TDT Display at 2012 E-Week event

Team Duct Tape hits the road this week for an outreach triple play, starting with Lockheed Martin’s annual E-Week Celebration, one of our favorite FIRST outreach opportunities for several reasons:

1) Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training in Orlando is absolutely AWESOME! They not only invite FTC teams to provide demo opportunities to their engineers during National Engineers Week (this week – if it’s not on your calendar, it should be!), but…

Chris and Ryder enjoying LM E-week 2012 outreach matches

2) We get a whole room, with a full competition field to run full matches in for two hours!

3) We get to see a bunch of our FTC friends and play with them!

4) And they provide lunch.  AND

5) They give teams a two hour tour of the Lockheed Martin facility!

We love talking to the engineers, and some of their families that come by for the day, sharing our design and build with them, and getting some of their insights in the process.  There’s always someone among the passers-by who has never seen FIRST Tech Challenge , and we enjoy introducing folks to the game and to FIRST. 

It’s a great way to celebrate E-Week – or at least to start celebrating it! We’ve also got the Tampa Bay Engineers Banquet and the USF Engineering Expo on the calendar this week.    There should be parades and confetti, too! E-Week is awesome!