News from team 1151

11.01.2003/Mon - Yesterday (Friday, 31st) Shawn (Captain) and Mr. Murphy (Lead Mentor) gave a presentation to the Berkeley Breakfast Club (BBC) courtesy of Tom Carson. The talk went exceptionally well, ending in a robot demonstration. Several interested audience members came by afterwards to ask questions or simply congratulate the speakers and many brochures were also given out. This talk could provide us with some important connections.

10.30.2003/Thu - Amazing news, 2 out of the 3 Ed Fund Grants were awarded, giving the team $2000 for competition and drive train experimentation. We have also heard news that the Ed Fund is planning to free up funds specifically aimed at robotics. We are now looking at $3000 more we need for registration, hopefully this will be brought in from sponsorship.

09.22.2003/Mon - Our team came in 7th out of 23 teams at last weekend's CalGames competition, the highest of any rookie team. We also pulled in 3 awards (rookie participation, highest seeded rookie, 1st place human player challenge).

09.17.2003/Wed - Yesterday (Tuesday, 16th), the Mechanical team nearly finished reassembling the robot and we drove it for the first time in at least a week at about 6:30 PM.

Today the team went down to de Anza High School (Team 481) to test drive the robot and calibrate the autonomous code on their field. We got a late start, showing up over an hour late, but used the remaining time relatively well, adjusting the code until we reliably drove up the center of the ramp. The team has plans to go to de Anza again tomorrow (Thursday, 18th) to perfect the autonomous code and get more driving practice.

Students who did not go to de Anza (only four of us fit in Murphy's car), helped to promote the team at MCHS's "Back to School Night" where fliers about our team and the CalGames were given out to interested parents and students.

09.15.2003/Mon - On Saturday (13th), a contingent of Hitchhikers drove down to Woodside High School to attend the CalGames orientation, and scope out the area in preparation for this Saturday's Competition. We are now aquatinted with the layout of the event and are prepared to run the Robot-Sumo competition -- the task our team volunteered to supervise. Rules to side events and other exact details are still unknown at this time.

There are two more meetings before CalGames. The team plans to finish a few robot mods, practice human player challenge, practice driving, integrate and update programming, and making an appearance at the MCHS Back to School Night. After the competition, the team will be focusing efforts on making robot presentable to past and future sponsors as well as attempting alternative mods (like pneumatic arms and gyroscopic sensors) for future reference.

09.09.2003/Tue - Sunday our newest website came online and today is the first update. Content has been added and under construction pages filled. On the mechanical front, we finally got our robot into driveable condition today and are working on our finishing touches for CalGames on the 20th (Sat). Wish us luck.