FIRST Global - April 2017 - July 2017

FIRST Global's Inaugural event was a big success this year thanks to all of the volunteers and staff. One team from each of 161 countries participated in this first truly global robotics event. We were very excited to play a part in its success. Nova Labs was tasked with creating the FIRST Global instruction manuals. We were the first to receive the robot kits and began working on the manuals. Our very own Eric Link and John Link created the Linear Slide manuals as well as supported editing of the PushBot instructions.

Nova Labs also hosted the first official field of FIRST Global to test in advance of the event. We were thrilled to work with AndyMark and FIRST Global in making fixes to the field to improve the experience for all of the participating teams.

Because of the location of the field, we were able to work with the Afghani Girls from the states who were slotted to drive the robots for the Afghani girls who were denied Visas.

Nova Labs orange shirts could be found all over the competition floor both before and after the event. From setting up the outdoor practice fields in 100 (F) degree heat, to an assembly line to aid AndyMark in assembling the four competition fields, we were able to make a ton of connections and create relationships that extend beyond the event.

Two of our team members, William Chen and Eric Link, were field volunteers. William was one of two referees on Field A, the Field which hosted the exhibition event for Ivanka Trump! Eric was stationed at Field D as the sole FTA and responsible for making sure that the matches were run on schedule. It was four intensive and long days of volunteering for this awesome event.

We were grateful to play an integral part in the FIRST Global event spreading love of STEAM and hoping to expand the outreach of FIRST in the youth of the world. We learned a lot about what it takes to make a 'first of its kind', 'biggest of its kind' event happen. The FIRST Global team was super nice to us.