FRC 2012 Game Rebound Rumble - The Year Minds Change

If you had a full night of sleep last night, you are not likely involved in the FIRST Robotics Competition. This year's build season is underway with Rebound Rumble and as always the game designers did a great job sparking innovation and coopertition. Check out the video below for a quick overview of the game:

Robotics has a cult like following with teams staying up late into the night for weeks on end to create the best robot while learning skills and gaining knowledge usually withheld until university and beyond. Students have just a few short weeks to create robots capable moving across a field and accurately launching basketballs into a hoop, a feat overwhelming even without time, money, and engineering constraints.

For over 20 years, robotics has made a positive and powerful impact on students and the engineering community, but the wrong lesson to take from this is that we should have robotics teams in every school and require engineering for everyone. Sure, I would love to see a team in every school so the opportunity is open to people who want it, but top down standardization would kill the spirit and fun. Robotics' appeal comes from its grassroots underground and playful nature.

I claim 2012 to be the year "minds change" because I believe the momentum has come to a head with all of the opportunities for students to learn and society's perception of their potential. Those who watched the kickoff event saw engineers, CEOs, celebrities, presidents and more come out to support the students. What the world is realizing is, students are capable of doing anything with the right resources and motivation. Educators are determined to give their students more than a lecture and a worksheet. Robots are a great example of this, but students are having an impact in every aspect of society.

Go to a robotics competition and be inspired and hooked. Mentor a robotics team or any program that fits your passions. There is nothing like an after school program to change a student's life.

To all of the teams out there competiting: good luck, have fun, and remember the learning is the prize!

To the mentors: may your coffee cups be full, your pizza be plentiful, and your joy abundant!

To everyone else, go find a team and check out the amazing work being done at schools all over the world!


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Cyberpatriot Student Competition Teaches IT Skills

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Learning occurs when there is motivation and resources, we prove this every time we get on YouTube. Students have so much competing for their cognitive surplus that many educators drive themselves nuts trying to compete with highly interactive video games, tv, or social networking. This is where the head fake comes in. While not coined by him, Randy Pausch brought this term into the education world when he referred to ALICE as a way for students to make stories and videos while learning Java Programming. While Robotics provides an excellent challenge for builders, programmers, etc, it is not frequent enough throughout the year so I sought out another way my students could get valuable computing skills.

Luckily, the Air Force Association brought it to my attention that they host a competition called CyberPatriot to encourage students to learn about IT, Networking, and Programming skills. This program began a couple of years ago when it was identified that our global community needs users who are aware of how to properly defend their computers and networks against cyber attacks such as viruses, phishing, and identity theft. Furthermore, there is a need for trained professionals to defend our larger infrastructure against cyberwarfare.

CyberPatriot involves groups of 5 or so students defending their computers against simulated attacks. These attacks occur within a virtual machine so they are harmless to the actual computer but students must defend themselves nonetheless and earn points for their team based upon how quickly and capably they do so. Check out the following promotional video for more info:

The registration cost is $350, but assuming you own a computer, that is all that you need to start a team and compete. All of the training resources and software is free and can be found at http://www.highschoolcdc.com/. While programming and engineering are too often neglected in our schools, IT, networking, and hacking have it all the more difficult. Students who learn these valuable skills are far too often labeled as criminals or thwarted by their schools IT department. But, this would be the perfect program to ask your school's IT manager to be a mentor. They would be given the recognition for all of the hard work they deserve, have eager students willing to learn, and be able to perhaps provide resources or practice scenarios. 

Mentors are hard to find for this program and the books explaining it clearly are even more scarce, which is why we need programs like this to flourish. When FIRST Robotics began 25 years ago, it struggled to gain a foothold in schools and gain the interest of companies. Cyberpatriot is just getting started and your students can be in it from the beginning. This is another opportunity for your students to have fun and learn skills that are highly applicable to the real world and translate into a career, please consider starting a Cyberpatriot team!

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Senior Project: Runaway Alarm Clock

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I never experienced Senior Projects in my high school (my wife did) but I wish I had. The opportunity to  receive professional feedback and receive credit for work you have always wanted to do is something I had to wait a long time to do. For a semester, I worked with 2 of my graduating robotics students as their mentor and although I am biased I think their projects are incredibly cool.

In this post, I share Amanda's Run Away Alarm Clock. When I sat through her presentation of her work, it was incredible to see how much she has grown since I met her as a Sophomore. She served as our robotics president for two years and our team will never be the same without her. With this project she took on electronics and programming, two aspects of engineering she had not focused on before.

She was creating no simple project, but what I love most about Amanda is how she has an endless supply of energy and will persevere through all obstacles. Randy Pausch's quote that, "brick walls are there to show us how much we want something," is personified in her. Her math teacher and she both agreed that she is much more capable at courageously approaching any problem she encounters and she continues to be interested in both Business and Engineering. I am so grateful to have women role models like Limor Fried to share with Amanda to inspire her. This project was made possible with Arduino, AdaFruit Industries, SparkFun, and the Arduino Cookbook for parts, resources, and inspiration. So without further ado, here is her project.

Run Away Clock

By Amanda Snyder

Can the new and improved Clocky help students wake up on time for school?

