Arizona Regional
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History
The Arizona Regional competition is an FRC competition that started in the 2003 season. It was founded by Microchip Technology Inc. and Microchip's President & CEO, Steve Sanghi. Historically it is held in the 2nd week of regionals, around March 10.
The Arizona Regional is usually a medium sized regional, with attendance numbers being around 40 teams in 2004, 28 teams in 2005, 45 in 2006, and 35 for 2007. The regional usually enjoys a variety of out of state teams (varying from California to Alaska), and has enjoyed international teams from Canada and Mexico (to date, it is the only regional to have a team from Mexico, team 1401, in attendance).
Location
The Arizona Regional competition is held at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum (also known as the State Fair Grounds) in Phoenix, Arizona. For the most part the Coliseum remains unused outside of State Fair time, though the Phoenix Flame of the IBL are scheduled to start playing there in 2007. The arena is usually split in half for competition, with the "front" half containing the game field and the "back" half containing the pit area.
Due to the location (Arizona) and the large parking lot surrounding the coliseum, it has become customary for a number of the teams in attendance to pick up and eat their lunches out in the parking lot, so as not to violate the contract of not bringing food into the venue. Many teams will socialize outside in the nice weather, and team 1324 hosted a barbecue for all teams outside in the 2006 season.
Team Social
The Arizona Regional has had a team social at the Arizona Science Center every year since the Regional's inception. The team social is held on Friday night of the competition, typically from about 6 PM to 9 PM. For the social teams have access to all the normal exhibits in the Science Center, are able to watch the planetarium presentations (including a roller coaster simulator), and are able to eat a catered dinner for free. Teams have to give an advance list to the Regional Planning Committee for tickets needed for the social, but all tickets are free of charge.
Unique Awards
In addition to the normal Regional awards and scholarships, the Arizona Regional also has two special awards it offers:
- The Arizona Regional Teacher of the Year Award, which is awarded to a teacher of one of the teams attending the Arizona Regional.
- The Steve Sanghi Scholarship, which is a private scholarship awarded to a student on an Arizona FRC team.
Regional Sponsors
- Microchip Technology Inc.
- General Motors Desert Proving Grounds
- Arizona Science Center
- Barbara and Craig Barrett
- Honeywell Hometown Solutions
- Innovation First, Inc.
- Intel Corporation
- Jan Corey
- Delbert and Sharon Lewis
- Microchip Technology Inc. Employees United Way Donations
- Wells Fargo Bank
- Clean Room Plastics
- ITT Technical Institute
- Microsoft Corporation
- NXP Semiconductors
- ST Microelectronics
- White Electronics
- Mr. and Mrs. Steve Sanghi
External Links
The Blue Allience 2008 Event page and video archive for this Regional
