PNTA: Plymouth North Technology Alliance
Click to expand!
Week 4 is History
Great job team!
This weekend witnessed an essential milestone. Our Robot came alive and proved itself capable of climbing the ramp, crossing the barrier, picking up balls, raising the cannon and shoot at the hoops! For the first time we saw the fully integrated machine perform.
This followed a hard week of engineering setbacks and mechanical disappointments. But we persevered and with an engineering insight from Dave Long followed and mirrored by Derek Salvucci combined with a lot of especially hard work from our student engineers on Friday and Saturday, we got it right.
Now it's time to learn how to program and use this robot to best advantage.
If you want to see it's first ever performance Click here
Other Important Stuff
If you are on this team, and you want to go to the WPI regional you must do the following:
1. Sign on to the FIRST STIMS registration page and complete all the required documentation. If your unsure of what this means...ask a PNTA team member who does. Our team is number 23 on FRC.
2. Print your name and phone number on a list that Mrs. Serrilla will have on the main desk in the school office and turn in your fully completed and signed Consent and Release Form. Please note: If you do not have a consent and release form turned in you will not get a team T-shirt, and you will be unable to attend the regional with the team. It is that important.
That's all for now!
Mr.B
Moving Ahead
This is Mile 13 in the Boston Marathon...halfway through the race...now we start to dig into the reserves, and work harder for each milestone....cause now we're deep in the race and we have work to do.
Like the Meatloaf song says....."Don't be sad, cause two out of three ain't bad".
The Ball pick up was on the robot and it picked up balls, the cannon raised and lowered and fire balls...but we did not drive....so we keep pushing.
And really....things are looking good. We are beginning to work harder and smarter and the progress made this weekend shows that.
This team should be proud of themselves. Both for what they have accomplished and the spirit in which they are accomplishing it. Congratulations gang for being awesome...now let's get this thing fully integrated by next Sunday...cause keep reading to find out what's coming.
State of the Robot Address
We have a great team coming together, and the expectation is that we will have a robot to be proud of.
There continues to be many instances of students and parents helping to make this effort a success. The playing field designed and built by Mr. Thomsen, Mr. Green and our own indomitable Mr. Partridge, has been used repeatedly for testing and development. Thanks folks for that great effort.
Recently Mrs. Serrilla and Mrs Webster have taken over the task of arranging the travel and accommodations...as well as a lot of other "details" for which we are all grateful. Among other things, Mrs. Serrilla and Mrs. Webster completed the application for the WPI travel grant (see previous news post)and submitted it. Thank you for that effort. We are all grateful.
Mr. Stevens, Mr. Partridge, Mr. Long, Mr. Ayers, Mr. Westfield and Mr. Pickett have also been "In the Shop" (Some of these folks, every night, all night) helping to keep this project moving forward.
We are also very proud of the Robotics Alumni who have come to help out the team. These are professional engineers, scientists and mathematicians, who were former members of the Plymouth Robotics Team: Mr Carl Neilsen, Dr. James Partridge, Kurt Geissler, Andrew Sealey, Russel Bozek, Allison Burgess. Thank you folks for being outstanding role models for this team, and for helping to send the message that learning and doing is a lifestyle. Your all welcome "In the shop" anytime...but you know that.
This year's students have been nothing short of outstanding. Think about it...Plymouth student engineers working 10-14 hours a day (some of these kids all night, every night) thinking really hard, designing new technology, performing experiments, tests and continually learning new skills, all at an incredible rate..and...hanging out with old folks and being nice to them...and ...and, we hope,having a good time doing it.
This is turning out to be a stellar group of young scientist, technologists and engineers.
But...........we are not even halfway to the top of this mountain. The robot has not yet existed as a single entity, it's sub systems are spread all over the shop, and a lot of essential technical issues involving ball handling, targeting and software controls have not been resolved or fully evolved. We are still in the very early stages of development and we are running out of time fast.
Let's look at where we are at today, January, 27th....20 days into the build...and after a conservative estimate of a combined 1200 man hours of effort.
1. The cannon is showing promise but still needs refinement.
2. The cannon altitude mechanism has not even been tested, let alone gone through the refinement stages.
3. Ball pick up is still based on hope and a belief. Both pick up systems have only been bench tested. Neither pick up system has picked a ball up yet in a "Game" environment..