Given the number of students not coming to school on time, students clearly need a more effective way of waking up on time.  The purpose of this project is to improve the already existing Clocky to help students not only wake up on time, but to come to school awake and prepared.  The Run Away Clock will be able to tell time, run away from the user when an alarm goes off, and flash lights as it runs away from the user.  I created a program to implement all these features using an Arduino Uno and an accelerometer.  The accelerometer will cause The Run Away Clock to hit an object and, using a sensor, back up from the object it hits and start running away again.  After completing the clock, I gave three students The Run Away Clock and had them complete a feedback form so I could refine the product.  I have also created a pamphlet for students interested in creating their own Run Away Clock.   

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Autodesk123D Brings Free CAD to Everyone

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As as an educator, I am strongly in favor of free software. Classrooms have a difficult enough time without having to pay for expensive technology. While I personally favor Open Source, I have long been puzzled at why more companies do not provide free education software. It is in their best interests to ensure a continuous cycle of users and how could a company guarantee that better than by providing them an opportunity to learn their software at a young age.

Autodesk, has taken steps to support the maker and STEM community by releasing Autodesk123D for free to the public. Autodesk is famous for its CAD (Computer Aided Design) software which allows for fast and high quality designs of most major products on the market. Many who could have learned this software were unable to because they were unable to afford the high cost for a software licence. Free alternatives exist but they have either a steep learning curve, or were not powerful enough to do effective designing.

Note: Students who are members of the FIRST Robotics Competition have access to free student versions of all Autodesk Software. As if you needed another reason to start a robotics team.

Autodesk 123D's website provides you with the option to download the software (Windows Beta currently), as well as search and find already created models. This can expedite the process when you only need to modify a design as opposed to creating it from scratch. You will also find resources for printing out your model when it is done. Yes, that's right, the 3D Revolution is here and the cost of printing a prototype for fun or marketing has dropped dramatically.

Once you have downloaded the software, you will find introductory videos to get you started. Clicking on Learn More brings up the Support Website which has great videos to take you through the steps to make your first design and beyond. Considering how much Autodesk training usually costs I am happily surprised at their realization of how much this will benefit them in the long run by creating a larger base of users.

Autodesk123D has the feel of Autodesk Inventor with enough features to create a design. It is similar to Google Sketchup in many ways while being oriented towards CAD more than architecture.

Users will be able to get practice working with the workflow and part hierarchy which is critical to good CAD design. This allows the designer to see how parts are connected and see the settings and features of each part and sketch.


The design buttons are similar to Google Sketchup so if you have any experience with that software you should be able to pick up the process faster. It starts with a sketch which is then extruded (pushed/pulled) to the size you want. Like Autodesk and Sketchup you can specify the exact measurements. The other buttons allow for the insertion of Primatives or basic shapes, duplication and reflections, and assembly. The familar view block and zoom/pan tools are there as well.

My other favorite part of this program is the wise decision by Autodesk to not cut off its effectiveness by cutting it off from the rest of the community. Autodesk123D allows for saving and opening in its own special extension but will also work with STEP, Autodesk 2007, DWG, and STEP files. This allows users to access the FIRST and VEX CAD libraries of premade parts. One can also open Google Sketchup files showing they are willing to play nice with others.

This is a great piece of software but also a great decision by a company who is and will likely remain an industry standard for a long time based on decisions like this. This product is capable of inspiring and empowering design and creation and I hope more companies decide to provide free and useful versions of their software for training but also for those businesses and organizations that cannot justify an expensive software licence. There are so many tools out there that make this an exciting time to be apart of STEM. The more people who have access to these creative softwares, the better for us all.

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Women Want to Change The World: STEM Can Make That Possible

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I had a great conversation with Shyno from WGBH Boston (makers of Design Squad and Fetch) about their organization's passion for increasing the involvement of women in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics). This is a personal goal for me, as I love to see the perspective and creativity that women bring to the field. She asked if I could share two links with you: Dot Diva and Engineer Your Life. Both sites are devoted to breaking down stereotypes and showing women what is possible in a STEM career.

Social pressures that we are all aware of in our culture tend to make STEM something uncool  (HA!) and the peer pressure drives women away from that. Not to mention the one sided portrayal of STEM as the lonely, male dominated, nerdy field of study. WGBH has researched what women want out of a career and overwhelmingly they want to make a difference and be a part of a bigger story. They want to create with their hands and ask why do we do what we do? So their sites and outreach events are intended to give a much needed makeover to STEM's image and show women everywhere the possibilities. The video below comes from the Dot Diva site and is intended to do just that. (By the way, I held a women-only premier for my students of the webisode and they loved it! They were so sad that there was no other episode, yet).

Wired Magazine did a great cover story about Limor Fried (aka Ladyada) and Make Magazine made an excellent observation about the negative role models women see everyday. We need more positive examples and opportunities for women to look up to.

This powerpoint came from the Dot Diva Resources Page

Some of WGBH's effective outreach has involved: role models, STEM + Art, using computers for storytelling, and generally being able to be creative and express their ideas. Keep in mind this is good for guys as well! The links throughout this post are great for sharing and using with your students. I did for mine and the women loved the videos and resources.

If you need ideas on getting started with programming, robotics, Arduino, Alice, and more, you can check out the BrokenAirplane programming resources page, Dot Diva, and Engineer Your Life. Discuss your successes or struggles in the comments and lets encourage women to join STEM fields, the World will be better for it!

