Written by Mo:

So, to celebrate FRC 1511 Rolling Thunder's 10th season in FRC, I have decided that every month, on the 10th, from this June until next June, I
will recall one of my many great experiences on 1511, and post a picture along with the description.

This particular picture is a picture of me at my first Rochester Rally, with Jacob, Alex, and Chris.  Rally, along with all of 1511's large scale events, is truly an asset to the Rochester FIRST community.
It is always a ton of fun to see what local teams have created, and allows for a more convenient atmosphere for learning about how other teams solved the game challenge, and it also gives a strong forecast for many early regional events. Rally is a great reward for all of the hard work students who contributed to to building of the robots in Rochester area, as well as throughout the county and the world.

Wednesday afternoon the drive team and pit crew drove down for the regional in Boston. They worked all day long to help finish FIRST set up the arena, which still had not been completed. Thursday morning they set up the pit and they continued to work on our robot, PHS Thunderprise, to get it ready for the qualification matches on Friday. Before they began to work, our robot could only shoot 1 in 10, and barely climb to first. By the time they finished late Thursday night, we could shoot in autonomous and climb to the third level. I am still amazed at what we managed to accomplish in such a short time.

Thursday after school the rest of the team, me included, went down to Boston by bus. Seven long and tiring hours later, we arrived at the hotel. First we had to get lost, but what’s a trip without a bit of sightseeing? Once we arrived, the team had a meeting, rooms were assigned, and we all gratefully went to bed. The next day, Friday, was when the challenges would begin.

Friday came much too early at six in the morning. By six-forty we were back on the bus and heading toward the Agganis Arena. When we got there we were the first to arrive and we got into a line that had yet to exist. At eight o’clock they let us go upstairs to the arena and we got front row seats right behind the judges. That meant our best behavior had to be exemplatory. For a while we all milled around in the pits and the stands, finding old friends and meeting new ones. Then our announcer, Angry Eric, came onto the field.

We started the day just like any other competition, with the standard rules and the national anthems. This time we had three to sing. The United States, Canada, and even Brazil were present. The anthems ended and the day began. Some robots were doing better than others, a typical day in the FIRST arenas. Then, tragedy crashed down on team 88. Their robot fell from the third level of the pyramid and nearly sent them out of the competition for good. Yet, this is FIRST. We don’t let anyone go without a fight. Other teams pooled supplies and resources and before you knew it, they were back only four matches later, ready to try again.

The day ended and we all clambered back onto the bus, some of us ready for strategy and some of us ready for Quincy Market. But, as fate would decide it, our bus got both lost and trapped in the difficult Boston city streets. Though our trip to the market was nonexistent, I got to see a lot more of Boston life than I expected. Including a really awesome bridge that lit up blue. That was probably my favorite.

We all split up into smaller groups and went our separate ways to find ways to feed ourselves. The first two places my group went were either closed or too full, so we ended up getting Mexican. I’d never had a burrito. They’re strange. Good, but strange.

When we reached the hotel once again we had a short team meeting, and then everyone was sent to bed to sleep. We had one long day ahead of us. Though we didn’t know it at the time, it would be filled with grief, success and a vicious pride.

The next morning started a bit later, and we arrived at the arena a bit later too. This time there was a line to wait in. Again, they let us in at eight o’clock and we bolted down to the front rows of the stands. The qualification matches ended just in time for the Elimination ones to start. But before that could happen, alliance selections had to be made.

The top eight teams stood side by side and back to back, picking out the robots that they believed would complement their strategies the best. The eight teams picked their first alliance partner, and then it went back around to one. At this point, our team had all but given up at being picked. There was no way—no way in the world—that the number one alliance would look at our robot once, let alone twice to pick us. I suppose the world works in mysterious ways.

“Team 125 and 126 would like to request team 1511.”

I don’t know about the rest of the team, but I was stunned to near silence before remembering to cheer like a madman. And that’s what we did. We screamed ourselves hoarse. I don’t think Mo even had to say that we accepted at all, we kinda did that for him. Then, the elimination rounds began.