4. The chassis is not "Proven" and will require multiple design iterations and refinements over the next two weeks.
5. The control systems and programming remain in the discovery stage and cannot proceed rapidly until a working robot is delivered to the programmers....We have to provide this by Sunday night.
6. And believe it or not...if we continue working at this rate...and maybe work a bit smarter and with careful organization of our resources...we will accomplish this robot integration on time and on schedule.
What I'm saying here is that while we are not yet near done...we are doing well...we just have to "Kick" for the finish line.
Mrs Serrilla and Mrs. Webster have informed us of the following:
6 rooms have been reserved at the Marriott Courtyard the WPI First Robotic rate was $109 per night for 2 queen beds (room sleeps 5 ?) Link to the hotel is Marriott Courtyard Worcester At the moment all rooms are booked as check in on the 8th and check out on the 10th we can modify this as the date gets closer.
Right now the expectation is that a lead group of 10-12 students and teachers will go to WPI on Thursday March 8th and the rest of the team will arrive on Friday morning. If we double up on the rooms and put in an extra cot, we can save money. We do not yet know what the expected costs per team member will be, but we will make every attempt to keep the costs to a minimum and share the costs equally.
Thanks to those moms for doing this.
Thanks to a great team of students and parents for the efforts being offered, and for doing it all for the right reasons.
Go Plymouth School District Robotics…let’s continue shooting for the National Robotics Championship Title.
Important Information on WPI/FIRST Robotics regional
Greetings PNTA Team 23 Members
There are posts about important documents on the WPI regional website today:
* Team Travel Grant Application DUE 6 FEB 2012 Teams may apply for grants to help offset their cost to travel to the WPI Regional. All teams are strongly encouraged to apply. Is there a parent that can look into this...we would welcome help.
* WPI Scholarship Application DUE 1 MAR 2012 Each team may nominate one senior for a $10,000 WPI Scholarship only available for teams attending the WPI Regional. Let's try and get this help for a PNHS kid on the team... who on the team has applied to WPI this year?
Find the applications and more details here: http://www.wpi.edu/news/firstregional
WPI FIRST Robotics Regional Competition
Teams-
Welcome to the 2012 WPI FRC Regional Tournament! We are very excited to have your teams joining us this year and look forward to another wonderful event!
Some quick but very important details:
* We will continue to update important information on the event website here: http://www.wpi.edu/+firstregional
* Thanks to the generous donations of The MathWorks, Inc and WPI we will once again be able to offer Team Travel Assistance Grants! Application will be posted soon.
* We also plan on offering WPI Regional Scholarships to well-qualified seniors on teams participating in the regional. Again, application will be posted soon.
* Through a partnership with the Worcester Sharks, Friday night will be "Robotics Night @ the Worcester Sharks". For $10 per person, teams will receive a ticket to the hockey game plus a voucher for a hot dog and drink. The game will feature a robot dropping the ceremonial first puck as well as robotics displays in the lobby areas. The game is at the DCU Center (right next door to the Hilton Garden Inn) and should be a fun relaxing night with the teams at the event! Contact me directly to purchase tickets.
* We are working with local hotels to block rooms and get discount prices. We have definitely blocked space at the Hilton Garden Inn and are waiting on the contract. We are also working with other hotels nearby WPI. However, if you will have regular access to transportation while at the event, most hotels in Shrewsbury and Auburn are just a short drive to the venue and may be less expensive.
This weekend
Hi folks,
This weekend we have an updated schedule.
Saturday, 1/21/12: No Hours.
Sunday, 1/22/12: 10:30am to 3pm.
Update to Build Schedule
There has been a change to the build schedule for Saturday 21st: the new build hours are 7AM - 3PM.
Build Schedule
Team Twitter Account
I thought it’d be a good idea to use a communication medium that everybody can access during school and easily share links and ideas. I made a Twitter account for the team (@FRCTeam23). Twitter is unblocked on school computers unlike Facebook and some other sites. Please ask me if you need help using Twitter.
http://twitter.com/FRCTeam23
Rebound Rumble Rules Review Rquiz Ready
What an awesome game! FIRST has designed a great game that is going to make for some very interesting game play and robot design strategies. The rules are relatively simple, and mostly unambiguous.