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Learning Opportunities Come From Passion - A Student's Perspective

Victor was in my Freshman Math/Physics class. I was much more traditional then than I am now and although he did well in my class he was extremely bored. This plus other factors led me to deeply question my classroom and curriculum practices. Although he is a Junior now, his accomplishments dwarf that of many adults. He has embraced what Patrick and I talk about in terms of learning potential and is an amazing example of what is possible. He leaves for his Junior Internship tomorrow and I asked him before he left to share his thoughts with us:

Hello, I am Victor and I am a Junior. I am part of the school’s robotics team led by Phil which many of you probably know as the writer of this blog, you probably also know Patrick Yurick as a contributor to the Broken Airplane, but to me he is my mentor/publisher for the Graphic Novel Project. The things you learn through these courses are things that some people have to wait until their Senior year in college to learn. 


I have done a crazy variety of things ranging from creating a virtual world, to taking part in the San Diego Comic-Con as a professional. Both of these courses are amazing in their own ways, sometimes even in the same ways, but being part of both of them allows you to be able to pull information from separate sides of a spectrum and everything in between.


In robotics I have been able to learn many different skills including programming, building and designing. My first year I worked on the VEX robot as a builder/programmer, I was able to understand several different concepts important to programmers, for example, troubleshooting and universal commands like: if, else, while. 


In my second year, me and another student, Anthony created a virtual park in which I was introduced to the open-source animation/game engine Blender and scripting software, Python. Together we stayed countless hours after school to finish the program which we were able to take all the way up to Washington D.C. to present at the first National Science fair. We were able to stand next to professionals proudly presenting our project as Sophomores. This year I am back on building and we are taking a much more professional approach to the construction of the robot. I created three different robot designs and am currently working on a proof of concept. Robotics has made me realize that I really enjoy creating games and it is at the top of my “Majors I am considering” list.


I have also had a fair amount of success in the Graphic Novel Project. I have learned and mastered most of the Adobe Creative Suite CS3 because it is what we mostly use to ink/color our comics. I have become extremely proficient in Photoshop up to the point which I know what EVERY button does. Last year everyone in the project had to create their own comic. I discovered that I actually enjoy drawing and I might actually want to draw as a hobby or maybe a profession later on in life, something that had never crossed my mind, I have already had my first “Professional” job designing a t-shirt for Eco-Vivarium. I would have never been able to accept the job without the knowledge that the Graphic Novel Project has given me.


Being part of these two amazing groups has allowed me to absorb many valuable skills and given me many once in a lifetime chances some people would kill to obtain. The best part about these things is that the following years people will get a chance to live through the same experiences I have gone through. We already have a spot in the 2012 annual Science Fair and San-Diego Comic Con. Hopefully people will be able to pull as much information as I have.


Victor is a wonderful person and brilliant in his own right, but he would be the first to say  that everyone is capable of doing these amazing things if given the opportunity. Robotics and the Graphic Novel Project were born out of Patrick and my passion for these things. What are you passionate about and how can you provide incredible learning opportunities for your students? The world will be changed by those who are passionate and share that passion with others!

The World Was Inspired at The FIRST World Championship in St Louis

What an amazing end to this year's FIRST Robotics Competition! Teams of Students receive the game at Kickoff and then have 6 weeks to design, build, and program a robot from scratch. Then the robots are shipped to the regional competitions to play against other teams to win the most points and demonstrate how they have inspired other students to pursue STEM careers. Those who exceed expectations are awarded the opportunity to go to the FRC World Championship in St. Louis, Missouri.

This year's FIRST World Championship, was an exceptional year. In the 20th year of FIRST, the surge in the number of teams being started and schools seeing the transformative power of this program is incredible by all standards. There were students in all grades: K-3 in Junior FIRST Lego League, Middle Schoolers in FLL, and finally the High School students participating in FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition.

Each of these competitions have their own games and their own unique culture, and being able to be at World Championship and walk through each of them really fills you with awe to see so many students excited to learn and help each other.

FIRST Starts a College Division
For years, students have learned CAD, JAVA programming, machine shop practices, business and marketing skills and then it ended when they graduated high school. Of course some colleges had their own programs but now FIRST can be open to every college student. Not only this, but FIRST is perfect for the culture and spirit of University Sports where the entire school turns out to support their athletes. Now everyone can participate and/or support the learning that is going to change the world.

What is this new college program? It's called CARD or Collegiate Aerial Robotics Demonstration. That's right these robots are flying!

The game is called All Your Base (hooray Geeks!) and is played essentially like a game of Tic-Tac-Toe. Students were allowed to choose their microcontroller and most of them picked...Arduino of course! For its cost, relative ease, and large amount of community support, it was perfectly fitting for the FIRST principle of Coopertition and support.

With 352 teams for the FRC program, there is no doubt of how quickly this is catching on around the world. I get skeptical looks when I tell my students and others about how exciting these events can be, but with thousands watching live and online, there is no doubt of the excitement and feasibility of this catching on mainstream.

Friday evening, we were treated to a special performance by Will.i.am and the Black Eyed Peas. Will.i.am's appointment as "Director of Creative Innovation" at Intel has allowed him to proclaim a synergy of technology and artists. At this year's FIRST Kickoff he stood there next to Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers to get us pumped up for this season. Friday's performance was recorded to air on August 14th at 7pm on ABC as a showcase of FIRST and the Black Eyed Peas. 

