January 7th marks the beginning of the FIRST Robotics 2012 competition season with the “Kickoff” at WCTC. NASA sponsors the webcast for Robotics teams from all over the Waukesha area. CORE 2062 team members will then return to the Waukesha Engineering Preparatory Academy at South High School to discuss the new game, which is not revealed until Kickoff! The first task is to reach consensus on the competition strategy and secondly to agree on the characteristics of the robot.
The students, mentors and teachers have been meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays since September to conduct safety training and subteam preparation. The team will now add Saturdays to design, build, and test a competitive robot within a very short six week build season. In addition, CORE students work on sub-teams to do CAD design, animation, fabrication, drive train, website design, graphic design and public relations. CORE 2062 consists of 56 students from Waukesha North, West, South High Schools, Waukesha Engineering Preparatory Academy, Waukesha Academy of Health Professions and homeschoolers.
All local FIRST Robotics teams are preparing for the Milwaukee Regional competition on March 22nd and 24th at the US Cellular Arena. Teams compete in groups of three robots called “alliances”. CORE 2062 also plans to travel to the Duluth, Minnesota regional in March. The International competition is in St. Louis this year on April 26th to 28th; links to watch the competition can be found on the USFIRST website.
CORE 2062 is still in need of corporate sponsors to support their efforts. Even though the build season is just six weeks long, the students work together year round having fun while increasing their knowledge of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Any individuals or businesses interested in supporting CORE 2062, please contact Mark Spoerk, Lead Mentor at 262-970-3880.
For more information about the FIRST Robotics organization, go to www.usfirst.org.