I've finished making the rules quiz. Click on the following link to access the quiz. When you get there, please enter your FULL name. The quiz should take about five minutes. When you complete the quiz, you will have an option to save a PDF certificate of your completion. Please do so, and then email that certificate to me at kgiessler@gmail.com . I will use this to reconcile the logs at the quiz site. Edit: Just ignore this step. Apparently gmail blocks certain pdfs from certain recipients. Any emails sent to me with the attachment were not received.
If you end up needing to take it multiple times, that's ok. What matters most is that everyone understands the rules so that design meetings are run smoothly. We don't care what it takes to get there as long as we arrive.
If you find any errors in my quiz, please let me know. If you have any questions on rules, or you think you have found an ambiguity that could use clarification, email me and let me know, and I'll begin making questions to direct to FIRST.
Here it is: http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=rebound-rumble-rules-review-rquiz
Thanks, Kurt
Failed Emails
The following email addresses bounced: lmwebblb@verizon.net suzieq3144@comcast.net jess9@msn.com eserrilla@plymouth.k1.ma.us heatherjadamsz@gmail.com sinisa1s04@gmail.com please help me in correcting them so we can ensure these members receive future communications.
The Kick Off Weekend is Here
IF YOU WANT TO WATCH THE SATURDAY KICKOFF EVENT ON THE WEB FROM ANYWHERE HERE IS THE LINK: If you can’t make it to your local kickoff tomorrow.HERE IS THE LINK
Attention PSHS and PNHS students: FIRST Robotics Competition Kick off is right around the corner and we have some great news!
Some past PNHS "Engineers" are returning to lend us some help and advice. These are PNHS students who graduated from competitive engineering colleges and universities and who are volunteering to help our team. We could not be more grateful or more proud.
Special thanks to:
Kurt Giessler - Carnegie Mellon
Andrew Sealey - Worcester Poly technical Institute
Karl Neilsen - Worcester Poly technical Institute
Kesha Neilsen - Wheaton (Mathematics)
We are also looking forward to the experienced help of many of the parents of both present and former students.
Special thanks to Mr and Mrs. Ron and Paula Partridge and Mr. Jim Stevens, these are seasoned FIRST veterans who will be available to our team for help and advice.
We are fortunate to have the help and support of these former students and parents...and looking forward, today's students will develop the technical and creative help and expertise that will be available to the program in years to come.
Note:This is the link to the source of information for all things FIRST related.
FIRST Robotics Information
Please visit the site often and help the team by becoming a FIRST expert.
PNHS Saturday 1/7/12 Rm 222 from 10-2PM
PNHS Sunday 1/8/12 Cafeteria from 10-2PM
This is the agenda for the coming weekend
1.) Watch the Kick off on Saturday and learn as much as possible about the game, rules and the competition.
2.) Read the rules Saturday night.
3.) Think about robot designs on Sunday morning.
4.) Come to the PNHS meeting Sunday 10-2 and be prepared to:
Remember: The Rules quiz is coming...and we all want to pass this test so we can participate knowledgeably in the design and construction of the robot.
The good news is that you can keep taking the test until you pass...so fail early and often in order to succeed sooner!
Advice from a Teacher, Engineer and PNTA member
Hi PNTA Teammates,
My name is Kurt Giessler. I am a former PNTA student and I’m excited to be working with the team this year again as a mentor. I am writing you today regarding the rules.
Every sport has a set of rules. In basketball you can’t take 2 steps without dribbling, in football you can’t move before the snap. Rules are specific to the game, and like those I just mentioned, often have intricate exclusions that greatly change what happens in the game. Understanding them fully is imperative to succeeding.
Robotics sports are no different in this regard. The rules will affect every step in the process, starting at the very first design meetings up through the last moments of a match (PNTA has won matches in the past because we knew the tie breaker hierarchy and the other teams did not!)
On January 7th FIRST will release the game and the rules at their kickoff meeting. Teams everywhere, including ours, will be reading these materials immediately upon release. Mr. Bastoni has asked me to create a rules quiz to gauge a student’s readiness to participate in design meetings. Within 24 hours I’ll have this quiz ready and you will receive an email with instructions and a link to the quiz.