Kamen, shared a conversation between himself and Will.i.am before Kickoff where he asked if he was going to help make FIRST cool. Will.i.am replied, "I can't make it cool, it already is. I want to make it loud!" With releases like The New Cool and ever increasing opportunities for students to participate, the culture is shifting and we will see a shift towards celebrating STEM as we do with music and sports.

A fact shared with us Saturday night, if FIRST grows as much in the second 20 years as it did in the first, we will have over 150,000 teams by 2031. Will you be one of those teams? 

I hope to see you and your team next year at a FIRST or VEX regional. Feel free to leave your World Championship experience in the comments, or describe how robotics has impacted your community/life.

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The New VEX Robotics Game Gateway is Out for 2011-2012

If you are on a VEX robotics team then I am sure you already know about the 2011-2012 new VEX Robotics game, Gateway. This year's game has a few really cool elements that should make the game as fun to watch as it is to play.

• Autonomous, the first 20 seconds of the match where the robot operates without a human driver, is determined not by who scores the most but by who scores first.
• There is one barrel that will double an entire goal's value and another that will negate it. This will make for some very exciting final seconds of play as everything can change in a heartbeat.
• The game takes its name from two gates which divide the field into 3 parts. Teams decide when they wish to raise the gate to open the field.

You can find out the full details by checking out the video below and/or the main site with manuals and descriptions. Oh and by the way, World Championship is in Anaheim, CA this year so we will definitely see you there!

Of course, I don't post this for teams, they already know about this and are hard at work getting their robots ready.

I post this for the vast network of people who can support these students in their quest to learn STEM. It is clear that if we are going to solve the issues our planet and species face, it is going to come from young minds thinking in incredibly creative ways. Robotics is simply the best way to get students interested and learning for the real-world. 

Parents, community members, corporations and businesses, potential mentors, and government leaders, this is your opportunity to step up and support these students and this program. Donate your time, talent, and treasure in whatever way you are able. Don't worry if you do not know much about building a robot, the students have enormous support at their disposal to help them succeed, they just need someone to help them make it a reality and deal with the details and logistics.

If you want to start or support a robotics team and you need help or ideas on how to get started, contact me on Twitter or by email and I promise to help in anyway I can. It is easier than you think. Please consider donating to Chaos Vortex and/or the team in your area. Everything helps and it will make a long reaching impact.

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Please Support The "Arduino in Education" KickStarter Project

Support the Arduino in Education Kickstarter Project! Why should you?

Kickstarter is one of my favorite websites because it allows everyone to have a chance to have their dreams and projects realized. It is just one more of the crowdsourcing benefits of the World Wide Web.

I have talked at great length about our need to ensure that our students experience real world learning and in math/science I believe there is no greater skill than programming. Every single job is and will be influenced directly or indirectly by programming because of the enormous amount of data we collect, and those who have the most control over their data will be able to innovate and create far more than others.

Now, most will balk at the idea of programming with high school students. Especially since many of you were exposed to it in a very boring way. Thankfully there are much more interactive and enjoyable ways of learning programming and using programming. My favorites currently are Python and Arduino. Both are free to download and use. Arduino microcontrollers cost around $30 plus any electronic components you wish to use (sensors, LEDs, motors, etc). But this is far less expensive than the commerical products out there.

What I hear most often when I tell someone about a new technology they say, it will take too long or I will get to it later. This is why I create tutorials that break it down really simply so you can get started in less than an hour and see why this is so cool and perfect for your classroom. I was going to create an Arduino curriculum where students could learn an incredible amount of science while being able to program their sensors and directly interact with their data. The adage, teach a person to fish and they eat for a lifetime comes to mind.

As I was doing my initial research to create this curriculum, I came across Quarkstream and Steve Dickie's Electronics Page, both of these men, like me see the potential in Arduino and how it can reduce the cost of doing high quality physics in the classroom. Steve, has a Kickstarter project where he would like to refine and open source all of his materials to the physics community so we can all benefit from his 11 years of teaching electronics. I'll let him tell you about it:

If everyone who came to this blog each week gave the minimum $3, this project would be more than funded. Please do your part to help the open source community and your students get a quality 21st century skill that is really fun and applicable to their lives (artists, doctors, scientists, musicians, have all used the Arduino in their work). Even if you don't teach STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) perhaps you will see the benefit in doing so and give up a cup of coffee or pizza for a day to donate to this cause. We will do it for you when you create your Kickstarter project!

Support the Arduino in Education Kickstarter Project!

Dependable Ride, The iPhone and Android App That Could Save Lives

There are some pretty sobering statistics about drunk driving that anger and frustrate me at the same time. Unlike cancer or war these deaths are preventable or accidental and always traumatizing for all involved. While efforts are made to educate people on the risks and costs, people still make foolish decisions.

Some will designate a driver or set up a ride home only to have it fall through. This is an even bigger problem with high school students who will try to drive home because they don't want to face the legal or parental repercussions if they are discovered intoxicated.

This could also be helpful if you suddenly find yourself lost or in danger. There is no reason why a child or someone alone should have to increase the risk of their life by calling numbers one-by-one hoping for rescue.