We were up first. We won once, then twice without even a blink of the eye. With our robot able to climb to third, and theirs able to shoot over 120 points, we were set for the semifinals. When we went up again in semifinals, we won once, then twice. A bit of worry, but we pulled through. Before I knew it, we were in the finals. The finals. Everything we had worked on for six weeks was about to either crash and burn, or fly so high.

And high we did fly.

Our robot was one of two robots in the competition that could successfully block the monster of a shooter that team 3173, another Rochester team, had without falling over or crashing. Though team 846 was determined to deter us, we plowed on through. We won the first match with a higher score that I had felt possible. The second round started and we all held our breaths and screamed ‘til our throats were raw.

That’s when we got the two technical fouls against team 3173. That’s when we were sure we had finally lost.

Then the scores came up.

We had won.
We had won.

Some of us started crying, some of us started laughing, and all of us screamed until we could scream no more. We had won. We were going to championships. We had won.

On a side note, we also got the Gracious Professionalism Award and the Safety Award. Our safety captain, Shayna, got the safety star award. But after winning the regional, our minds were other places.

Mentor Note:  It's really more than a side note that we got the GP Award and Safety Award, and that Shayna got the Star of the Day for Thursday.  Our students and mentors in the pits worked very hard on Thursday and Friday helping teams get ready and stay ready for the competition.  We logged over 80 individual times of providing team assistance. We also provided several volunteers to help the event run smoothly. And although we didn't come home with the Chairman's award as we had hoped, we know that our Chairman's Presenters represented us well, the students in the pits talking to judges represented us well and the students in the stands
cheering and scouting represented us well. As a mentor, I am very very proud to be associated with this team.

In the fall we hosted our 2nd annual Mega Drive with FIRST Team 340 on Make a Difference Day (MADD), in conjunction with the Rah Cha Cha Ruckus.  It was held at the Dome Arena in Henrietta.  After that day we submitted our project description and results to the MADD web site for consideration for a national award hosted by USA Weekend Magazine and the Points of Light Foundation.

A few weeks later we got call telling us that our project was being considered and asked to provide more information.

A few weeks after that we got a call that our project was a finalist and asked to provide lots more information including phone interviews with students, mentors and benefiting organizations.

A few weeks after that we received the news that we were selected as a National Honoree.  This means we have been awarded $10,000 by Newman's Own - a charitable foundation.  We are designating it to go to Rochester Community Robotics to be used to start new FIRST teams!

And a few weeks after that we have been approved to put out press releases and tell the world!  So here it is!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FIRST Robotics Team 340 and Team 1511 are National Make A Difference Day Honorees

FIRST Robotics Competition Teams 340 and 1511 win big for their joint Make A Difference Day project called FIRST MEGA Drive. This national honor bestows them $10,000 for charity.

Rochester, NY – 6 March 2013 – Three million Americans joined together in service on Saturday, Oct. 22, as part of Make A Difference Day, the nation’s largest day of community service sponsored by USA WEEKEND Magazine and Points of Light. Each April, projects from across the country are honored for their outstanding volunteer work on Make A Difference Day. Honorees are recognized in an April issue coinciding with National Volunteer Week, led by Points of Light. Awards will be presented at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on April 25. The FIRST MEGA Drive was chosen as one of the 10 National Honorees to receive a $10,000 charitable donation from Newman’s Own.

Sixty-six volunteers converged at The Dome Arena, Henrietta NY for the FIRST Mega Drive sponsored by high school FIRST Robotic Competition Teams 340 and 1511 and the FIRST Finger Lakes Region during the annual Rah Cha Cha Ruckus FIRST Robotics Competition. The teams organized a blood, food, book and electronics recycling drive and called it FIRST Mega Drive. The blood drive in conjunction with the American Red Cross met the goal of 25 units of blood, which included first time blood donors. The drive netted 468 food items and $112 for the Rochester FoodLink. Also collected were 1052 children's books that were donated to three inner city pediatric offices through the National Reach Out and Read program. Over 3000 pounds of electronics were collected and recycled through Maven Technologies and Imagine It Fundraising Through Recycling and $400 of the recycled electronics proceeds were donated to fund additional books through National Reach Out and Read. To ramp up the competition among the teams at the Ruckus robotics competition there was a FIRST Mega Drive Competition as well. The teams that donated the most books, food and electronics won prizes that were sponsored by USFIRST, AndyMark, Two Pencil Design, Home Depot and Wegmans.

