Inspiring The Future
“Thunderbots Holiday Party/Open House”, Burbank High STEAM Lab, December 17, Off-season, 2022
With a great turnout of over 30 interested students and parents, the Team 980 Holiday Party went beautifully with a complete setup of food, team history, tours, mini-bot building, robot demonstrations, and more! Attached here is a brief description of each department that was presented at the Party.
— Luci (Captain, 2023)
In order of left to right: Sydney, Kitty (the robot), Ali, and Luci
Recording of the meeting found here (980 comes on at around 3:30 to 35:00).
“Burbank Board of Education Meeting”, Burbank City Hall, November 17, Fall, 2022
City Hall’s Board Room. Mentors, parents, students. All eyes turned towards Team 980 Thunderbots as they marched in with their current robot, “Kitty” (named for how the robot “coughed up” hairballs from their poor carpet). Lead mentor David Brinza introduced the team and a personal testimonial about FRC’s benefits from student Yogini Vazirani led to the main event: mentor Robin Dorfman. Robin recounted the strong roots of their team, going back to 2002, giving the board a sense of the 980 perseverance and growth. Her comprehensive business plan (found under “Resources”) detailed what it’d take to bring robotics – either through FLL or FRC – to all Burbank schools (and combined with a succinct robot demonstration) was more than enough to ignite the STEAM (yes, art is engineering and vise versa)-powered fire within the hearts of the board members. The team’s two-pronged method worked beautifully to encourage further enthusiasm, questions, and plans for discussions regarding official robotics implementations throughout Burbank!
It seems it’s true what they say: if you see lightning, then Thunder isn’t too far behind. The team thanks the generous board members for having them!
— Luci
Video of Updated Collector/Shooter
“Tidal Tumble”, Ventura Fairgrounds, October 29-30, Fall 2022
After complications with their collector throughout the Ventura Scrimmage at Da Vinci Schools, the 980 Thunderbots roll into Tidal Tumble, not only with their prior two sets of collecting spinner wheels, but three! Throughout the 2022 competition season, they knew that the collector with three spinners would definitely be on the list for improvements due to a flimsy structure and inconsistent collection. Tidal Tumble confirms their new collector’s many benefits: with a more solid structure holding the collector up, it ensures a consistent compression (and therefore collection) of cargo; once the cargo makes it into the main body of the robot, it’s constantly being pushed through to the shooter without a chance of bouncing out; and the improved pneumatic retraction/extension system assists with raising the collector up/down much quicker, limiting worry about it (accidently) reaching into other robots.
Combined with their auto-aiming high goal shooter, Team 980 firmly established themselves as a force soon to be reckoned with for the 2023 season.
— Luci
“Da Vinci Scrimmage”, El Segundo, October 15, Fall 2022
As a small event with approximately a dozen teams, Da Vinci’s Scrimmage was designed as a casual practice event for teams to try their new upgrades – Team 980 was sure to make the most of this opportunity, especially testing new robot drivers/operators. Despite not being able to finalize their fully fledged, three wheel collector system in time, they were still able to reap the benefits of a newly mounted pneumatics system for the collector’s extension/retraction. By placing the system higher up, more consistent compression was exerted on the cargo, bringing them more smoothly into the belly of the beast and quicker up/down motion, minimizing the risk of accidental – possibly damaging – collisions. However, tragedy struck when a collector arm snapped in half. Rather than conceding to fate, the students rallied their forces to fix the fracture best they could – and it paid off! With their quick thinking, Team 980 was back competing in just a few rounds, playing out the rest of their matches for the day.
Team 980 is scheduled for Tidal Tumble in two weeks time; will their finalized collector be revealed in all its glory? How will the students’ determination manifest itself against any challenges coming their way? Is Team 980 Thunderbots on their road to greatness?
— Luci
You must be logged in to post a comment.