Some of my former students were tired of seeing this happen at their school with their friends and peers and decided to take matters into their own hands. They created Dependable Ride, an iPhone and Android app that will alert those on your phone's contact list that you need a ride home. This increases the possibility of finding a safe ride home.

How you can help

These students have come up with an amazing solution that could take drunk drivers off the road and find safety for those in need. They have used their programming, research, and marketing skills to make the world a better place. But the app has not been made yet, and you can help make that happen.

Team R Squared has submitted their idea and proposal to the Conrad Foundation's Spirit of Innovation Contest in hopes of getting their idea funded and supported. The team has already been selected as a finalist and with your vote, you can make it official.

Click on the link to Vote for Dependable Ride (Team R Squared) and Like their Facebook page. These are the two ways to increase the likelihood of their app being selected for funding.

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The New Cool: Follow The Adventure and Excitement!

As we prepare for the FRC World Championship in St. Louis, Missouri; we can't help but reflect about the amazing experience we had at the San Diego Regional. Much of my team had only known about robotics through my experiences with my previous team MorTorq and the excellent PBS documentary Gearing Up. When we went to compete, there was an overwhelming aura of excitement and awe for the students. The teams they had heard and read about were finally here! Dean Kamen's vision that Engineers would be the role models and superstars was coming true for my students.

I have never come across someone who sees a robotics competition and walks away unexcited. When I tell people about my students, their first impression is to jeer at the "nerds" and I smile because they have no idea that the tables have turned. You see, sports and entertainment will always have a place in our society but there is a new source of excitement and inspiration and that is Robotics. Neal Bascomb in his book, The New Cool, gives those who are yet unaware a peek inside this world.

The book revolves around FRC Team 1717 the D'Penguineers. Led by their passionate mentor Amir Abo-Shaeer, the story follows the team through their 6 week build process for the FRC game Lunacy (see the game animation below)

The book gives an uncanny immersion into the world of FRC and allows you to feel every emotion that is experienced by the team. As Amir said at the San Diego regional, this book could have been written about any team because there is this common exhaustion and yet joy that comes from seeing students design, build, program, and compete with a robot from the ground up.

Just as modern marketers were wise to target the baby boomers and their kids with consumer ads, FIRST literally stands For Inspriation and Recognition of Science and Technology and the organization works toward that goal with a passion. This generation is empowered to create as no other generation has ever been with technology and resources being readily available and the results of what they build and learn is the coolest thing ever.

I was forever changed when I started working with Eileen and her amazing team 1515, what is astounding is that up until last year there were still some who did not know that the school had a robotics team. If you are a teacher, you have the best job of all as you can start a team where there was not one before. There are competitions of all kinds to fit all situations and if you need help post a comment and we will point you in the right direction.

If you are a student, hurry up and find/start a team. My team was founded by students and you might be the one that has the vision to get one going at your school. I promise you there are other students just like you who would love to be a part of this and you will learn, do, and connect in a way you never thought possible.

Adults who are outside of education, lend your talents and gifts to this generation. They need it now more than ever before. Whatever you are knowledgeable or passionate about, a robotics team can use you. Marketing, engineering, programming, team support, there is no one who is unable to help a team get started and flourish. If you have the means to financially support a team please find your local mentor and do so (and if you are in the Southern California area check out Chaos Vortex)!

As team 1717's mentor Amir has said, "this is what education should be," and he is absolutely right. Check out The New Cool because this is what everyone is talking about.

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Chaos Vortex Experience at the FRC San Diego Regional Part 2

Wow, is all I can say, and I am not referring to the exhaustion or excitement of FRC. I am referring to the amazing things that my robotics students, Chaos Vortex/Team 3477 achieved this weekend. After a very long inspection process, my students did not get the driver practice they were hoping for. However, it was excellent for them to see how important attention to detail really is.

The following day (Friday) had one surprise after another. With its mechanism not fully functional and untested, the drive team decided to focus on blocking. This was a strategy that worked really well for us as a VEX team last year and many teams fail to see the importance of this. FRC has three teams on each alliance and if you can get one robot to score well for your side while one or two of the other robots block and prevent scoring for the other side, you can really control the game.

This was proven by the fact that our team was ranked in the top 10 for the entire competition out of 60. Our rookie team was blown away to find out that they were even in 1st place for an hour or so.

San Diego Regional is a high visibility event bringing incredible veteran teams like Spyder, Cheesy Poofs, and even our sister school's team the Holy Cows. We had a great time learning and seeing what other teams were doing both with their robots but also to spread the message of FIRST and STEM.

Friday afternoon, Jim Beck the Western Regional Coordinator for FIRST came to our booth. He said, "I keep hearing from the judges and the other teams about this rookie team Chaos Vortex, so I came to see it for myself." Our robotics President and our head of Finance spoke to him for a good amount of time. Soon after he came back with a camera crew from Time Warner Cable/Connect a Million Minds and said that the team was going to be recorded for a piece about FIRST Robotics!

Now everyone on our team was smiling ear to ear, and whats more we got our mechanism working so we were capable of scoring points. Other teams were coming to our booth asking to be on our alliance which was a new experience for us as we are not used to being asked, we are usually doing the asking. We were able to secure Team 1717 Dos Pueblos Engineering and Team 2102 Paradox onto our alliance making us a very formidable opponent. We made it all the way to the Semi-Finals which was exciting and I loved seeing our team go head to head with Team 254 Cheesy Poofs, a team that we respect greatly.

