After competition, our team has hit the ground running with presentations and summer planning. This Friday we have two presentations planned at the local elementary school, Meadowbrook, as well as at a STEM for Girls event. Through these presentations we hope to spread our passion for robotics and the many skills it can teach. At STEM for girls especially, we hope to address the appalling gender gap in STEM fields and on our team by teaching these students what amazing opportunities are available and by helping them discover their passions in these areas. The following Monday we will travel to Hillcrest, another elementary school in the district, with a similar purpose.

In addition to our interactions with younger students, we have been maintaining connections with our community through events including a recent presentation at Rockwell Automation’s Take Your Child to Work Day. Our team feels it is crucial to demonstrate the meaning of FIRST throughout the entire year and spread this to the community at large. Sponsorship, while essential to our team, is never a one way street.

The name for this year’s robot has been chosen! In keeping with the tradition of naming our robot after Greek Gods, our team unanimously decided this morning upon the name Hermes. Here is a little background on this name:

CORE successfully bagged the competition robot on Tuesday night, and thus ending the build season for 2014. As the team transitions into competition prep, the mechanical group is working on finishing the second robot so our driver’s can start practicing. Also, the programming sub-team is waiting for the robot to work on code while Controls is wiring the robot, working closely with mechanical students. Other non-robot related sub-teams are preparing for the Wisconsin Regional. Chairman’s is working on the Chairman’s presentation and video, while the web design sub-team is pushing out a new update to CORE’s website. As a team, we are getting ready to perform our best for the Wisconsin Regional, and carrying the momentum from previous weeks into the competition season.

Students and mentors collaborate to meet the build season deadline.

With under three hours until the robot must be bagged and left untouched until competition, work at CORE has reached an incredible level of excitement. While school was dismissed early yesterday and all after school activities canceled, the team is still at a good place today. Mechanical is currently finishing several final touches on the robot and preparing to pass it off to controls for testing and observations. Final pictures and measurements are being taken in anticipation of a month of waiting and nerves before competition. Chairman’s has been very busy recently as well, with robot spec booklets to complete, sponsor panels to create, a speech to write, and a video to create. The scoutegy sub team is currently preparing to train new scouts for competition, and website has exciting updates planned specifically concerning the safety section of the website. Be sure to check out the competition page of the website for specifications on this year’s robot, and stay tuned for pictures of the completed robot!

Here at C.O.R.E. the work goes on. Media is creating slide shows of our lovely team. Bumpers is fabricating (with fabric) their easy color switch design. Controls has put in network cabling to connect wiring on opposing sides of the robot and is currently running hosing for pneumatics. Programming is working on vision and detection of the hot goal. Mechanical is working on the robot’s six wheeled tank drive as well as a catcher. CAD is adding a blocker to their models and putting on a few finishing touches. Last but not least, safety is keeping everybody safe. Happy day of build everybody!

C.O.R.E., or more specifically our CAD sub team, is working non-stop to create computer models of all robot parts. It is a daunting task, as the robot is constantly being worked and reworked. CAD often needs to change their models as the thoughts of the mechanical team are turning over one new leaf after another. Also, props to mechanical for all of their efforts. In the past week they have met multiple times outside of scheduled attendance, totaling about 20 hours in extra hard work and dedication. They pore over printed models while becoming one with the gear boxes. Currently, mechanical maintains that the robot’s drive train is close to completion and they expect to begin working on actuators soon.

While the wheels are turning in mechanical, programming is working on the digital side of the robot world. They collectively spend their days coding for subsystems such as shooter, wheel, blocker, and drive. They test their code on a previous robot, patiently waiting for the chance to work this year’s robotic treasure. Through the subtle touch of symbols, numbers, and letters they can move mountains (and probably game elements).

The safety sub team is moving something entirely different. They are moving for the protection of our world’s workforce. The robotics business can be dangerous, and they do their best to spread the caution. Currently, they are training our newest safety padawan to update our safety website and prepare safety demos.

Thanks C.O.R.E. members for all of your time and good luck to all as the end of build season approaches!

This week we have been very busy working to reach our goals in terms of the programming, design, and mechanics of the robot. While we have a lot which remains to be done we are treading carefully to ensure that everything is done well. In the words of engineering project manager, Erik Orlowski, “We are a bit behind but we are taking our time to be thorough and make sure we don’t have any problems later in the season.”  In other news, the website design team has made significant progress in learning new programming languages and is ready to begin redesigning our website for this year. Additionally the Chairman’s sub team has begun contacting a number of perspective sponsors and working on this year’s Chairman’s essay.

A few weeks ago, C.O.R.E. went to Toshiba to present and show our robot to their employees. One of our mentors works at the company as a mechanical engineer, and set up a time to meet. When we were there, we were given a tour of the facility and given a little company history. Afterwards, we demoed our robot, allowed them to play catch with it, and answered any questions they had. At the end of the demonstration we were given a generous sponsorship, placing them among other gold level sponsors.

It was really amazing to see how many of the employees would have been on an FRC team if it was around when they were in high school. Overall, the day was a very productive, fun and educational not just for us, but for the employees as well.

Week two is coming to a close and C.O.R.E. is working hard to prototype, design, and CAD our designs. We are also contacting sponsors, creating a scouting database, updating our safety database, and taking care of a variety of other matters of business. Some of our newest members are setting about learning how to do these things. From beginning programmers to beginning drivers room 108 is bursting with open minds.

C.O.R.E. 2062 would like to thank all who have supported our team so far this year. Specifically, we would like to highlight an anonymous C.O.R.E. alumnus who recently donated $5,000. This is quite a significant contribution, comprising about 25 percent of all of the donations that we have received this year. We thank this individual for their incredible generosity and commend them for their continued involvement in FIRST and our team.

However, we must also stress that donations of any size and at any time are greatly appreciated. This year in particular we have not been as financially secure as we have been in the past. We need our community’s support to be involved in FIRST; to prepare our students for their futures and spread STEM principles to those around us.

We hope that you will consider supporting C.O.R.E. 2062 for our current 2014 season. For more information contact our lead mentor Mark Spoerk at mspoerk@waukesha.k12.wi.us.