It is the night before FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff. It seems like not to long ago I was getting to attend my first ever Kickoff in San Antonio in 2008. It was the first year of our robotics program at Westlake High School. We have since grown in numbers of students as well as mentors involved with the program. I am expecting to see 60+ students involved with the FRC program up from our original 5 students for the first year. The first year was 33 Seniors, 1 Junior and 1 Freshman. This year we not only have the FRC team but we also have a FTC team who have been preparing all year for their contest. Our team consists of students from all four grade levels, students from Robotics I, II and III as well as students who are not in any of the robotics classes. We had two engineers who mentored the team and one non-engineering mentor. This year we will have 9 engineers and three non engineer mentors. The students and I are so fortunate to have the support from the mentors we have. Today Scott McMahon and Joe Hershberger presented at the Kickoff Workshops on CAN control with the Jaguar.
In addition to FRC Kickoff tomorrow, we will also be participating in TCEA LEGO Robotics Contest at New Braunfels. We will have four teams of two participating in the contest. Each of the groups has gotten to do some work with LabVIEW which will prove to be beneficial in the upcoming FRC season. This will be the first year we have programmers with experience.
We are currently scheduled to participate in San Antonio in the inaugural Alamo Regional Competition and patiently waiting on the waitlist for Dallas Regional.
I look forward to the new contest and new season. It is always exciting to see the animation and game demonstration as well as get the Kit of Parts. Heres to another successful year of FIRST Robotics Contest.
Go Team 2 - 4 - 6 - 8 !!! Who do you appreciate?
Posts
