Blog

On Saturday December 22^nd, 27 Cheesy Poofs came together to help needy children in the Santa  Clara Valley.  The members donated over 70 hours to help distribute gifts to the needy and bring smiles to their faces.   The boys were painting faces and hands with Christmas scenes,  running games with prizes, cooking hot dogs, distributing food  and demoing Skyfire to the delight of all ages.  This is the 25^th Annual  US Marines Toys for Tots event at the Fairgrounds and it was expected to reach 7,000-9,000 children.

This past weekend Team 254's seven VEX teams were split between two tournaments, one in Modesto and one in Los Angeles. Teams 254 A, C, and F went down to the CSUN Los Angeles Regional, while Teams 254 B, D, E, and G went to the Central Valley Sack Attack Tournament in Modesto. 254F became an alliance captain at Northridge, and 254E became a captain in Modesto. Every one of our VEX teams reached the elimination rounds for a second consecutive tournament, a fact which every 254 member should be very proud of.

In Northridge, C and F played against each other in one of the division finals, with F moving on to the tournament finals:

In Modesto, 254G went on to win the tournament along with their alliance partners 5327A and 5327C! 254D also posted an outstanding score of 206 in Robot Skills, which currently puts them in a tie for 17th in the world.

Congrats to the success of all our VEX teams this weekend after putting in hundreds of hours of hard work and commitment! These were the last two tournaments planned for Team 254 to attend until the VEX World Championships in April. However, with the recent unveiling of a California State Championship Tournament in March, Team 254 will be reevaluating our future plans for the robotics team as a whole for the coming semester. Currently Teams 254 A, C, F, and G are qualified to attend the first annual California State Championships.

Last Thursday night, Team 254 attended Semiconductor Industry Association's 35th Annual Awards Dinner, where we met Dean Kamen, spoke about FIRST, and spread the message of STEM.

 

We were lucky enough to be invited to SIA's 35th Award Dinner and Reception, where we talked about FIRST, STEM, and the Cheesy Poofs. The event was hosted at the Fairmont Hotel, and gathered many prominent people in the engineering community together. Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST (and creator of the Segway) spoke, as well as our mentor, Travis Covington. Our drive team, Abhi and Chris, spoke about the more mechanical topics, while Nagy and I spoke about how the game works, how the team is run, and how we interact with sponsors. Overall, the night was a huge success, allowing the Poofs, Bellarmine, and FIRST to be exposed to an amazing set of people. It was a night that will definitely be remembered.

Members Avery Strand, Abhi Kumar, Chris Sides, Nagy Hakim

Mentors Travis Covington, Ann Roemer

 

Meanwhile, 254D was picked by the 5th seeded team, and 254F also got to pick a partner. This pushed 254B into a picking position, and they picked another 254 team, 254E, as their 1st partner and 254G as their second partner. Unfortunately, F and D had to face off in quarterfinals. F came out on top, so all teams except D got into semifinals.

In semifinals, the C/A alliance beat their opponents and moved forward, while the B/E/G alliance and F alliance were eliminated. C and A got to go to finals, squaring off against Oakland's 8000A and 8000B, who were allied with 6A. Things looked bleak when overheated VEXnet keys caused 5369 to lose connection in the first match, causing a loss. However, 254A pulled off an incredible comeback in the second match, descoring every point in our opponent's trough and leaving them only with floor tile goals, giving us the victory. 254C and 5369 then came together once more to beat the two 8000's in the third match, winning us the tournament.

It was an incredibly nail-biting finals round, and all members of the team, not just those on C and A, were extremely excited that 254 had taken back the Bellarmine title after losing it last year. All in all, it was an incredible weekend and an incredible comeback, and all of us are proud of our VEX teams.

This Saturday, we had our first VEX tournament of the season at San Ramon. 6 of our teams (A-F) were present at the competition. Amazingly, all 6 of these teams got into elimination rounds. 3 of them were eliminated in quarterfinals, while the other 3 were eliminated in semifinals. So, while we did not win, we are proud of having gotten so many teams into elimination matches. Furthermore, the day provided several highlights. For instance, one qualification match saw 254F and 254E in the same alliance, and together they racked up an incredible score of 210 points. The video of this match is here:

//youtu.be/nVgzpia91Qo

Also, shortly thereafter, this happened:

 

That's 2 of our teams, E and F, back to back on the top of the tournament ladder. Unfortunately, they later fell in the rankings but it was great while it lasted.

All 6 teams worked very hard at this tournament and did very well, if you weren't there then please do congratulate them this week. We will now be looking forward to our next tournament, Bellarmine, which we are definitely aiming to win!

This past weekend Team 254 attended CalGames 2012 at Woodside High School, an off-season replay of the FRC game Rebound Rumble.