The FIRST MEGA Drive was created to put into action the gratitude felt by the teams for the support of their communities.  FIRST Team 340 has participated in Make A Difference Day for four years and starting in 2011 worked with FIRST Team 1511 to collaborate in developing the FIRST Mega Drive. What is unique about this alliance is that both are Chairman’s Award winning teams and competition rivals, but in the spirit of gracious professionalism, they joined forces and encouraged other teams to join in the event.  The high school students brainstormed various ideas and determined which ideas would have the most impact on the community while still keeping in mind the amount of planning and the probability of success. The FIRST MEGA Drive was born: a Blood drive with the Red Cross to help people on a personal level in a time of medical crisis, a Food drive to help people in our community through FoodLink, a Book drive to help promote literacy for children through the National Reach Out and Read program and an Electronics recycling drive to help protect the environment by preventing electronics from being sent to the landfill. The 2011 FIRST MEGA Drive held at a local shopping mall was a great success. This year to make the FIRST MEGA Drive even bigger it was held during the 7th annual Rah Cha Cha Ruckus robotics competition that included 38 teams from four states and Canada.

The success of the event was made possible by a huge marketing promotion. The event was promoted on local news stations, ABC Channel 13’s T-shirt of the Week, Radio, Democrat and Chronicle newspaper, Messenger Post Newspapers, Penny Saver Newspaper, Community Calendars, and Poster Campaigns. A Facebook page, Linked-in posts, and events on the Teams’ websites were created. The Event was posted on the Rah Cha Cha Ruckus’ website, the Make A Difference Day website and promoted on Maven Technology’s website.  E-mail invitations were sent to all FIRST Teams in the Finger Lakes Region. The Rah Cha Cha Ruckus event was televised throughout the day on YNN with repeated call outs to join the FIRST MEGA Drive. A local TV news report was aired on ABC Channel 13 Make A Difference Day and highlighted the FIRST MEGA Drive event.

FIRST Team 340, sponsored by Churchville-Chili High School, Bausch + Lomb and GE Volunteers  and FIRST Team 1511, sponsored by Penfield High School and by Harris Corporation are planning on using these funds to help start new FIRST teams through the Rochester Community Robotics Organization (RCR). RCR is a non-profit organization founded in 2008 with the goal of exposing interested students to engineering and related technology careers through robotics programs. RCR aims to inspire and motivate young people to pursue science and technology careers and become confident, self-reliant, responsible citizens poised to make a real difference in our world using a fun, creative, and unique environment that extends learning beyond the classroom.

FIRST is an acronym meaning For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology was developed by the inventor Dean Kamen and has spread internationally in the past 22 years.

More information on the Make A Difference Day can be found at http://www.usaweekend.com/section/MDDAY/Make-A-Difference-Day ,
http://www.handsonnetwork.org/nationalprograms/signatureevents/MakeADifferenceDay
 Information about the FIRST MEGA Drive can be found on Facebook and Team websites:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/FIRST-Mega-Drive/242828785768364 ,
http://www.team340.org/
http://www.penfieldrobotics.com/
Information about Rochester Community Robotics:
http://rcrobotics.org/

Contact Information:
Cheryl Lawniczak
14 Brook Valley Drive
Rochester, NY 14624
(585)-889-8902
Cheryl@lawniczak.us

###

And we had an official photo shoot for the publication in the April 26-28, 2013 USA Weekend Magazine. Here is a shot taken during the photo shoot!

Thursday, February 28, gave way to the start of the Finger Lake Regionals. Also better known around here as FLR. These competitions continued through Friday and most of Saturday. They started out on Thursday with only essential team members and of course, the robots! Friday saw the dawn of the qualification matches. The whole team got up bright and early to catch a bus to go over to RIT. Like always, we arrived a bit early and had to wait. That’s okay though, because we were able to practice our cheering for the judges.