As the awards were being handed out, our small 15 person FRC team was proud of all they accomplished, but just when we thought that our day was done, we received the Rookie All Star award and the Highest Seed Rookie Award. We heard the stadium erupt with applause and recognition because each team had seen and commented on the gracious professionalism and coopertition that Chaos Vortex had at the competition. So now we are preparing for World Championship in St Louis in a little more than a month. There is so much to do but we are so grateful to be honored for the hard work put in this year.

Thank you to the teams, judges, and admin who made this regional one to always remember. My students have been transformed and are so passionate/motivated about STEM and their futures as only FIRST and robotics can. If you have any questions about starting an FIRST or VEX team please let me know.

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FRC San Diego Regional Rookie Team Experience Part 1

To quote my sophomore programmer, "Today was an educational experience." I couldn't have put it better myself.

The excitement grew as all of the teams entered the Valley View Casino Arena (formerly the San Diego Sports Arena) and as we opened our robot crate, it was like seeing an old friend. Having spent over 100 hours working on it, it was so wonderful to find out that our robot had safely made it. Other teams weren't as lucky.

We tightened up all of the screws and added the winch that we had designed to compensate for the extra torque when the robot is coming back up. It worked beautifully! Now all that was needed was to pass inspection, we would be driving in an hour or so, or so we thought.

We go up to the inspection booth only to find out that our weight was 4 pounds over. Now for one who is not familiar with FRC, 4 pounds may not sound like much but when everything you put on the robot was essential at one time, making the decision what to drill holes in or take off is aggravating. We had already decided to not deploy the minibot simply because we felt it was more important to replace it with the winch. While this may not have been the best game playing strategy, I made that call because it was more important to me that this team had a working big robot.

In the mean time, our team received safety pins, which are the judges way of saying good job. We found some of our old friends like team Spyder, the Holy Cows, and Hilltop's EPIC. They helped us out tremendously, and in turn we were able to help out other teams by lending tools, parts, and knowledge. That is what Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers refer to when they speak of Coopertition and Gracious Professionalism and some of my students for which this was their first robotics event kept commenting on how nice and awesome everyone was.

The team became a little stressed as the hours ticked by and they had an issue with their cRio's (robot brain) firmware, and bumpers but they kept each other calm and ended up passing every part of inspection with the exception of the bumpers (which were fixed by a student after another long night of working last night). The team kept getting complements on their marketing materials, people were excited to come take pictures of our robot and see it shoot out tubes, but we ran out of buttons way too fast and so we will be making them throughout the day.

Even though the official build season was over, our team learned a lot. Our programmer learned how to download the code much faster, saving us hours of time collectively, our team became experts in drilling holes, and while it sounds cliche the team became even closer than they already were. They keep talking about how they are always going to keep in touch and having fun. Keep in mind these are students from all grade levels and different social circles. That is one of my favorite things about robotics is how it brings people together to have fun and make something awesome!

I will post updates about the team during the Week in Review and you can follow us on @ChaosVortex. Onto day 2 of 3! I hope the team as an equally awesome day (perhaps a little less stressful)!

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FRC Ship Day! San Diego Regional Here We Come

Well it was a long weekend for everyone but we are finished and I am happy to present to you Team 3477 Chaos Vortex's Rookie Robot General Disarray!

The name of the robot has a dual meaning. First with the name Chaos Vortex we have decided to make our mascot Professor Chaos from South Park and his sidekick is named General Disarray. The second reason is to honor the man who made our robotics team possible, Ray Trinidad. He is our school's dean of students and found the funding for it to start. He is also a huge perpetrator of puns and so we thought that the play on words would further honor him.

Unlike many other robots we have seen, we decided to go with a robot that picked up the tubes from the inside as opposed to a claw from the outside. We also have a camera that provides a first person view of the field. We hope this will provide a better view of the field since the tubes will obscure the driver's vision.

It being our rookie year we decided to go for the low goals but the medium goals are a possibility. We are going to work on the height and tension of the bands when we actually get onto a field on March 10th.

We wanted to make sure that we built a great robot but however it does at competition, the students learned so much. They can honestly say that they have built a robot from scratch. One of my sophomores learned LabView programming which will benefit him next year but also with potential future employers who use it (e.g. Disney, LAPD Bomb Squad, Qualcomm, and many other prominent engineering firms). Others are learning Autodesk CAD, welding, soldering, and various power tools. I wouldn't trade that for any award in the world.

In other exciting robot news, we learned that our team is now sponsored by General Dynamics! I could not be more grateful to one of our mentors Nate, for helping us secure this support as well as being here throughout the season. We could not have done this without him. The support from our other mentor Mike was also much appreciated for his machine shop and expertise.

If you are in the South County in San Diego you might have caught that our team was featured on the front page of the Union Tribune (another picture). Such a wonderful memento for my students to honor their hard work. Our team is working very hard to make sure that robotics becomes equally popular to sports and it was nice to have that recognized.

While the late nights have stopped, the work continues with preparing the marketing materials, programming, working on the minibot and the other 30lbs of parts we were allowed to withhold. Just a couple of quick weeks until the competition and we can see how General Disarray and Chaos Vortex does!

