It’s been an exciting start to the year with lots of new recruits. We are so excited to give them a taste of what competition with our robot Chomp is like at the MRI on Saturday at Roseville High School! A huge thank you to the FireBears for putting it on!
We participated in the Lake Superior and 10,000 Lakes Regionals, and made it to semifinals in both! At Lake Superior, we had a few problems but learned a lot. We were alliance captains at 10,000 Lakes and worked with teams 3630 and 2450. Double elimination brackets were a new experience for us, but the strategy team was up for the challenge. Unfortunately, we lost in match 12 but ranked 4th!
We also won the Creativity Award, sponsored by Rockwell Automation, thanks to our washing machine, which allows our robot, Chomp, to rotate cones from any orientation so we can place them on the field. Credit goes to Bailey Beedle, the mastermind behind the mechanism, and Julian Burns who helped out every step of the way. Bailey is pictured to the right helping out as another team fixes their intake.
We took some time off but then came together to celebrate with an end-of-year picnic to reflect on our season, give out awards, and honor everyone that lettered in robotics this season. Lots of food and fun!
But the year’s not over yet, and robotics goes year-round. Just last week some of the team volunteered at Allianz Field to raise money for next season, and soon another group will go. Later this summer we have some fun outreach events planned, including a spot at the State Fair! More info to come on social media, so don’t forget to follow us @hprobotics2823 on Instagram!
This year has started out strong for Team 2823! We competed at Prior Lake’s Minne Mini, a regional competition to show our newbies the ropes, and what a real FIRST event looks like. It was our introduction to double-elimination matches, and we had a blast. Although we didn’t win, it was still an awesome experience and a day full of fun!
Our team volunteered at Chocoholic Frolic, a race with a 10k, 5k, and a KidsK. We helped set up, sign the runners in and give them their numbers, passed out water and medals, handed out snacks, cleaned up, and got some cool t-shirts too. The day was filled with lots and lots of chocolate, and we made some money to support the team!
CADurday (CAD day on Saturdays) aka the best day of the week, where we learn how to use CAD software. We always have donuts to keep the spirits high (plus get people lured in), and there is lots of frustration fun and learning too! If you don’t know, CAD stands for computer-aided design, and it can be used to create 2-dimensional sketches or 3-dimensional models. So of course, in order to have the awesome benefits of having models to demonstrate and improve our work, we need to learn how the heck to use the software, and it has a pretty big learning curve. Thanks to our amazing mentors it is very fun, and the learning makes it all worth it.
And finally, huge thanks to everyone that donated on Give to the Max day! Your donations go straight to the team and help keep the Automatons running. They get us the parts, snacks, and pay the fees we need to compete. Your support is truly appreciated. Thank you!
