Blog

As the robotics school year ramps up the FRC team is also planning for next season. We will be having a planning meeting in the near future so check your emails for any upcoming event. This meeting will discuss any issues we had last season and possible solutions to them for the season to come. We will also discuss possible alternative projects for FRC Fridays to complete prior to next season.

The graphic design and animation meetings will be coming up starting next Wednesday, the 5th of September. I'm hoping to see a great turn out this year. It'll be great if I can get more people coming to these. Remember, come to the Graphic Design Meetings, we have cookies.

With the VEX season set to start Thursday, we can now begin to plan for the Bellarmine VEX Tournament in November. The first parent and volunteer meeting will occur within the next few weeks. The number of volunteers we get from this first meeting will determine how smoothly the ride will be all the way into November.

There was some difficulty using shockwave today. The connections were working, but the motors would not turn. A group of us troubleshooted this through the afternoon, but to no avail. Hopefully we can get it back up and runnning soon.

Alright guys, here's the PR update of the week. We've now had our two introductory meetings for the freshmen and returning members, and are ecstatic about the results. Seventy five freshmen signed up! Add that to our returning members and we're going to have a great time this year. Over the next three days, we're going to have VEX workshops, as well as the first parent meeting in awhile, so make sure you attend those! The VEX workshops are going to be amazingly helpful, and the parent meeting is a great way to stay in the loop. Remember to check your emails and the blog! Communication is key.

A couple reminders:

• All students are required to attend the introductory meeting. They are on August 22nd and 23rd (come to one OR the other) from 3:00 to 4:00, in Sobrato Theater. These are mandatory meetings, as announced in the previous informational email.
• Vex Kickoff (similar to FRC kickoff, but for VEX) is also a required event. It is on August 30th from 3:00 - 5:00. Location TBD.
• Whole Team Meetings are now every Wednesdays afterschool in Andrade, starting on the 29th. Please look at the calendar for more information.
• Please make sure your account works on the website (BOTH parents and students).
• Parent Meeting on August 28th at 7:00 in Sobrato.

As the new school year begins, all aspects of the Bellarmine Robotics Team go into full bloom. Along side other major subjects such as Finance, VEX, Graphic Design, and of course FRC. Soon we will be establishing FRC Fridays as a way for both new and old members to be introduced into FRC in the offseason and get involved in the program. In our near future we will be finishing upgrades designed throughout the summer with Shockwave and will continue on to other projects needing to be finished prior to the beginning of the FRC season. Stay tuned for updates and upcoming times and locations for FRC Fridays.

This past Wednesday several of our VEX leaders, both captains and sub-captains, met in the old VEX lab for a prototyping session. The session was extremely productive; the VEX leaders each tried different approaches to intaking game objects, trying different construction methods to see what worked and what did not. The assigned captain/sub-captain pairs worked together to give each other inspiration and correct each others' mistakes. While doing this, they took careful notes of what they tested, giving them something to work with when build starts as well as creating a foundation for the Design Notebooks which are so important for awards.

With the robotics season about to begin, Team 254 is set to attend two off season FRC tournaments for the 2012 game Rebound Rumble. Over the next few weeks we will begin preparing and packing for CalGames 2012, which is scheduled to begin October 12th. As the only local FRC tournament in the fall, every team member is expected to attend to show their support for the Cheesy Poofs. After CalGames, Team 254 will travel down to Madera for another annual off season tournament, Madtown Throwdown.  In addition to FRC, a planning meeting for the annual Bellarmine VEX Tournament will happen within the next few weeks.

There are two upcoming meetings introducing 254 robotics to potential recruits on the following days:

• Wednesday August 22nd
• Thursday August 23rd

At these meetings we will showcase our 2011-2012 basketball shooting robot Skyfire as well as give important information about the team.