If you would like to follow our robotics team check out the Chaos Vortex Facebook page and @ChaosVortex on Twitter.

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FRC Team Chaos Vortex Week 6 Update

This is it! Zero week is here. The designs are set, the robots are driving, hopes are high, and sleep is low. In this final week the FRC gremlins come out and things start going wrong. We had planned to be finished a week and a half ago but parts and designs don't always turn out like you want them to.

Next year we will use Autodesk CAD to make a more detailed drawing. However, with such a new team and no engineering class previously, the learning curve for the students was too steep. I love refinement and the fact that we have an entire year to get better just makes me smile from ear to ear.

We, like all of the other teams are going to work through the weekend. It will be a lot of work but this season has brought these students closer together than ever. Long days are no fun in the moment but make great memories and FRC tends to make lifelong friendships out of teammates.

Our team received a mysterious donation from Otay Land, we did not ask them directly but we are grateful that they have made a commitment to supporting these students.

I feel like I am rambling so I'll stop, and while there is a lot to say and be proud of (working mechanism, minibot, and drivetrain) there is still much to do.

The robot ships on Monday! I look forward to showing you what we can do.

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FRC Team Chaos Vortex Week 5 Update

Yikes, time flies during FRC. It seems like Kickoff was just yesterday but then again with the long hours it seems like it has been forever. In reference to last week's FRC update, I said I would hopefully have a big proud grin on my face, well consider the below video my proud grin.

Yes it is official, Chaos Vortex's robot is able to move (and really quickly too). It is a bit scary to see something this heavy with the potential to move really fast. Our mechanism works exactly as designed but you will have to come to our regional on March 10-12 at the San Diego Sports Arena to see it in action.

The final week begins and with it comes the building of the giant crate to ship it as well as some long days but our small rookie team is amazing and will rise to the challenge. I am extremely grateful that FRC has the foresight to make ship date after the long President's Day weekend. We will be enjoying that time to get everything all polished up so we can be ready to ship.

To see the robot moving across the floor brings huge smiles to the team and gives them their second wind. Unfortunately it also reveals some of the things that need adjustment but we should be on track. My heart goes out to all of the teams that have asked for an extension to the FRC season because of the weather. WE have had some packages from AndyMark delayed because of it and I can't imagine the difficulty of trying to build. I wish all of the teams luck and energy for the last haul. You are doing amazing, keep it up!

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FRC Team Chaos Vortex Week 4 Update

Great week! It is great to be an FRC team mentor when you see satisfaction and productivity abounding.

The STEM Alliance which is currently a group of South Bay FRC/VEX/FLL teams who are committed to spreading robotics to areas in need and supporting each other with our combined resources. We meet each week to share ideas and help one another out. This week at Hilltop High School we were so grateful that they were able to help our programmer out. Our guy has done amazing so far on his own but with their help he was really able to take off and now our compressor is working!

Derrick is the mentor for the Hilltop Team, 2193, and I have to give a huge shout out to him because since the beginning of our team three years ago he has been so supportive and always willing to share time and resources to help out. We would not be the team we are without him and his team and I am extremely grateful. Speaking of mentors, I am equally grateful for the help and extra pair of eyes that our two mechanically inclined mentor have brought. I know what I know but the wisdom and know-how that they have been able to impart to the students has been so wonderful to watch.

We picked up another 2 sponsors this week, Southwestern Community College and Qualcolmm. The amount of resources and support that supports our team is beyond words and we are so grateful. I have a few students who do incredible work with the business and finance but with our team size, I am spending most of the build season making phone calls with suppliers and getting orders straightened out. My hats off to Eileen and all other mentors who have been doing this for a while because it is exhausting to do the behind the scenes just to ensure that the students have what they need.

This week is our "crunch week" we WILL finish our robot so we can have at least a couple of weeks of practice and refinement because I would rather have a fully functional, beautiful robot than an untested one. I had some time to start speaking with our president about what she wanted to do for our booth and WOW it is going to be amazing. I cannot wait to see what everyone else has come up with this season and I am excited to see the robot come together and finish the final assembly. My hope is that by the next update I will have a big proud grin (either that or I might be too tired to post).

The rush towards ship date looms ahead. Good luck everyone!

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FRC Team Chaos Vortex Week 3 Update

I breathed a huge sigh of relief on Tuesday when our programmer got the wheels to turn via the joystick. Pretty pleased with him considering it is our rookie year and he is only a Sophomore. He is working with Labview and seems to be picking it up quickly. There is also some headway with the image processing and getting the Camera to be able to understand and track what it sees. I am crossing my fingers on that one but would be elated to see him figure it out.

Another sigh of relief came when McMaster Carr delivered our back-ordered part on Thursday. We had been waiting for a week only to find out that the part was much heavier than we expected (there was no mention of weight nor density on the site) so we are on to Plan B which involves only some minor adjustments. Ah the fun of FRC.

The students were treated to a tour of SPAWAR on Tuesday and were amazed at all of the things they were doing with robots. They also remarked how much they recognized from working with FRC! Thanks Dean Kamen for providing these students with an amazing real world opportunity. One of my students says she is reconsidering where she goes to college simply so she can apply for an internship at SPAWAR.

