Post Event Report - roboticon.net · including hotel rooms, dining, and shopping, and event production. ROBOTICON Tampa Bay is leveraging the private sector and the vast resources

EurekaFactory.net – Making the Future! 1

Produced by

Sponsored by

In Partnership with

2017

Theresa Willingham

Eureka Factory

11/10/2017

Post Event Report


In this Report

About ROBOTICON Tampa Bay 2017

ROBOTICON & Economic Development

ROBOTICON at a Glance

Participating Teams

Education

ROBOTICON Sponsors and Partners

Media Coverage

Special Recognition

What’s Next

About Eureka Factory


About ROBOTICON Tampa Bay 2017! Tampa - At ROBOTICON Tampa Bay 2017, nearly 1500 students and over 2000 guests from around Tampa Bay and Florida descended on the University of South Florida Sun Dome Arena October 7 & 8 to learn while they played, and show guests the power of hands on, mentor driven STEAM education. ROBOTICON Tampa Bay was, as always, free to the public and ran from 10am to 5 pm Saturday and Sunday. With support from University of South Florida, Hillsborough County, Lockheed Martin, the Doolittle Institute, USF Connect and the Florida High Tech Corridor, JPMorgan Chase, Solid Professor and other fine community organizations, ROBOTICON Tampa Bay provides students and guests an opportunity to enjoy a full scale steampunk themed FIRST Robotics Competition event featuring high school student built robot that weigh up to 120 lbs., FIRST Tech Challenge (7th to 12th grade teams) and hydrology themed FIRST LEGO League (4th to 8th grade teams) scrimmages and practice games, and a FIRST LEGO League Jr. Expo for our youngest roboticists, ages 6 to 9. There will also be an Innovation Fair showcasing commercial and industrial robotics and education exhibits. Guests will be able to tour Team Pits to see team members working on their robots, and have a chance to talk to students, visit the Innovation Fair to enjoy STEAM demos, vendors and organizations, learn about the Tampa Bay Advanced Manufacturing & Robotics Center (AMRoC) under development, as well as about technical, industrial, and science career and college opportunities The mission of ROBOTICON is to increase public awareness of and engagement in the power of hands on, mentor driven youth engineering and robotics programs like FIRST, and to provide participating youth with a low stress, high-quality competitive event with opportunities for skill building, networking, and college and career readiness experiences. ROBOTICON is organized by Eureka! Factory, a Tampa organization specializing in educational and creative event and program development, in collaboration with the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation (FCDI) , our live coverage partners, PLuGHiTz Live Radio. Visit ROBOTICON.net for more information. To learn more about FIRST, go to FIRSTInspires.org . To learn more about FIRST in Florida, visit FLFIRST.org

http://ffcdi.org/

http://ffcdi.org/

http://roboticon.net/

http://www.firstinspires.org/

http://firstfl.org/


ROBOTICON & Economic Development ROBOTICON Tampa Bay directly impacts the growth and attraction of technology based businesses and startups through event participants, vendors, and business sponsors/mentors. The inaugural event in 2013, drew over 700 students from over 40 FIRST LEGO League, FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics competition teams from around the state, and about 500 visitors from around Tampa Bay – over 1000 people over the course of the two day event. This year’s event brought together over 60 teams and more than 1500 students, well above 2016’s student participation. Another 1500+ guests came through the front gates. Alongside the robot development for the specific game of the event, participants also enjoyed classes and workshops on all aspects of the technology industry from programming to business development, connecting participants with industry leaders sharing their knowledge and expertise. Through ROBOTICON

New teams are started

Existing teams find up new mentors and sponsors

New students find placement on existing teams

Attending teams become prepared for the new season.

New scholarship providers and team sponsors are identified.

Over $60,000 invested into the local economy as a result of the event each year, including hotel rooms, dining, and shopping, and event production.

ROBOTICON Tampa Bay is leveraging the private sector and the vast resources Tampa/Hillsborough County already offer to create a unique event that maximizes all that this industry has to offer, bringing industry leading experts from local businesses, startup accelerators, and the educational system together to share their talents, collaborate on ideas, and plan for the future with those who will be driving the future, students.


ROBOTICON 2017 at a Glance

Attendance – Over 3000 People

1500+ students , from 60 FIRST K-12 teams across 20 cities in Florida – from as far south as Ft.

Lauderdale, to Melbourne, Orlando and Kissimmee, and as far north as Gainesville, as well as

teams from around Tampa Bay

90+ Volunteers – many FIRST Alumni

About 40% of the attending teams, comprising hailed from out of town, and booked

approximately 30 area hotel rooms over the weekend.

