Of course you're not wrong that this was suboptimal, and I have fond (?) memories of The Capital Girls trying to adjust light sensor sensitivity to deal with a gym that was very different from our test environment (and this with an RCX--very primitive compared to today).

OTOH I'd point out to the team that this echoes real life: conditions are not always ideal, and you have to adapt. I'd turn this into an exercise and ask them what they could do to avoid this in the future.

I realize they can't expect to anticipate every problem, so I hope I'm not sounding dismissive. It's more of a "Yeah, stuff like that happens" thing. And this is why there are multiple table runs, so a single anomaly need not be decisive.

See you next year!
--
Phil Smith III

Coach, The Capital Girls (retired)
Team 1900 (2002)
Team 2497 (2003)
Team 2355 (2004)
Team 1945 (2005)
-----Original Message-----
From: First Lego League in Virginia and DC [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Srini Sam
Sent: Monday, November 25, 2019 9:57 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VADCFLL-L] Friendship Collegiate DC FLL Team BIG THANK YOU + SUGGESTION

Hello Friendship Collegiate DC team of volunteers and organizing team of Judges and Referees,

A BIG Thank you for the tremendous team of dedicated volunteers, Judges, Chief Refs at Friendship Collegiate Academy DC Nov 23 team.  I had volunteered as a Judge on Nov 9th tournament in USPTO, Alexandria. VA.so i know the value of volunteering. 

One suggestion. The gym where the Competition round of Robot Runs were conducted was not adequately lit / kind of dark. The cloudy day this saturday didn't help either. Due to this , during our last run  / round -3 [red/blue tables] , our technician was not able to see the program name in the EV3 brick on some occasions and hence couldn't run the program on time.  we didn't score points and hence lost on few other things......its very sad to see the disappointment on our team's faces and 5 months of hard-work.   

As a Robotics teacher , i understand that artificial lighting will affect the COLOR sensor readings and can dramatically affect the EV3 programs for simple beginner rookie teams using color sensor. 

I am not sure what could be done better to avoid this situation.

Kindly note this.

Congrats to every team that participated.

Thanks,
Srini.   

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