Aloha from Hilo

Thank you all for your enthusiasm for and support of the Hawaii Botball program, now in its 4th season. Mahalo for the new teams who are beginning their C language and Lego Bot journey with us, and to the many returning teams. We anxiously await the unveiling of the new challenges for 2007.

For your planning purposes:

February 17-18, 2007, 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m., Hawaii Convention Center, room 304AB

1. due to the larger number of teams (currently at 30 teams from 28 schools which leads all the nation's regionals by number), and allowing up to 3 persons per team to attend (at least one of the 3 must be a teacher/adult mentor; for schools accepting the DOE professional development grant, 2 must be teachers), we have had to utilize a larger room that can accomodate 90 or more people. We thank HECO for their support the past 3 years in use of the conference rooms on Ward Avenue and on King Street.
2. parking: we encourage you to car pool; parking is $$ 5 per day (pay using the machine on the parking level near elevator)
3. food/drinks: as you may know, the food and drinks provided by the contracted catering at the convention center is quite costly; therefore, we will not be able to provide the usual refreshments (pastries, drinks, etc.) but we have been informed that as individuals, you may bring in your own lunch, snacks, drinks. We are not allowed to bring in coolers or have any group meals brought in/delivered (such as pizza delivery). We are looking into purchasing coffee for the morning at least. There are vending machines on the ground floor for snacks/canned/bottled drinks. For lunch, if you choose not to bring your own, there are several neighboring restaurants.
4. you should plan to bring at least one lap top computer and a power strip (the requirements for the computer are posted on the Botball web site); we plan to (on Friday) lay extension cords and power strips that we have to the table areas.
5. you can anticipate: introduction to interactive C language programming, inventory and unveiling of the 2007 Botball kit, detailing how to build your own practice field, practice building a bot and programming it, and unveiling of the 2007 challenge.

April 28, 2007, Hawaii Convention Center, Exhibition Hall (first floor)

1. parking: $$ 5 per vehicle
2. food/drinks: same rules apply; no group meals to be carried in/delivered; no coolers; we will be informing you of a $$ 7 per person sandwich lunch/drink as an option. If you are interested in this, the order must be turned in at least 3 weeks prior to the tournament along with payment.
3. Ten 2007 Hawaii regional Botball shirts will be provided for each team. Sizes are usually random as provided in each bag. If you are designing your own shirts, keep in mind that the bots have color cameras and other sensors which may be affected by specific colors.
4. schedule: check in at 8 a.m.; practice rounds until 9 a.m.; opening ceremonies, followed by scoring/seeding rounds (only your robots on the table, unopposed, to see how many points they can score); afternoon: double elimination tournament, awards ceremony (generally we will end between 6-6:30 p.m.).
5. friends, parents, colleagues, other students are welcome to attend the tournament: free to the public.

1. $$ 75 per participant (adult or student) to attend all workshop sessions, participate in National Botball tournament, etc.; no additional team registration fees required
2. your team, by participating in the Hawaii Regional Botball tournament, automatically qualifies for the national Botball tournament (same kit to be used); there is also a Beyond Botball tournament for adults (college students, adult mentors, etc.)
3. students and teachers are encouraged to participate in as many of the workshops, etc. as possible; in looking at schedules from past NCERs, the schedule often runs to 9 p.m. each day which may include special speakers, robot movies, demonstrations, workshops, etc.
4. Botball has made arrangements for students/adults to stay at the UH dormitory if interested.
5. we are looking into hosting an Aloha reception the first day; if you would like to assist with helping plan this, let me know (we would like to provide some special touches since this is the first in Hawaii: suggestions have included an opening to include a Hawaiian chant, a lion dance, some Hawaiian type pupus, etc..

We hope you can take advantage of the air fare war to get reduced airfares if needed.

We are looking for volunteers to help support the Hawaii regional and the NCER: if you have teachers at your school interested, please have them email me.

Thank you to the Hawaiian Electric Company for their $$ 10,000 donation (silver sponsor) to support the Hawaii regional, provide funds for our use of the Convention Center for the workshop, subsidize Oahu team registration, and the NCER. Thank you to their staff also for their annually supporting through their time and energy helping set up extension cords, power strips, volunteering as judges, etc.

Thank you also to the College of Engineering for their 4th annual contribution of $$ 5,000 to support the Hawaii regional tournament; through robotics, we hope that the student participants will experience the "E" in STEM and consider engineering and other technical fields as a career choice.

Thank you to the Hawaii Convention Center for their generous support i use of their facilities and services.

Thank you to the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium for their 4th annual contribution of $$ 8,000 to support the Hawaii regional tournament.

And thank you...to your teachers, mentors and others who make possible hundreds of students becoming excited about STEM through robotics.

If there are any questions, please let me know. Thank you to Paul Fetherland, Referentia Systems, who has agreed to be the co-chair of the Hawaii Botball regional for the 4th consecutive year.

Art
co-chair, Hawaii Botball regional