After 4 wins and 4 losses in qualification matches, 254 was the first alliance choice for the #1 seed, Team 971. Later joined by Team 766, the #1 alliance proceeded through the elimination matches, defeating the #8 alliance, #5 alliance, and the #2 alliance in 2 matches each.  This marks the fourth year in a row that Team 254 has been a champion at CalGames.

 

Thank you to all the team members, parents, mentors, and friends who represented Team 254 at CalGames!  We could not have done it without the hard work of all our students, including all of the scouts, pit crew, drive team, and more.  A special thanks to the volunteers and mentors who donated their time and energy to help Team 254 work smoothly throughout the competition. I hope all our members enjoyed their first taste of FRC this year, and are looking forward to a fantastic 2013 season!

 

This weekend, Team 254 is competing in the 12th annual WRRF Calgames Offseason Tournament. Watch the webcast of the tournament here!

At the team meeting today we went through a lot of information rather quickly, and especially a lot to do with CalGames. So here is a brief recap of all of the information from the team meeting:

VEX Captains have requested the number of CAD Licenses, and we can begin installing them on the team laptops tomorrow.

Scouting Leadership applications should be submitted to [email protected] no later than 11:59pm Wednesday Oct. 3rd

Bellarmine VEX Volunteer form is now online! If you are not associated with a VEX team or your captain says it is okay, you can fill out the form to be given a volunteer position. You can fulfill your outreach requirement by volunteering! And get a free T-shirt!

 

And a list of all the information to do with CalGames:

• CalGames is on Friday October 12th and Saturday October 13th at Woodside High school, 199 Churchill Ave. Woodside, CA 94062
• Friday begins at 3:30, closes at 8:00
• Saturday is 7:00am-5:30pm
• 8 students can fulfill half of their outreach requirement by signing up to volunteer Saturday night. Look to the signups page for more info
• Attendance is limited to 40 team members at a time, so RSVP on the signups page!
• One slot will fulfill a tournament requirement but everyone is encouraged to attend for as long as they are able
• Attendance will be taken at the beginning and at the end of each shift. This is how credit will be awarded. If you are present at time when your name is not on the list, then you will not be given credit for that shift
• Freshmen are required to attend CalGames. If this is problematic, contact Ms. Roemer immediately
• Friday is mainly for returning members, new members are not encouraged to attend
• Consent Forms must be signed and turned in to Ms. Roemer by Wednesday, October 10th. No Consent form means you will not be allowed to attend CalGames
• Rides will not be provided to or from Woodside. Please find your own means of transportation, including carpooling with other 254 members!
• Students who signed up for the CalGames food order should reimburse Ms. Roemer $7 before next Wednesday, October 10th.
• Food will be available at Woodside for those who did not use the sign up form; however, it is on a first come, first serve basis

 

 

 

image courtesy of: //wrrf.org//media.team254.com/CalGames-2012-Logo-FINAL.png

Already seven weeks into the start of the new school year, we have had many events, including workshops and team meetings, to kick off the new robotics season.

 

Our first mandatory meeting for the team was at the Introduction meeting, where all incoming freshmen, new members, and existing members were formally introduced to the leaders of Team 254 and students became familiar with the expectations for this new season. There was an outstanding attendance as over 130 interested participants registered for the team afterwards. We also held a parent meeting where we presented new information to parents and answered questions.

In the following week, we officially began the VEX season with our VEX Kickoff, where we introduced this year's new game "Sack Attack" for those who have not seen it yet or were interested in participating in VEX this year. Jonathan Chang led the meeting and explained the design process each team must follow, along with safety regulations for Bellarmine's new lab. New VEX teams were released and captains then led each sub-team to discuss game strategy and begin their brainstorming process.

Finally past the busy start of a new season, we smoothly transitioned into the Zero Robotics Kickoff led by Richard Lin, different workshops including Graphic design led by Kyle Schnoor and PR/Marketing led by Avery Strand, and VEX builds. Each VEX team presented their team's robot design to the mentors, who gave their critique to each team, and teams now in the process of building each robot according to their CAD drawings. We have just begun registering teams for VEX tournaments, the first one already starting in October at San Ramon.

The mentors, leaders, and sub-captains are all looking forward to another great VEX season this year to follow up with last year's excellent performance at the World Championships. As a reminder, you should still check the calendar often for meetings and lookout for upcoming workshops that interest you.

The new 2012 team sweatshirt is moving closer to being completed, we have a good design we are running with and it looks like it'll be done soon. We have our first Graphic Design meeting of the season after the whole team meeting on Wednesday. It will be located in the the new robotics lab (formerly the wrestling building). I hope to see many of you there to learn about Graphic Design and Animation.