They finally opened the doors at eight o’clock and we all rushed in. Though we had to be a little civilized for the judges. We quickly found seats in the top few rows and started laying out all our scouting equipment. We were fortunate enough this year to have prototypes of Harris tablets. We waited around and got to meet other teams before the opening ceremonies began. I don’t know about anyone else, but I got a lot of buttons!

Angry Eric came to the field and the ceremonies began. And after that was all over . . . . Let the games begin! Each team was randomly paired with two other robots in an alliance. The whole goal of the game was to get more points than the other alliance. Whether it be through shooting Frisbees, defending, or climbing the pyramids.

Unfortunately our robot decided it didn’t like competing, though our drive team was excellent under pressure. We couldn’t have asked for anyone better.
While they were all driving or scouting, the rest of us got to cheer on our friends and our teammates. Not to mention go down to the pits and get more buttons. Most of the team members went wild with the help of Tess with face paint, hair spray and hair chalk. Bright red hair and camo faces helped to pick us out from a crowd. Not to mention our normal uniform.

Friday ended with an award ceremony. Larry got the Woodie Flowers award and Cianna was named a Dean's List finalist. I don't think I've ever cheered louder in my life! They definately both diserved it.

Saturday came with an even earlier awakening and off we went to repeat yesterday’s process. Waiting, talking, cheering, Angry Eric, and opening ceremony. We finished off the qualification rounds and began the eliminations rounds with the alliance picking. The top eight teams got to pick two others that they thought would help them the best. Though Rolling Thunder was not chosen, being a spectator was more fun that I had anticipated.

Cheering on our friend and teams, screaming support until we couldn’t talk or breathe. It was so much fun, and so tiring! Saturday ended and we got the Gracious Professionalism award! Running and high fiving the judges was awesome! Then, sadly, Saturday ended and we all had to go home. But we’ll be ready for Boston, you can count on that!

The team is still behind schedule due to a mid-day blizzard that caused us to miss a day (Said day was when I intended to write this update). The storm was dissapointing since the entire team was spending time getting seriously important stuff done up until that point.

The students and mentors are lavishing attention on the robot right now, and while we're not going as fast as we wanted to we should have the robot finished close to on time. The Drive Train and Bumpers are operational and the climber has been added on. Currently we just need to finish and attach the shooter, get motors on the climber, and wire the whole thing up. Then we will have a completed robot!

The control team has all of their needed parts and only needs to assemble and paint their namesake peripheral now.

Programming has finished everything that they can do without a completed robot.

When I went to ask, the students working on Chairman's said that they are making slow but steady progress. I did not bother to get extra details.

The team is, tragically, behind schedule, but we're catching up!

The people in G4 are numerous and hard at work at CAD designs.

The first pyramid has been finished by the field subteam. I can personally attest that it will support the weight of 3 robots on it!

People in the G3 shop have began to sculpt parts for the robot.

Marketing has finalized the design of the 2013 team shirt! Now we can wear team shirts at our competition! They also did buttons. Yay buttons.

 It's Friday and the first parts for the robot have arrived! We are painting and assembling more of the robot now.

First, another congratulations to the Drive Train subteam for finishing the first Drive Train!

In order to work at an accelerated pace, the CAD-related subteams have moved to G4. As such, I am no longer going to ask them about their progress because it's distracting. The Wiki should contain plenty of information on Mechanical's status. Good luck to Mechanical!

Electrical has finished sensor selection and qualified sources have assured me it was very fun.

Programming is working on the code for our new drive train right now.

The 2013 Game Test and 2013 Tools Test are now open! Everyone should start studying! The Tools Test is exactly the same as last year but if it isn't broken you don't fix it.

The control subteam is waiting on their parts to arrive but once they're here they should be able to assemble the controls very at lightning speed.

Marketing is working very hard on seriously important things, such as the business plan and our new team shirts design.


Working on the drive train of Arrbeetoo

Well, apparently this isn't a supplement, since there is no week 3 recap for this to be a supplement to.