Over 1500 guests from around Tampa Bay and beyond attended the free event over the

course of the weekend.

Corporate Involvement

In addition to title sponsorship by the University of South Florida, and partnership support from Hillsborough County government, corporate engagement at ROBOTICON was at an all-time high this year, with seven new corporate event partners.

Sonny’s CarWash Factory

Solid Professor

JPMorgan Chase

Lockheed Martin

Research One

FIRST Tech Challenge

Wish Farms

Green Mouse Academy

AFCEA Local Area Businesses and Organizational Partners

PLuGHiTz F5 Live: Refreshing Technologies

Sonic Print

USF Connect

Defensewerx (formerly Doolittle Institute)/SOFWERX

Studio 7 Communications

TPOMFG – The People of Manufacturing

Visit Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay Sports Commission


Media Reach

Website stats show our highest levels of traffic since ROBOTICON started.


Social Media

ROBOTICON continues to leverage social media well, with Google

adwords support from the FIRST this year, increasing outreach

and impact. Social media generated energetic engagement with

area tech and businesses, and great statewide and national

interaction, with social media numbers up nearly double from

2016.

Twitter


Facebook


What People Said


Participating Teams FIRST Robotics Competition Teams 79 Krunch, Palm Harbor 179 Children of the Swamp, Ft. Lauderdale 744 Shark Attack, Ft. Lauderdale 801 Horse Power, Merritt Island 1065 Moose, Seminole 1369 Minotaur, Tampa 1523 M.A.R.S. , Palm Beach Gardens 1557 12 Volt Bolt, Mt. Dora 1902 Exploding Bacon, Orlando 2152 S.M.A.S.H. , Daytona Beach 2383 Ninjineers, Plantation 2556 Radioactive Roaches, Niceville 2797 Knight & Nerdy, Clermont 3242 Illumicats, Ocala 4065 Nerds of Prey, Minneola 4118 Roaring Riptide, Gainesville 4592 Mighty Mechanical Mustangs, Hollywood 4769 Nerdvana , St. Petersburg 5145 Wolfbotics, Gainesville 5276 Edgar Allan Ohms, Land O’Lakes 5283 Torque, Tampa 5472 Stallion Robotics, Delray 5816 Gra-V Robotics, Orlando 5842 Royal Robotics, New Port Richey 6722 Seahawk Metal, Land O’ Lakes FIRST Tech Challenge Teams 2845 Team Duct Tape, New Port Richey 3073 Massive D, Tampa 3846 Maelstrom, Tampa

4997 Masquerade, Tampa 5937 Renaissance Robotics, Apopka 7203 KNO3, Tampa 7719 Rise, Lakeland 9779 Pieaters, Orlando 10497 SwampBots, Gainesville 11429 The Mechanical Bulls, Brandon 11628 Coding Hope, Tampa 11710 Robo Raiders, Lake County 12600 Hadron Knights, FIRST LEGO League Teams 3834 Master Builders, Jacksonville

8056 UAF Falcons, Tampa

15962 Panther Tech, Brandon

17276 Temple Terrace EV3tormers, Tampa

23878 Porygon Programmers, Tampa

24334 IncrediBotz, Tampa

27447 Corbett Prep, Tampa

30512 Dragon Force

30648 Tie Dye Gummy Divas, Tampa

30688 Alphabotz

30750 Technowizards, Tampa

31128 RoboNinjas, Tampa

31538 Probot Engineers, Tampa

32084 Brick Robotics, Tampa

FIRST LEGO League Jr. Teams 6007 Falcons Jr., Tampa Creative Building Team LEGO Pros, New Port Richey 11621 Master Builders, Jacksonville


Educational Student & Public Workshops


ROBOTICON 2017 Impact In 2017, ROBOTICON:

Engaged the support of at least five new partners for ROBOTICON and FIRST programs

including Lockheed Martin, JPMorgan Chase, Sonny’s Car Wash Factory, St. Petersburg College

Workforce Institute, and Wish Farms.

Helped launch at least two new teams, including a new FIRST Tech Challenge team thanks to

Hillsborough County proclaimed October 2017 ROBOTICON Month in Tampa!

FIRST Robotics Competition team Knight & Nerdy being selected as the recipient of the

ROBOTICON FIRST Tech Challenge Rookie Team Grant

Hosted a well-attended Manufacturing the Future panel discussion

Enjoyed robust media coverage providing great awareness raising and community engagement

Inspired new mentors and volunteers

2017 ROBOTICON Award Winners Congratulations to this year’s award winners!

FIRST LEGO League Jr.

