2002 Semifinals

Urban Challenge National Championships

 Getting Clues
(See the checkpoint clues.)
The first teams out the door received their first surprise of the day — clue batons instead of regular clue sheets. From the Yahoo! Urban Challenge group comes this description:

David Alyea #10096:
The clues were printed on a single red sheet, and it was glued around a 12" long black tube with a 2" diameter. There was a plastic sheet wrapped around the "baton" and secured with a rubber band. The idea was that teams couldn't fax the clues this way- but of course, teams found ways to get the clue sheet, in a printable format, to their internet contacts. Still, it was a great idea to use a baton for the clues. While running, we'd pass the baton back and forth between us, as if we were running a relay race, which was kind of fun. Teams could remove the plastic covering and write directly on the clue sheet if they wanted to. Sure, writing on a rounded surface would be hard, but it was do-able.

The clues themselves were designed to keep as much problem solving as possible on the weight of the participants. Checkpoint 4 was particularly notorious for its inability to be read over a phone to a support team.

Teams started at checkpoints 1 - 4, depending upon the luck of the draw when they picked their Urban Challenge Passport. Again, the Yahoo! group:

David Alyea #10096:
Teams started at one of checkpoints 1, 2, 3 or 4. As you may recall from your city's UC, getting stuck with CP #11 or CP #3, for instance, could be a big disadvantage. Kevin and his team thought this through, and they did a great job of pretty much equalizing the first possible checkpoints by placing them, more or less, equidistant around Jillian's. Without splitting hairs over city blocks, which I suppose some teams will want to do, I think the choice of CPs #1-#4 were were very good and served to spread teams out nicely, without giving teams with starting CP #1 a distance advantage. In fact, my teammate and I felt the best possible starting CP would have been #4! We saw the method to that one right away, so we would just as soon have started with CP #4 and then had more time for CPs #1 through #3.

The Race is On »