2013:
Chairman's Award - Autodesk Oregon Regional
In 2013, we returned to submit for the award in Oregon, after receiving it in Oklahoma the year before. See our submission that qualified us for championships here. From FIRST’s award guidelines: “The Chairman’s Award was created to keep the central focus of FRC on the ultimate goal of transforming the culture in ways that will inspire greater levels of respect and honor for science and technology, as well as encouraging more of today’s youth to become scientists, engineers, and technologists. The Chairman’s Award represents the spirit of FIRST. It honors the team that, in the judges’ estimation, best represents a model for other teams to emulate, and which embodies the goals and purpose of FIRST. It remains FIRST’s most prestigious award.”
Regional Finalist – Oklahoma Regional
We returned to Oklahoma this year as the defending champions. This year our robot didn't reach its full potential until later into the qualification matches, so we weren't ranked in the top 8. We had however shown our abilities as an impressive shooter, and were chosen by the #2 alliance captain 2165, and joined by 2341. After some tough quarterfinals and nail-biting semis, we made it to the final rounds against the #1 ranked alliance of 1986, 1806, and 2389. We didn't manage to make the upset, but interestingly enough, our alliance partners qualified to come with us to World Championships since 1986 and 1806 had already won another regional together (and we had qualified through Chairman's)! This wild card system is a new thing FIRST is doing.
2012:
Chairman's Award - Oklahoma Regional
In 2012 we gave our Chairman's Award presentation out of state for the first time, winning the award at the Oklahoma Regional! The Chairman’s Award is the most prestigious award a team can win at a regional or at the championship, more so than even winning the competition itself. The Chairman’s award was created to recognize teams that demonstrate the greatest commitment to spreading passion about science and technology into their communities and schools. Submission involves writing an essay documenting the team’s efforts at spreading the message of FIRST, as well as student interviews with judges at the competition.
Regional Winner - Oklahoma Regional
With the help of our alliance partners 3528 and 2395, we won the Oklahoma Regional and qualified for the FIRST World Championship in St. Louis!
Imagery Award - Autodesk Oregon Regional
An award we've never won before, recognizing us as a team that makes FIRST look good through the integration of our materials, robot, shirts, pit, etc.
Woody Flowers Finalist - Autodesk Oregon Regional
Our Head Coach and Mentor Dale Yocum won this year's Woody Flowers Finalist Award. Dale has been a fixture in the Oregon robotics community since 2001, organizing events, mentoring new teams, and of course founding and leading our team since 2004.
Dean's List Winner - FIRST Championship
Marina Dimitrov '13, our co-captain, Outreach & Chairman's manager, and drive team co-pilot was one of ten Dean's List winners world-wide at the FIRST Championship. She was selected as one of two finalists at the Autodesk Oregon Regional.
2011:
Regional Finalist – San Diego Regional
The Flaming Chickens competed against a myriad of amazing teams in San Diego before finally winning the Finalist Award as alliance captain with partners 399, 2439, and 294.
Innovation In Control Award – San Diego Regional
We won the Innovation In Control award for our sophisticated tracking system, which uses webcams to figure out where to score during autonomous and uses other webcams to aid in driving the robot.
2010:
Chairman’s Award – Autodesk Oregon Regional
This once again qualified us for the World Championship in Atlanta for a fourth year in a row. The Chairman’s Award is the most prestigious award a team can win at a regional or at the championship, more so than even winning the competition itself. The Chairman’s award was created to recognize teams that demonstrate the greatest commitment to spreading passion about science and technology into their communities and schools. Submission involves writing an essay documenting the team’s efforts at spreading the message of FIRST, as well as student interviews with judges at the competition.
Dean's List Finalist - Autodesk Oregon Regional
Henry Gordon '11, our marketing manager, mechanical engineering co-manager and future co-captain, was one of two Dean's List Finalists at the Oregon Regional.
Regional Winner – Colorado Regional
2010 marked the first time Team 1540 traveled to Colorado to participate in the Regional in Denver. Our alliance, completed by teams 1584 and 2036, won the regional! They traveled with us to Atlanta.