Team Spirit Award – The LEGO Pros

Teamwork Award – Falcon Jr.

Robust Design – Master Builders

FIRST LEGO League

Robot Performance Award (150 Points) – Team 24334 The Incredibotz

Team Spirit Award – Team 30648 Tie Dye Gummy Divas

Awesome Pit Award – Team 30512 Dragon Force

FIRST Tech Challenge

Awesome pit – Renaissance

Gracious Professionalism – Coding Hope

Team Spirit – SwampBots

FIRST Robotics Competition

Winning Alliance – Teams 179 , 79 and 6842

Finalist Alliance – Teams 2164, 5145 2384

Gracious Professional – Team Minotaur 1369

Awesome Pit –Team 179 Children of the Swamp


ROBOTICON Sponsors & Partners


Media Coverage Our 6th annual event benefitted robust media coverage from around Tampa Bay and Florida. PLuGHiTz

Live Radio also provided live even coverage throughout the weekend, with team and sponsor interviews.


Special Proclamation –ROBOTICON Month


What’s Next for ROBOTICON ROBOTICON Tampa Bay is now fully established as an annual keystone STEM education and

tech event in Tampa, building expertise and energy in support of the growth of a full scale FIRST

Robotics Competition Regional event and programming.

We accomplished many of the goals we aimed for after last year’s event, including:

A more successful and streamlined event at the Sun Dome

Larger turn out by students and the general public

Greater participation by FIRST Tech Challenge, FIRST LEGO League and FIRST LEGO

League Jr. teams

A more robust and engaging College and Career Expo

For our 2018 event, we’ll continue building on ROBOTICON best practices and aim to :

Grow team participation by at least 10%

Expand out of state and foreign team involvement by reaching out to FIRST Global

Participants

Enhance Innovation Fair exhibits with more interactive displays

Bring at least one new community partner on board

Provide more engaging Invited Guests Luncheon experience for sponsors and guests

Engage community partners earlier and more effectively for event sponsorship, College

and Career Expo and other programming

Debut NEXT post-high school robotics competition platform developed by PLuGHiTZ

Corporation in partnership with Foundation for Community Driven Innovation (FCDI).

Thanks to the University of South Florida, Hillsborough County and

the USF Area business community, ROBOTICON has taken a huge

leap towards becoming a signature STEAM Competition event in

Tampa Bay, Florida and the nation, and an exciting and effective way

to show our next generation of science and technology leaders why

they might want to live, work, play and learn in Tampa.

Save the date for ROBOTICON Tampa Bay 2018: September 29 &

30th!

Visit ROBOTICON.net for more information.


About Eureka! Factory

The Eureka Factory specializes in educational and community event production services, program management, and media development to help creatively empower people and communities in the new millennium. We are the designers of the HIVE Community Innovation Center at John F. Germany Library in downtown Tampa , the Foundry makerspace at Land O’Lakes Library in Pasco County and the Makerspace at Regency Park Library in New Port Richey. An energetic and highly collaborative, creative partner for any community project, the Eureka Factory works with nonprofit organizations and institutions, and government agencies in the development of makerspaces, experiential and project based learning programs and more. Some of our past and current projects include:

• Makerspace Development programs & Staff Development training • Gulf Coast Maker & Comic Con • ROBOTICON Tampa Bay • In partnership with FCDI, development of the Tampa Bay Advanced Manufacturing &

Robotics Center (AMRoC) Visit EurekaFactory.net for more information.

http://eurekafactory.net/


About Foundation for Community Driven Innovation

The Foundation for Community Driven Innovation (FCDI) is a 501c3 not

for profit organization dedicated to supporting academic achievement,

economic development and the spirit of innovation through inspiring

programs, active learning and exciting, innovative projects.

We do this by facilitating fiscal sponsorship for to help build the

capacity of project based, competitive STEAM

education teams that don’t have their own

nonprofit organization or school support and by supporting exciting hands on

learning and living events like Gulf Coast Make & Comic Con, Tampa Bay’s

annual maker festival, and ROBOTICON Tampa Bay, an annual youth STEM

Showcase event. FCDI is the founder of the Tampa Bay Advanced Manufacturing &

Robotics Center.

The Foundation for Community Driven Innovation is a Gold Level Guidestar member and a

Top Rated organization on Great Nonprofit. FCDI is also a member of the federally

created Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute. For more information,

visit FFCDI.org

Documents

Post Event Report - roboticon.net · including hotel rooms, dining, and shopping, and event production. ROBOTICON Tampa Bay is leveraging the private sector and the vast resources