Archive 2017 and Before

Team 980 sent our 2014 robot on both Sat and Sun to the biggest ever So Cal Regional Robotics Forum (SCRRT) Fall Classic competition.

On Saturday, we struggled with a few robot issues, but the venue itself also had some difficulties. Still, we competed in five matches, allowing new student team members to be part of our drive team.

Sunday was a much better day for Team 980. We worked well in matches, including many successful truss shots. We had our veteran drivers on-hand, but still cycled new members through the drive team. Unfortunately, we were plagued with an intermittent electrical issue in a few of our seven matches. The problem caused our robot to drop communications with the field, from which we would recover within ~15 seconds. Still, we ended up in eighth place out of 24 robots. We were selected by the #2 alliance to play in the elimination matches, but we chose to, as our team captain responded: “Respectfully decline, as to not hurt the alliance because of our electrical issues.” Team 980 received a warm ovation from the crowd for our difficult decision.

Thanks go to Robin Dorfman for handling the food for team members on Saturday and providing transportation for a few students! We’d also like to thank Deborah Koslowski for bringing food for team members on Sunday, as well as driving some students to and from the event!

Final results for the Fall Classic are shown below:

What an incredibly exciting finish to our season! Team 980 was just one win away from qualifying for the FIRST World Championship!

Courtesy of Sean Hiller, Daily Breeze

Team 980 struggled with a few technical problems and challenging alliance pairings in the qualification matches but managed to finish with a 5 – 5 record. We played well with strong alliance partners and scored consistently in autonomous mode. Our driving and defense was also crisp. Those factors, along with a history of being a dependable partner, resulted in Team 980 being selected by #1 alliance: Team 330 BeachBots and Team 973 Greybots.

Our alliance breezed through the quarterfinals and semifinals without a loss. We lost the first finals match in a very close game 157-165. We came back strong to win the second match, 181-126, but fell short in the final match of the day 146-236. Still, we end our official season on a very high note and should be proud of our accomplishments.

On June 7th 2014 Team 980’s students, mentors, and their families celebrated the 2014 season with a pot luck bar-b-que.  It was filled with great food, fresh lemonade, and lots of fun!  We had a huge array of food ranging from pulled pork and slow-roasted beef, hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, pizza, lots of different salads and snacks, and wonderful desserts.  It was a great way to wrap up the 2014 season, and to welcome some new members.

 

Team 980 linked up with Boy Scout Troop 351 for the 2014 Scout Expo, held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on Sat May 31. We created a very popular exhibit: “You can be an Engineer!” for earning the Webelos Engineer Activity Badge.

 

Thousands of scouts saw our exhibit and learned about what engineers do: create the future! Webelos interviewed engineering mentors from Team 980, experienced “hands-on” exhibits for electrical circuits and generators, block and tackle pulleys, and took home a miniature catapult they constructed from tongue depressors, rubber bands and a plastic spoon.

Team 980 demonstrated our 2014 robot, which attracted a lot of attention when we catapulted the ball. Our sister robotics team, Team 2404, brought a T-shirt cannon, which was also a big hit!

We had a great time with Troop 351 and look forward to doing this again!

Team 980 made a good showing at Burbank on Parade on April 26.

We not only promoted our team through the parade, we also won an award in the Novelty/Civic Organization category!

We followed the parade down Olive and distributed brochures. We also drove the 2014 robot and shot the catapult several times, receiving great reactions from the crowd. After the parade, we had a tent set up in a nearby park, and talked to several potential members.

This was a great event for the team and a good step towards recruiting new members.