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MOE Vex Challenge for
Ulster Project Delaware


Ulster Project: Irish and American students do Vex together.

FIRST Vex
"Competition in a Day" Details

  • Inaugural event held on July 13, 2006
  • DuPont Experimental Station
  • MOE Vex Challenge
  • 18 Northern Irish students
    (9 Catholic, 9 Protestant)
  • 17 American student hosts
  • 7 MOE student Vex mentors
  • Ulster Project International Purpose

Purpose - MOE Vex Challenge - Ulster Project Delaware

Using the FIRST Vex Challenge, MOE Mentors lead Northern Irish and American students through a competition in a day. Students are introduced to the Vex Robotics Design System, build Vex robots, and compete in a FIRST-style co-opertition. The goal is to encourage tolerance and Gracious Professionalism in the students. This web site was created to encourage other FIRST teams to partner with other Ulster Projects in the United States, MOE is including preparation materials on this website for any group to use for a competition in a day FIRST event. This event was modeled after the FIRST rookie workshops held in conjunction with the FRC Kickoff event in New Hampshire.

MOE Vex Challenge - Agenda

Here is the agenda we used for the day. It was a long day. We finished close to 5:30pm.

8:00 A.M. Safety, Who are we, Introduction
8:30 A.M. Team Formation, Team Identity
9:00 A.M. What is Vex, Familiarization with the Kit
9:30 A.M. Vex Workshops
11:00 A.M. Game Explanation
11:30 A.M. Lunch, begin robot design
1:30 P.M. Match Schedule released, practice matches
2:00 P.M. Qualifying Matches
3:30 P.M. Alliance selection & Strategizing
4:00 P.M. Elimination Matches
5:00 P.M. Awards and Wrap-up

Presentation

This is the presentation we used during the day, available to download: Ulster Project Vex Presentation

Materials / Supplies / Resources

Here is a list of the supplies we needed for the day: Ulster Project Vex -- Supply List

Tips / Key Learnings

Size of Student Groups

  • Groups of four students worked best, one Irish Catholic and one Irish Protestant student, with their host students.

Vex Orientation

  • It is necessary to have an overview of the Vex kit for the students, with descriptions of the parts and how they are used
  • You will only have a few hours to actually build the robots; it is suggested that you follow basic instructions to build a simple robot using the Vex kit instructions
  • It is important that you have a Vex mentor for each team. This person should:
    • Understand how to build a working Vex robot (has done it at least once)
    • Can drive the build process and ensure it gets done in time for the matches
  • There should be one uber-mentor who knows the Vex system in detail -- like how to adjust motor trim, motor direction, and in general de-bug problems. It is important that all teams are successful.

Game Selection

  • Choose a relatively simple game that can be played competitively with the squarebot supplied in the kit.
  • Choose a game to play that requires teams to work together in order to demonstrate alliance play and Gracious Professionalism.

Supplies

  • Make sure you have enough different crystals to ensure all teams playing in a match (in our case it was four) are on a different frequency. The crystals that come with the kits should be removed and stored in a safe place prior to handing out the kits. While building and testing the bots, teams should only drive them with the tether cable, never in radio controlled mode.
  • Purchase coiled handset phone cords for robot tethers - make sure the cords have the proper connectors
  • We made cardboard red and blue flags taped to straws for the robots to indicate which bot was on which alliance during a match.

Team Identity

  • Each team had a Vex kit available. If you can, get this donated to the event from a local sponsor. Make sure you have enough batteries. We did not purchase battery packs, but bought a bunch of AA batteries.
  • To instill a sense of identity for each of the teams we gave each group of four students and one Vex mentor a specific color of T-shirts. We also designated each team with a specific letter and had the team come up with a name that starts with that letter. We also gave the team markers to decorate their shirts with their team name, personalize their shirts, and allow them to be creative. Customization/decoration of the bots should be encouraged.

Media/Spectators

  • This event, with the proper marketing, is capable of drawing a nice media response. A sample of our press release for the event is included.
  • If possible, invite the local host families to attend the event during the competition, so they can see what the students have been working on during the day.

Link to List of National Ulster Projects

There are 20 active Ulster Projects in the United States. This link lists all of them and provides contact information: Ulster Project

Vex Challenge Game & Rules

This game is simple and was used by FIRST for one of their rookie mentor training sessions prior to kickoff. Due to the nature and time allotted for this event, we did not go through all the rules in detail. You can download the rules as adapted for our one-day competition: Ulster Project Vex Game Rules

Photos

Enjoy the photos shown here taken by our own MOE mentors.

Irish students programming mobile bots

Students controlling robots
Robots in competition

MOE Vex Challenge - Ulster Project Delaware Video

This video was shot by MOE team members. MOE alum Jake Warren edited the raw footage into this video summary of the day. Video Overview of MOE Vex Challenge - Ulster Project Delaware

MOE - Ulster Project Buttons

To enhance the experience, we made up buttons for each student as a memento of the event. [button coming soon...]

Awards Sheet

We made a simple award certificate to hand out to winners. We put together some fun awards to hand out also - most self-proclaimed sexy robot etc. Ulster Project Vex Award Certificate

Event Banner



We had a large banner printed out to hang at the event location to make the event special. Shown here, the file can be downloaded: Ulster Project Vex Banner file

Media Exposure

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