Prepping for the 2011 FRC Season: 5 weeks to Kickoff!

The 2011 game challenge will be unveiled five weeks from Saturday! The Team 980 Kickoff event will occur on Jan 8 at TBD site.

Team 980 is registered for Regional competitions in San Diego (Mar 10-12) and Long Beach (Mar 24-26) and the FIRST Championship in St. Louis, MO (Apr 27-30, return on May 1).

Before the kickoff event, Team 980 needs to prepare for the season.

Here’s our “Things To Do” preparation list:

Students sign-up in STIMS the official FIRST participant registration site.
Work with Burbank Tournament of Roses Association to secure and prepare robot build site.
Learn SolidWorks CAD skills. Team 980 has access to 25 student “seats” for SolidWorks 2011. We will have a couple of high-performance workstations in our design center. Team 980 students will be able to install a 1-year licensed version of SolidWorks on their own computers for design robot parts. Start with a on-line robotics design tutorial (9 units, less than 2 hours viewing time):
Develop fund-raising strategies to pay for travel expenses. Championship travel, lodging, and team meal will be $750 (TBD) per student. FIRST will soon release details for team member sales of a new energy-saving LED light (a big technology improvement over compact fluorescent lamps). Look here for more information about FIRST Green e-watt savers.
Spread the word about FIRST to friends, teachers and members of the community. NASA has just announced major long-term support to the FIRST program. The story is in the Reddit Top-10!

Be ready for the 2011 season!

Check this website and the Robotics Club Team 980 Facebook group frequently for updates. Team members can also checkout the Robotics Club Team 980: John Burroughs group for more information.