1. Software Development Kit Update
2. Computer Science Education Week Kahoot
3. Pro-tip – Official Game Q&A Forum
4. Electrostatic Mitigation Reminder
5. 2023 FIRST^® Championship Team Housing Now Open!
6. FIRST^® Tech Challenge Rookie Grants
7. FIRST Scholarship Program

We have recently released the FIRST^® Tech Challenge Software Development Kit (SDK) version 8.1, and subsequent patch version 8.1.1. This release is an optional upgrade release for teams that includes several enhancements for the SDK. Please note that teams who have upgraded to 8.1 should continue to upgrade to 8.1.1 to fix a few after-release issues found in version 8.1.

 

These enhancements include IMU support for REV Control Hubs shipped after September 23, 2022, a new universal IMU interface, updates to iterative OpModes, usability improvements through the REV Hardware Client, and others. For more information, check out our blog post.

Before the week comes to an end, encourage your team to explore the Computer Science Education Week Kahoot! and celebrate the impact of computer science on many aspects of our day-to-day lives. On our Community blog, hear from sixth grade teacher and 2022 Inspire the Future: FIRST® Educators Recognition Program cohort member Dave Tomko on why computer science is essential education for today’s students and how FIRST coaches can bring CS learning to their students. >Go to Community.

We’d like to remind all teams that in order to receive official answers about robot construction rules, game rules, etc., you will need to use the official Game Q&A forum. Each team has an account where they may ask questions and receive official answers. The rulings from the official Game Q&A forum are the only FIRST Tech Challenge Forum rulings that may be brought to a tournament to question a gameplay ruling or show the legality of a part.

 

Our community forum offers a section for teams to discuss hardware design, 3D printing, CAD, etc. This particular section of the forum is for teams to help teams and is not in any way an official source to prove legality of parts at an actual tournament. 

 

For more information on the forums FIRST Tech Challenge offers, please check out our Forum Blog.

As the weather gets colder and the air gets drier, electrostatic discharge (ESD) issues could arise during practice and more crucially at your event which may affect your robot’s ability to compete at peak performance. Teams are reminded that there are several things you can do to minimize the effects of ESD on your robot, which are explained in our Managing Electrostatic Discharge Effects document on ftc-docs. You can also find additional mitigation techniques for both the robot and the Driver Station in the FIRST Tech Challenge Robot Wiring Guide.

Visit the FIRST Housing & Travel page for hotel locations, booking instructions, and the team link to start choosing your housing blocks. If you're determined to attend FIRST Championship but awaiting official confirmation this season, you can still check out available hotels and rates now so you’re ready to book when your team advances.

FIRST Tech Challenge Rookie Grant 

FIRST Tech Challenge is offering Rookie Grants to brand new FIRST Tech Challenge teams! Tell your friends, classmates, or neighbors that are interested in starting a FIRST Tech Challenge team about our Rookie Team Grants! 

 

The FIRST Scholarship Program is open for folks pursuing continued education after high school, you can find more information on our website. If you have a student on your team that is interested in biomedical engineering/ medicine please tell them to be sure to check out the Dr. Bart Kamen memorial FIRST Scholarship and apply before Feb 1, 2023.