We just want to take a moment to thank the families that provided food for us this week! This was the week for pulled pork and chicken, macaroni salad and chili! Our delicious dinners and lunches were provided by the Wolf (a dinner and a lunch), Dora, Rudy, Mlodzienski, Arguello / Taylor, Mohney, and Brown families.

Thanks to mentors Leann and Carol for bringing in breakfast items!

This was midterms week at school, students came as much as they could while studying for their tests. 

Team Hours recorded this week:

Student hours Week 3 - 509.5 hours, Total - 1722.  Ciana still has the most returning student hours and Tess still has the most hours as a first year student.

Mentor hours Week 3 - 425, Total - 1393.75.  Team Leader Larry has the most hours for the mentors.

Field building update: Pyramid building has been the obsession of a group of students and mentors this weekend.  We all learned that trigonometry is important, but it is still really really hard. Right now, pyramid 1 of 2 is sitting upside down in the gym getting the 30 / 60 / 90 inch bars set.  

Marketing Subteam has been busy working on jazzing up the business plan and working on the 2013 team logo. They've also started the button making process and the new students are in total disbelief that we will have to make that many buttons for competition.

The drive train is back from the welder and has been painted and assembled. Work has started on drive train 2. 

The controls group is planning on carrying the controls in a backpack contraption. They were waiting for the driveteam to be announced before making the final controls decisions so the students using the controls could give the input into what they wanted.

Parts for the climber are starting to be made in our shop and at Harris. Final sensors determination is being made. An assortment of pretty wheels has arrived to test for the shooter.

We held interviews for the Chairman's presenters and have selected the presenting team.  The students who volunteered to work on the essay are hoping that the "divide and conquer" method works for the various sections of the essay.

Other team activities - Team Leader Larry was sick on Tuesday and Wednesday and he missed it when Penfield's new Superintendent, Dr. Grimm, visited on Tuesday.  Dr. Grimm was given the grand tour and got to see the team in action during an integration meeting, programming, building, etc.  Team Leader Larry got better gave a mentor training session on Saturday.

Prototyping the controls carrier!

 

Continue reading "Week 3 Recap - a supplement "

As Week 3 of Build Season is coming to a close we would like to say some of the important things that have happend:

Shooter: He shoots, he scores!! The Shooter subteam is finalizing details for storage and shooter in CAD. They are also designing a lifting mechanism using a lead screw that will allow the shooter storage unit to be lowered to as low as 20 degrees for shooting and be raised to vertical again so that the robot is legal for climbing.

Climber: Let's climb this pyramid!! The Climber subteam is designing a release/restraining mechanism for long arms and short arms. They are also designing a black arm pivot and designing a cross member with a leg guide for red arms and black arms.

Drivetrain: We're getting ready to roll!!The Drivetrain subteam has finished fabricating all parts for the drive base and sent them out to be fabricated. They are also working on a second chassis for a back-up robot.

Controls: Let's make sure we can drive this robot!! The Control subteam is finalizing their design for the control board.

Marketing: Well we have to make sure people know who we are right?? The Marketing subteam is currently finalizing the business plan and summary. They are also in the progress of making Personal Recognition Awards after their acceptance to pass them out at the Finger Lakes Regional.

Continue reading "We're on our way to success!!"

Here are some important things that happened today during Week 3 of Build Season!!

1. Drivetrain is ready to be welded together
    The Drivetrain subteam finished making the parts that need to be welded together to make the drivetrain

2. Shooter
    The Shooter subteam has continued working on the designs for the shooting mechanism of the robot

3. Marketing
    The marketing subteam has begun finalizing the business plan

4. Webpage
    The webpage is currently being updated with new student pictures

5. Chairmans
    The Chairmans writers have begun writing the essay and preparing for interviews for the video


The frame just before it headed out to the welder.

Here are some interesting things that took place tonight during Week 3 of Build Season:

Shooter:  We need to shoot frisbees and this subteam is finding out the best way to do it. The Shooter Subteam is having an animated debate about the time space continuum. They are designing a 6 inch pnuematic shooter and are in progress of designing a frisbee guide mechansim for intake and shooter.

