Part Search

A team with a pending remote competition is looking for a Motorola E4 phone. If anyone has one to share, please email tammy@firstinmichigan.org and I’ll make the connection. The team is located in Mt. Pleasant.

FIRST FTC Innovation Challenge Submission Due Today

Reminder to teams who are participating in the FIRST FTC Innovation Challenge as their chosen engagement option, the following is due today, March 4:

• Solution brief description (10-word limit)
• Executive summary.

As this engagement option is 100% managed by FIRST HQ, please refer questions to ftcteams@firstinspires.org.

FTC Innovation Challenge and FTC/FRC Collaboration Teams

For teams participating in these engagement options: If you haven’t already, please fill out the FTC Engagement Option Selection form (originally sent in early January) to indicate your team’s chosen 2020-21 season sanctioned FTC engagement choice. For FTC teams working in collaboration, fill out a form for each team. This information will be used to verify a team’s chosen engagement option for grant compliance purposes.

Consent/Release Forms and Team Participant Registration

All registered team participants regardless of the team’s chosen FTC engagement option (remote event, FTC Innovation Challenge, FTC/FRC or FTC/FTC collaboration) must satisfy all “event readiness” criteria. This entails completing FIRST HQ and FIRST in Michigan participant registration requirements.

There are two different Consent/Release forms required:

1. FIRST HQ Consent/Release form is filled out via the participant’s FIRST Account accessed through https://www.firstinspires.org/ (top right “Register / Login”.
2. ADDITIONALLY: FIRST in Michigan Consent/Release form which can now be filled out electronically through Smart Waiver. There is a Spanish version available as well.
   • English version: FIRST in Michigan Consent and Release Form (English)
   • Spanish version: FIRST in Michigan Consent and Release Form (Spanish).

Check your team’s FIRST in Michigan Consent/Release form submission status:
Coaches can now check their teams FIRST in Michigan Consent and Release form submission status by visiting the site page below. This site page has only been shared with the Lead Coach/Mentor 1 and 2 for each team. CheckFiM FTC Waiver Status: https://firstinmichigan.us/FTC/fim-ftc-waiver-status/. The waiver status table sometimes requires multiple page refreshes in order to load.

Visit the http://firstinmichigan.us/FTC/remote-event-resources/ site page under the “Required – Team Participant Registration and forms” section for more on required Youth and Coach registration requirements.

Additionally, as part of our FiM FTC Fair Play rollout, teams can request a virtual inspection via the help desk as well. See the “Virtual Inspection” topic area in this post for details.

Key points to creating a help desk ticket:

FiM FTC Fair Play

FIRST in Michigan would like to encourage our FIRST Tech Challenge teams to sign on as a “Fair Play” team this season. With the Remote Event rollout, we will be relying heavily on the teams to faithfully represent their participation by honestly and accurately inspecting their robots and refereeing/scoring their matches.

Example of Fair Play in action: A team participating in a given remote event designates a match as “official” BEFORE the match begins and follows through with scoring/uploading that match’s result regardless of the match outcome (i.e. if the robot malfunctions).

Following the “fair play” expectations will more closely represent traditional match conditions and provide an even competition setting for all teams in the event. The philosophy of Fair Play is a natural extension of the FIRST ethos of Gracious Professionalism and the FIRST Core Values.

Visit the FiM FTC Fair Play site page for more information on how to take the “Fair Play” pledge and receive a digital “Fair Play” badge. Also, check out the content shared by our Fair Play teams!

Virtual Robot Inspection

A remote event competing team can request a virtual robot inspection as part of our FiM FTC Fair Play rollout.

How to request a Virtual Inspection.

• Lead Coach/Mentor 1 or 2 should create a ticket on the FIM FTC Help Desk.
  • Also, via the FiM FTC Fair Play form, choose “yes” for the Virtual Inspection prompt.
• When creating your helpdesk ticket,
  • Indicate two (preferably three) dates and times when your team is available for a virtual inspection (e.g., Tuesday @ 6pm). Note that evenings and weekends are easier for the Inspectors to accommodate, but let us know what works for your team and we will do our best to accommodate your schedule.
  • Indicate your preferred way to virtually connect:
    • The team can host the virtual inspection and invite the Inspector: Be prepared to provide a video conference or collaboration link (e.g., Zoom, Google Meet, etc.).
    • Or, an FTC Inspector can host the virtual inspection and will handle creating the video conferencing link and sharing it with the Lead Coach/Mentor.
• At the arranged inspection date/time, the team and inspector will join the video conference.
  • Please be sure to have the robot with at least one student team member. Given the virtual nature of the inspection, this is a great opportunity for all students on the team to participate in the inspection.
  • Equipment to have on hand: a tape measure or yardstick for measuring the starting configuration. Teams should also have a flashlight handy.
• Once the inspection is complete, the FTC Inspector will update and close the helpdesk ticket, as well as notify FiM FTC that the team’s robot has been inspected.