Team Leaders, wow, plenty of updates and new items this week. It really illustrates the breadth of this program.

MSHSL – Rule update to Snow Thrower Challenge

Rule – STC 11
A ROBOT that contacts a MARKER or TOTE while navigating the path incurs a five (5) second penalty each time contact is made. Since this challenge is timed starting at 0, these five second penalties are added to the final challenge time.  (https://firstuppermidwest.org/off-season-events/mshsl-championship/ )

Upper Midwest Region Awards

The FRC Upper Midwest Awards Show will air on the FIRST Twitch feed #13 on Thursday, May 13th  (https://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/frc/2021-award-shows ).  There will also be a stream on the FUM YouTube channel (specific address to follow).  In addition, we are seeking photos and/or short videos (<1 minute) of your robot to show during the 10 minute pre-countdown period.  If your team is interested, please submit a photo or video to this Google Drive folder (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WQaJuseSk0TMg2SQQaLtSV6s9xwwbAm1).  Please submit one photo or video by Monday, May 3.  If there are any people in your photo or video, you must have each person in the photo or video sign and submit the consent and release form in the folder.  Contact Yoji Shimizu at yoji.shimizu@firstuppermidwest.org if you have any questions.

Championship Award Show

FIRST® Robotics Competition will host a virtual celebration broadcast featuring special guests on Saturday, June 26, 2021, at 12:00pm ET on FIRSTtv on Twitch. During the broadcast, we’ll reveal the 2021 Dean’s List Award Winners, 2021 Volunteers of the Year, 2021 Woodie Flowers Award, the Game Design Challenge winning teams, and 2021 INFINITE RECHARGESM Championship Chairman’s Award winners and finalists.

FIRST Upper Midwest Mentor Meet-up

Mark your calendars, the next edition of the FUM Mentor Meet-up is Thursday, May 6th, 7 PM.  For more information and the Zoom link see this page (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1auF96qIJN0PcrhbhmrTWXog1SfDeNP8seIJx7SZpScY/edit )

MN State Fair Update from Jay Nix

Right now we are hopeful to have a Fair, and we plan to hold the competitions in the same manner, we have updated the website with new registration dates. Registration begins June 7th  (https://www.mnstatefair.org/competitions/k-12-competition/ ).

As far as what the Fair will look like I do not have answers to that; there could be many things still in place (capacity limits, face masks, etc.) and we will have to follow all the guidelines for safety from the state. But for now, we are hopeful to have a Fair and would like to plan for entries and competitions as usual (there will be safety measures in place for drop off, etc. but I cannot say what exactly those will be until closer to August).

We hope to have the robotics demonstration again this year so consider entering your team’s robot and bringing some team members to the fair for a day to talk about your robot.

Please contact me, Jay Nix, to schedule a day for your team to come to the fair to demonstrate your robot and talk with the people at the fair about First Robotics.

If you have questions or need help with the registration, please contact me.
Jay Nix
jay.nix006@gmail .com
Cell 612-968-0802

Off-season events

FIRST has given the go-ahead for off-season events to start after July 1st.  FUM will be working with our traditional off-season event coordinators to further understand what it means for each particular event.  See Frank’s Blog for additional details from FIRST (https://www.firstinspires.org/community/inspire/first-game-changers-season-celebration-event-updates?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=124038952&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-89_Cpj9kLOqwRWjuKFilw9L9BN6ash0W6hmJTRw-_EVGosuEQdeqCAOzSP6tm1LEIoWvsYRSSrwn_y8a2mW2o_Zz5Ktw&utm_content=124038952&utm_source=hs_email#questions )

College application help – FIRST team 2502, Talon Robotics

Sophomores and Juniors in FIRST!  Are you thinking of applying to college? Let admissions officers from the University of Minnesota and the College of Science and Engineering and a current CSE student help you navigate how to best represent your FIRST experience on applications! This seminar will run on Wednesday, May 5t  from 5:00 – 6:30 PM CDT and there is no pre-registration. There will be a Q&A session, so come prepared with any questions you may have. This event will be geared toward women, but all are welcome to join!  Details can be found here (https://firstuppermidwest.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Final-Women-in-Engineering-Flyer.pdf ).

Regards, Mark Lawrence
Chairman, MN FIRST Regional Planning Committee