FAQ - ICC West Valley & VEX Robotics
ICC West Valley.org: Robotics Program
VRC Current Game: Tipping Point (2021 - 2022)
Address: 20900 Stevens Creek Blvd, Cupertino, CA 95014 (Google Maps link)
Frequently Asked Questions
About the program
- What is the duration of the program ?
- The program runs from October 23, 2021 to early March, 2022.
- Teams will meet on most Saturdays (except during holidays) between 9:00 am and 12:30 pm. There won’t be any make-up sessions offered if you miss a session.
- When will the team finish building their robot?
- We expect all teams to finish building their basic competition by early January. The time it takes for a team to build a competitive robot and be ready for competition varies by team.
- What are the fees for the program? What is included?
- The fees are $499 per student.
- Each student will be in a team of 4 or 5 students.
- All robotic equipment,tools and instructions to build a competitive robot will be provided by ICC.
- The fees do not include registration fees for RECF or for the tournaments.
- Team annual registration with RECF is $150/team
- Typically each tournament registration costs $100 - $150 per team/tournament
- Check should be payable to ICC or use paypal id: shilpa@indiacc.org
- There is no refund. All registrations are final once teams are formed.
Program registration
- When should we register the student? What is the deadline for registration?
- Registration is open now.
- Registration is considered complete ONLY after you have paid the registration fees of $499.
- Spots will be filled based on a first come first serve basis. We have only 50 spots and will close registration as soon as we reach capacity.
- Where can I find the form to fill up for registration?
Team formation
- We will gather information from you during registration and match you up with other students to form teams. If you have a preference to include someone else registering in your team please indicate that in your registration form. We will try to match students of the same age, gender and geographic area or school, but we make no guarantees that we will find the perfect match. Once we finalize the team, we won't be accommodating changes to the team.
- How many students in each robotics team?
- Each team will have 4 or 5 students.
Commitments, Rules & Requirements
- What is the commitment required from parents and kids?
- Each team is required to have a primary mentor and a secondary mentor. At least one of the mentors will have to be with the team at all times when they meet. While it is fine for parents of other students to be present when the students meet, we encourage that each team have no more than two adults present.
- There is no prior robotics knowledge required for both the parents and the students to be a part of the program.
- Boostrobotics.org will provide coaching material in the form of presentations and video instruction to build the first competitive robot including programming.
- COVID19: All participating students must be fully vaccinated and wear a mask at all times. The county requirements and health guidelines change from time to time and we will update them as needed.
- All safety instructions (e.g. wearing safety goggles at all times while building or operating the robots) need to be adhered to.
- Can we take the robot home after I build or will it be only at the facility?
- All equipment and tools stay at the facility. If there are local tournaments, robots and tools can be checked out but they have to be checked back in at a time designated by the ICC coordinator.
Equipment
- What do we need to get on our own?
- All equipment and tools required for building the robot will be provided. Each team will have to make arrangements for their own laptop or tablet to program the robot.
- What kind of laptop will the team need ?
- Most laptops with a USB port should be sufficient to program the robot. Laptops will not be provided by this program.
- The programming environment used is Vex Code and it is available for download for free. We will provide additional information on this closer to when the teams need it.
- Will the students learn to program / code? Will we get help ?
- Yes. We will provide information and instruction on how to program the robot.
- boostrobotics.org will provide all information required to be successful in building a first competitive VEX robot, including parts and instructions.
- After the first few weeks, the teams will also have an opportunity to customize the robot with some advanced instructions.
- Students with little to no experience with programming can use a block based approach to program the robot and for the more advanced in programming can use C or C++ for programming. In all cases, we will provide information and instruction on how this will be done.
- Can we build a robot of our own design?
- Absolutely! The goal of the program is for each team to become self-sufficient to design and customize their robot based on the creativity of each team. During the first few weeks, all teams will be building the same robot. After building the initial competitive robot, each team can use more advanced techniques to build and customize their own robots.
Tournaments
- How many local tournaments are there in the area?
- There are several area tournaments and each team can choose to participate in one or more tournaments. You can go to robotevents.com (https://tinyurl.com/3bpsmp3u) to see the list of tournaments in the Greater Bay Area. We will also be running scrimmages and tournaments here on site.
Other questions
- Who can I contact if I have more questions?
- I have a friend who wants to participate but could not make it to the event today. How can I share this with them?
- As noted earlier the number of spots are limited so please ask them to sign up soon. Also indicate the names of the individual you want to form the teams with in your registration so that we can have them both part of the same team.
- Logistics and information about the program