Southwestern College is lending their support to our team and we are grateful to them, a couple of more companies said they would get back to us soon and then we can make our t-shirt and banner. We gained a couple more students from opposite ends of the spectrum: A senior who just this semester realized how much he likes programming (thanks for inspiring him Allison of Infinigons), and a young student who participated in our summer academy for incoming high schoolers are taking over the MiniBot design and it looks pretty exciting.

This is definitely the middle of the build season as things are moving along and the ship date is approaching fast. I have imposed a deadline on them of February 7th (when it actually ships on the 22nd) so we have time to work out the kinks and practice. I made sure this happens by planning two exhibitions, one for an elementary school and the other for our own Parent Association. I would rather have an amazing driver and a well tested (but perhaps simpler) robot than a unpracticed driver on a robot with everything untested.

FRC is definitely turning out to be as exciting and fulfilling as I remembered it to be. I look forward to seeing the students wrap everything together and being able to call this thing a robot!

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FRC Team Chaos Vortex Week 2 Update

We are near the end of the second week of FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) and already we are feeling every emotion possible. Yet overall there is a ton of energy and excitement in the class. I am really proud of my Rookie Team - 3477 Chaos Vortex as they have worked together and earlier this week finished refining their design.

I am sure they wanted to start building right away, but the more time you take to plan, the less time you spend fixing it to make it work. So I really got on them about how parts would fit together and detailed measurements. The parts list grew more and more and as I placed our first order of $2000 I felt confident that they were well on their way to success.

Being a small team, we have most of our team focusing on building, with only two figuring out  the programing code and electrical components. They have done an incredible job and I am grateful to Allison of Infinigons and her boyfriend for being there to support them. This was Allison's first major encounter with Robotics and her programming background has been solely with software. So when they figured out how to make the motor turn via the Labview Software, her eyes lit of with amazement. I love Robotics because it provides opportunities for students of all ages to experience something wonderful like that.

Later this week we had Richard from the National City Plaza Bonita JC Penny come to bring pizza and meet the team. In addition to receiving the NASA Grant, they are our primary sponsors. We are so grateful to them, without their support we would not have a team this year. Richard is really interested in our team and school and has a strong passion for community service which he strives to instill in his store employees. He asked a lot of great questions and was amazed at how the students work together. He was most impressed with how he and I could talk for two hours, and yet the team did not need me to know what to do.

This doesn't mean that I am unnecessary to the team, I give feedback and guidance where I can but I do not design or build the robot. Robotics allows students to see the power and potential of what they are capable of and the less I do, the better. They do a marvelous job of managing themselves. Case in point, we had moved forward with a C-Shaped drivetrain because we felt it would be the easiest way to pick up the tubes (watch the game animation) but later that night, the students discovered that this was not allowed by the rules. Rather than freaking out and getting angry or giving up, they talked it out and within 10 minutes or so, were ready to proceed full steam ahead. 

I would encourage all teams to take a second look at the Robot section of the rule book because there are a lot of things that have changed over the last couple of years. We read the manual very diligently and still managed to miss it. Thank goodness for the Chief Delphi Support Forum!

There was Richard, myself and a team mentor in the room when this incident happened and we were all so impressed and proud of the team and how they listened to each other and worked it out with Gracious Professionalism. I am sure it had helped that this team has spent 3 years as a VEX robotics team developing strong bonds and respect for each other.

I cannot wait to see what is in store this week. The robot is starting to come together along with the code and mechanisms. Our FTC Minibot kit came yesterday (thanks to FIRST Choice for providing that to us) and while I am still tired, I am loving every single minute.

How is your team doing? Are you following this blog and wondering how to start your own robotics team? Let us know what we can do to help.

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New Robotics 2011 Game Logomotion Released!

Do I seem more tired than usual? If so it is because the FIRST Robotics Competition had its Kickoff this Saturday and we have worked all weekend. If you are a subscriber or longtime follower of BrokenAirplane then you know how passionate I am about the power of Robotics to change a students life. In my opinion, robotics teams are the purest form of learning and allow students to unleash their creativity and potential while learning valuable STEM skills (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

Each year the game changes, and each one is always so unique and well designed that even after doing this for years, I still get as excited as my students to start designing (perhaps more so). This year's game is Logomotion and it celebrates the 20th year anniversary of FIRST Robotics. Watch the 3 minute video to find out what it is all about.

Pretty amazing huh? What is even more amazing is that thousands of teams are working right now to create their own unique designs. Completely led and run by students with feedback from mentors, just wait and see the incredible stuff students come up with.

Our team went to the San Diego Kickoff and had a blast. It is their Rookie FRC year and I am excited to share it with them. We are a relatively small team of about 8 students but thanks to the incredibly generous support of our sponsors NASA, JC Penny, our after school program, and private donations we are well equipped to handle the job. I am also incredibly grateful to the 3 engineers and 1 math teacher/programmer who have joined the Chaos Vortex team. 

I will provide updates on our progress as the season progresses. If you know a FRC mentor at your school, please give them a smile and an encouraging word as we tend to work an extra 20+ hours in addition to our regular teaching duties. We love every minute but after a couple of weeks it gets pretty exhausting.

Let me know if I or my team can do anything to support other teams. We are rookies but we have a few years of VEX under our belt and we love to help! We are always looking to start new teams and if you would like to come by and see our VEX or FRC team in action let us know so we can help get you going for next year.

6 weeks until ship date.

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