Climber: Let's go Ancient Egyptian and climb the pyramids! The Climber Subteam is fully focused on their computers as they are working on their designs and detailing their parts.

Controls:  The robot is only a hunk of metal if we cannot drive it. The Controls/Electrical Subteam is having a riveting debate about putting the final touches to the CAD design for the board. They are now prototyping and drawing out their final design.

Drivetrain: If you can't drive the robot what's the point of coming to compete? The Drivetrain Subteam is milling the final plate of the drivetrain.

Marketing: If nobody knows who you are, do you exist? The Marketing Subteam is keeping us alive by working on the Business Plan. We have completed our newsletter and sent out the requests for the Personal Recognition Awards at our regionals.

Designing the Shooter

We ate well again this week!  Thanks to the following! The Eberhardt, Griffin / Baldasty, Schuhmachers, Smith, Stoekl, Rozanov and Tryon families. The variety has been great along with making sure there are healthy choices.

Build Season Statistics, Week 2!

Student Hours Week 2 - 448.5, total 1212.5.  Ciana is still leading in Returning Student Hours, followed by Alex.  Tess is leading New Student hours followed by Chris.

Mentor Hours Week 2 - 379, total 968.75

Our newest robot fan!

Continue reading "Week 2 Recap - a supplement "

The basic chassis of the robot is just about complete. The shooter model is becoming more and more detailed. We will probably start to turn our imagined shooter into a reality very soon! We are also trying to find the most effective way to fit a Lead Screw onto our robot chassis. We have identified the necessary motors and gearing configuration for the climber and detail design is starting.

The team tested the new drive train programming in the shop.

We've begun meeting to work on the Chairman's essay and video and are currently in the outline and research stage.

Justin built a computer! Because team 1511 is so amazingly smart and talented, building a computer isn't particularly exciting to us. Thusly, I have nothing to say about it.

Computer built!  Time to load software.

Tonight's entry is a summary of the various sub-team's activities for the night!

The Stylin' Shooter Subteam
-Our shooter's disk storage system is being inserted into Autodesk
-The storage design is based on a single plate with dividing fences for the sake of simplicity

The Creative Climber Subteam
-Integrating design with the Drive Train and Shooter subteams

The Devastatingly Cool Drive Train Subteam
-A detailed frame for the Drive Train is in our autodesk files and being used by the other subteams.

The Masterful Mechanical Subteam
-Honing Skills for when the other teams finish the design stage
-First stages of manufacturing the drivetrain frame

The Perfect Programming Subteam
-Several tests with aiming and trajectories were performed
-Andy and other mentors are working on making the drivetrain drive correctly

The Fantastic Field Subteam
-All field elements except the Pyramids are completed

The L33t Leadership Subteam
-Planned exciting activities so as a "Ninja Day" where everyone would dress up in black

The Cool Control Subteam
-Control is still designing the controls
-Fine details such as the use of straps and hinges are being discussed

We just want to take a monent to thank the families that provided food for us this week!

Thanks to the Melnick's (no kid on the team and they still bring us food!), the Irwin family (two meals in one day!), the Murphy family, the Ehlelw family (kudos for being the emergency back-up!), the Barno family and the Kremer Family! And thanks to all the parents who brought food for the new favorite potluck dinner on Tuesday! Thanks to mentors Larry, Roseanne and Christian for bringing in breakfast items!

Team Hours recorded this week:

Students - 764 hours.  Ciana has the most returning student hours and Tess has the most hours as a first year student.

Mentors - 589.75

Field building update: We have goals and feeder stations finished for both ends.  The pipes for the pyramid have been purchased - twice. All of the Home Depots in the area think we are building a gas pipeline. The pipes for one of the pyramids will be cut and welded this week.

Another team activity - as if build season wasn't enough! We hosted a LabVIEW training session on Saturday. Tim Lynch  from National Instruments came from Texas and taught the session.  Six teams participated.

Our youngest member in his team gear! Build that field, Mom!