Innovation In Control Award – Colorado Regional
One of only two robots there using CAN, we won for our use of CAN under the 2010 CAN bus to manage our ball collection and shooter. The judges were impressed with how it allows us to create closed loop control systems based on motor current, among other things.
2009:
Engineering Inspiration Award – Autodesk Oregon Regional
The Engineering Award “Celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering and engineers within a team’s school and community. This is the second-highest award a team can garner.” This once again qualified us for the World Championship in Atlanta for a third year in a row.
Website Award – Autodesk Oregon Regional, Las Vegas Regional
From the FIRST website: The Website Award “Recognizes excellence in student-designed, built, and managed FIRST team websites.” This site was built off of the previous year’s site created by Devyn and Max.
2008:
Regional Winner – Autodesk Oregon Regional
In our fourth year, Team 1540 managed to pull our first regional victory, which qualified us for the Championship in Atlanta. Our team remained the only undefeated team during the qualification matches, and lost only once in the finals. We would like to give a special thanks to our alliance partners 368 and 1280.
Engineering Inspiration Award – Autodesk Oregon Regional
The Engineering Award “Celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering and engineers within a team’s school and community. This is the second-highest award a team can garner. This award qualifies us for the Championship in Atlanta, Georgia for the second year.
Website Award – Autodesk Oregon Regional
From the FIRST website: The Website Award “Recognizes excellence in student-designed, built, and managed FIRST team websites.” This site was built using Drupal.
Xerox Creativity Award – Las Vegas Regional
The Xerox Creativity Award “celebrates creativity in design, use of component, or strategy of play.” The judges were impressed by our unorthodox hurdling strategy and our satellite dish grippers.
2007:
Chairman’s Award – Pacific Northwest Regional
From the FIRST Website: “FIRST’s most prestigious award, it honors the team judged to have created the best partnership effort among team participants, and to have best exemplified the true meaning of FIRST. The award helps keep the central focus of the FIRST Robotics Competition on the goal of inspiring greater levels of respect and honor for science and technology.” This is the award that sent the Catlin Gabel Robotics Society to the championship for the first time and was the greatest shock to us.
Regional Finalist – Pacific Northwest Regional
This award is the fruits of the hard work of the entire team on the robot itself. This award effectively symbolizes “Second Place” in the competition, when a team makes it to the final match and only loses to the winning alliance. Thanks to our alliance at the Pacific Northwest Regional, teams 948 and 1778.
Motorola Quality Award – San Diego Regional
From the FIRST Website: The Motorola Quality Award “Celebrates machine robustness in concept and fabrication.” The award which the fabrication department is most proud of, the Motorola Quality Award, was given to Team 1540 for its dedication to the principles of K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid) throughout the design process. Our elegant and simple robot last year focused on scoring and scoring well, maintaining maneuverability without sacrificing weight.
Website Excellence Award – Pacific Northwest Regional
The previous website incorporated javascript menus for the first time. The site also emphasized a simpler look through simplification of the site’s navigation and highlighting content.
2006:
Website Excellence Award – Pacific Northwest Regional
The Website Excellence Award is a web-based award given out to teams who’s website scored well in the judging for Best Website, but were beaten out by another team. 2006′s website was a completely re-written PHP code base on which the 2007 website would also be based (though it would have a completely different skin).
2005:
Rookie Inspiration Award – Pacific Northwest Regional
From the FIRST Website: The Rookie Inspiration Award “Celebrates a rookie team for outstanding effort as a FIRST team in community outreach and recruiting students to engineering.” This award is the rough equivalent to the second-place Rookie All-Star award. Our team worked hard on outreach all year during our rookie season: hosting a kickoff, mentoring an FLL team and much more. This award celebrates those efforts as well our solid competition robot.
Best Website Award – Pacific Northwest Regional
From the FIRST Website: The Best Website Award “Recognizes excellence in student-designed, built, and managed FIRST team websites.” This was Team 1540′s first FIRST award earned. The completely hand-coded and content-driven 2005 website apparently impressed the judges with its oodles of content and focus on accessibility, and perhaps its bright-orange theme helped.
Best Website Award – FIRST World Championship
A complete shock to the entire team (the webmaster not even realizing the site was eligible), this award remains our first and only Championship event award (though it was an eight-way tie for smallest trophy).
