Author: David Brinza

Early in the pandemic, people were made aware of the shortages of medical-grade personal protective equipment. Our team wanted to find a way to help, so we came up with multiple ideas on how we could give back to our community through the PPE. One of our students proposed a simple and safely-manufacturable face shield concept alongside a list of materials, and after a design and materials review by our mentors, the plan was put into action. During that time, the student reached out to UCLA and coordinated a drop-off location, in addition to the other details regarding the sanitization, assembly, and usage of the shields. While waiting for the materials to arrive, we wanted to continue contributing through other means. We got in touch with the “SoCal Makers COVID Response Team”, an initiative where multiple Southern Californian high school robotics teams and college engineering students came together to engineer and manufacture personal protective equipment for hospitals. We financially contributed\ to the initiative, and continued on our mission to help. The materials arrived and were transported to the student’s home, where he prepared, sanitized, and assembled them all into almost fifty face shields. Soon after finishing, he headed to UCLA to leave the shields with their new owner, who would redistribute them to the doctors on the front lines.

 

Regional day! It was the culmination of all our efforts and hard work on the robot from the build season, a chance to show what our team is made of, and also a place to finally meet our friends from 8159 Golden Horn in-person for the first time! A birthday celebration for a member on our team and on their team as well kicked off our first lunch together, where all on our team quickly grew close with Team Golden Horn. On the first and second days, we had encountered some mechanical issues on our robot. Happily, the pit crew was able to return it to working order and send it back out to recover the places lost in our absence. In the end, our team was able to make it back to 24th place, finishing off a twenty-place charge to the end of the competition. (Warning in advance: all the photos taken of our team by the professional photographer at the regional are extremely awesome, and as such, there will be many attached to this post :D.)

It’s been a busy two weeks! From sending off our awards submissions to the steady fabrication of parts for the final robot, a lot of ground was covered since the last blog post. Our younger members have learned a lot through their prototyping work, and our veteran subteam leads are having their experience put to the test as deadlines get closer. Overall, we are progressing well, but still have quite a way to go. Fueled by determination, enthusiasm, and of course, pizza, our team is ready to continue our solid pace in the coming weeks.

 

We got plenty done this week, with progress on everything from robot CADs to fabrication/assembly of the drive base and gearboxes. On Monday, we convened for a design review, discussing the intake and scoring mechanism, and our climber concepts. Additionally, the weekend saw lots of progress on our awards submissions, with every student leader on the team contributing. We’re looking to continue our strong pace and productivity into week four, see you then!! (RIP, Kobe and Gianna)