1764, Liberty Robotics as our partners. All of the elimination matches were close with most needing 3 matches to determine a winner. We weren’t able to make it out of the quarterfinals due to strong competition from the #6 alliance.

All hopes of receiving an invitation to the Championship competition now rested with how the judges perceived our Chairman’s presentation. Several different judges visited our pit throughout the competition, but there was a great group of teams present in Arkansas- all deserving to win. There was no sure winner. We patiently waited throughout the awards ceremony, hoping our name would be called out to come forward and claim a trophy. Finally, our team was announced as the winner of the Engineering Inspiration award- one of the qualifying awards to attend the Championship. We are very blessed to once again make the trip to St. Louis. 3 trips in 3 years! We are so grateful to NASA, who once again is providing sponsorships to the 2013 Engineering Inspiration winners.

Oh, and we were honored to meet both Dr. Woodie Flowers and Dean Kamen at Razorback and get them to sign our Hero Project sign. What a great weekend and we can’t wait for St. Louis!

Arriving at Hale Arena on Thursday morning, the team knew we didn’t have any time to waste. After withholding Sherman’s shooting mechanism, the build team needed to work quickly to get Shooter 2.0 reattached and get the robot inspected. Our programming team still needed time to tweak our various autonomous programs and the drive team needed practice. Finally around 3:00 in the afternoon, we were ready to take the field for the very first time. The team spent the rest of the day on the practice field working out the kinks. While the build and programming teams were busy getting Sherman ready for the field, the rest of the team members were busy scouting the pits and assuming their roles as Student Ambassadors and members of the Media Team.

Our performance on the field on Friday started out slow, but as the day moved on, we gradually moved our way up the rankings. Our drive team was getting more comfortable with the controls and the autonomous program successfully shot 5 discs. By the time qualifications rounds finished on Saturday morning, we had a record of 8-2 and were ranked 6th.

During alliance selections, we were the 4th seeded alliance captains. We were excited to draft team 2996, Cougars Gone Wired, and our fellow homeschoolers, team 1825, Metro Homeschool Robotics as our partners. We made it past the quarterfinal round by winning 2-1 and moved on to the semi-finals where we would face the #1 alliance of 1986, 1806, and 2457.  After losing the first match, we took the field again and played the most exciting match of the weekend. We won that match 136-119, giving Team Titanium their first and only loss in 2013 Ultimate Ascent competition. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough power to win the rubber band match and our competition ended there.

We were, however, extremely surprised to win the Team Spirit Award on Friday evening. We are not an overly enthusiastic team; our members are stretched across many roles over the course of the weekend. We do get a lot of support from siblings (homeschoolers do have quite a few), parents, and grandparents. This must have stood out in the judges eyes. As a condition for winning this award and to our embarrassment, we were asked to lead the crowd in several dances during breaks in the action. We are thankful to be able to check this particular award off of the list of possible awards to receive. We will be sure to be very quiet in Arkansas though;)

“I’d like to take a little bit of time to talk a bit about my experience on the Media Team. For the future, I would highly recommend extroverted team members that think well on their feet to take part in this exceptional program. This is KC’s first ever student Media Team, so the stakes were high, but it delivered on all its promises and gave me some of the hardest fun I’ve ever had in FIRST. When the media team met, I picked what I wanted to do (there are three main “roles”… social media, reporter, and the people that direct where the press can take pics and ask questions), was immediately given a bunch of assignments and put out in the field doing work… with absolutely no prior experience. In this particular case, there were reporters coming in the front door in 10 minutes, and I had 6 minutes to collect a story, develop it, discuss it with the rest of the media team, and pitch it so that they would have something to munch on right as they enter the building. It sounded impossible, but Lydia–the amazing head of the media team–assured me it was possible. And we all got our parts done. There were other times when I had to text three people simultaneously about different things, check the schedule constantly to see who is where, what, and when, and then actually find the team I wanted/needed to interview and find a spokesperson and good story.. then corroborate and regurgitate the information to the rest of the team so that they could help communicate more with the press, make phone calls, and direct the incoming press. It’s very much a learn-on-the-go experience that demands a lot of on-the-spot decision making, time management, some writing skills (mainly note taking skills), and good, clear and effective communication with all the people involved (the press, the other members in the media team, the teams you interview, the volunteers, and everyone else). And needless to say, you’re going to need to be able to work well with people and deal with the pressure and stress associated with the job… and actually enjoy doing this stuff.

So basically… being on the Media Team is EXTREMELY FUN if you like talking to people and learning new things and like always having things to do. Also, there are a lot of cool side benefits. Firstly, the badges are just cool, and they grant you access to just about anything. Flash it and nobody gives you a second glance. For example, I got to go in the main competition area and interacted directly with the person in charge of the big screen and music; we made additional presentation slides for him to display later, and he happily obliged. Speaking of access, we also all got DIRECT access to the official KC FIRST Twitter and Facebook accounts. It amazes me how much they trusted us. You can also make direct suggestions and they usually get discussed and implemented within the hour. Other members had great ideas for being more viral on social media, strategies for consolidating our photos, etc., and they all got implemented. I’m sure all of us on the Media Team will all agree with me that it was really refreshing and empowering to feel that we could make an immediate, positive impact on the operations of FIRST and the FIRST experience. Which brings me to my next point.

I think being on the Media Team gives you a perspective you’ll be hard pressed to find in any other FIRST student volunteer position or assignment. We got to interact very often with other teams, collect amazing stories–some of which were jaw droopingly inspiring–and turn them into news stories and promote FIRST and its mission. I’m already on a first name basis with a number of team members, and overall I feel much more connected with the teams and their members. Everyone in the Media Team also worked really well with each other. It was amazing. Everyone had the same interests, personality, and mindset. We got along so well we’re already starting to text each other. Anyway, I’ve become familiar with some of teams’  back stories, struggles, successes, and conflicts. It’s also extremely inspiring to step out of the “I’m on team 3528″ mindset and focus on the big picture… that we’re here to have fun, change the culture towards science and technology, and learn from each other. It was awesome to have another team come up to me and say “wow, good job! Your team beat us but it’s not about winning for us. It’s about the experience”. It was amazing to interact with FIRST students from different cultures, backgrounds, and interests. To be able to meet girls on teams that are heavily involved in the build team, girls that are in programmer positions, etc. To talk to a team who give orphans healthcare and teaches them about STEM in the process. To talk to a team whose students write STEM curriculum and teach elementary students about science and technology. To talk to students from a purely liberal art school (if I recall correctly, they’re the only 100% dedicated liberal art high school in MO) that views building a robot as a way of expressing art, and to talk to a team that started out with a 99% female membership. And that isn’t even scratching the surface.

Overall, I would strongly encourage anyone who’s going to be on the team next year to give the Media Team serious consideration.  If you like pushing your comfort zone, trying new things, and can think clearly through the chaos, this is definitely for you. Anyway, as this year is an experiment for them, the Media Team might be very different next year and perhaps, less chaotic. But overall, its an absolutely AMAZING opportunity to gain valuable experience, try something new, learn new things, meet new people, and to be inspired by all the wonderful and talented individuals FIRST attracts. I also have much more respect for the public relations people and journalists. It’s amazing how much information they have to process and react to on the fly, with little to no planning.”

We were also excited to be interviewed by a reporter from a local newspaper, The Kearney Courier, and tell him about our team and FIRST.