Throughout the season FIRST will update the rules, sometimes with clarifications or entirely new rules. While it is the responsibility of all members to read these updates, I intend on making myself a ‘rules guru’ and will serve as a reference when questions arise. I am best reached at kgiessler@gmail.com
Regards,
Kurt
FIRST KICK OFF INVITATION
Please plan on attending the FIRST Robotics Kick off at PNHS.
We want every member of the team to watch this NASA WEB Televised kick off event...in order to fully understand the game intent and the rules.
We will meet again at PNHS on the following day - Sunday
These are important dates, because this is when the robot will be designed, and team members will learn what needs to be done.
So thanks in advance, and welcome to the start of the 2012 FIRST Season.
Important File
Hey folks, Could you please read this file: Click Here. It is also on the resource page.
New Website!
Hey folks! I've been working the last few weekends to completely re-create the website. If you would like to share your thoughts on the website just find me on one of our Monday meetings, I\'ll definitely take your thoughts into consideration. See you around. -- Kevin
Week 4 is History
Week 4 is History
By: Mr.BIt's Alive
Great job team!
This weekend witnessed an essential milestone. Our Robot came alive and proved itself capable of climbing the ramp, crossing the barrier, picking up balls, raising the cannon and shoot at the hoops! For the first time we saw the fully integrated machine perform.
This followed a hard week of engineering setbacks and mechanical disappointments. But we persevered and with an engineering insight from Dave Long followed and mirrored by Derek Salvucci combined with a lot of especially hard work from our student engineers on Friday and Saturday, we got it right.
Now it's time to learn how to program and use this robot to best advantage.
If you want to see it's first ever performance Click here
Other Important Stuff
If you are on this team, and you want to go to the WPI regional you must do the following:
1. Sign on to the FIRST STIMS registration page and complete all the required documentation. If your unsure of what this means...ask a PNTA team member who does. Our team is number 23 on FRC.
2. Print your name and phone number on a list that Mrs. Serrilla will have on the main desk in the school office and turn in your fully completed and signed Consent and Release Form. Please note: If you do not have a consent and release form turned in you will not get a team T-shirt, and you will be unable to attend the regional with the team. It is that important.
That's all for now!
Mr.B
Moving Ahead
Moving Ahead
By: Mr.BGetting There
This is Mile 13 in the Boston Marathon...halfway through the race...now we start to dig into the reserves, and work harder for each milestone....cause now we're deep in the race and we have work to do.
Like the Meatloaf song says....."Don't be sad, cause two out of three ain't bad".
The Ball pick up was on the robot and it picked up balls, the cannon raised and lowered and fire balls...but we did not drive....so we keep pushing.
And really....things are looking good. We are beginning to work harder and smarter and the progress made this weekend shows that.
This team should be proud of themselves. Both for what they have accomplished and the spirit in which they are accomplishing it. Congratulations gang for being awesome...now let's get this thing fully integrated by next Sunday...cause keep reading to find out what's coming.
Hello FIRST team,
It’s that time of the year again … time to start planning our annual week 0 scrimmage.
Aces High Team 176 invites you to register to participate in our annual FIRST Robotics Scrimmage – Suffield Shakedown 2012. As in the past, we will be using the official FIRST playing field.
Suffield Shakedown
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Suffield High School
Registration is $100 and checks should be made out to Aces High Robotics and sent to the following address:
Aces High, Team 176
c/o Tina LaPointe
1604 North Grand St
West Suffield CT 06093
Additional information, as it becomes available, will be sent to you and can also be found on our website: http://aceshigh176.org
Included in this email is the announcement for the Dave Leenhouts Award. This award is designed to honor an adult mentor who has made a significant contribution to his/her team or to an individual. Please make this attached announcement available to your team.
Please email me, Tina LaPointe at tlapointe3@yahoo.com to register, as there is a limited amount of space for teams.
Thank you and good luck with build in the new year.
Tina LaPointe
FIRST Robotics Team 176, Aces High
Registration coordinator Suffield Shakedown
State of the Robot Address
State of the Robot Address
By: Mr. BWe have a great team coming together, and the expectation is that we will have a robot to be proud of.
There continues to be many instances of students and parents helping to make this effort a success. The playing field designed and built by Mr. Thomsen, Mr. Green and our own indomitable Mr. Partridge, has been used repeatedly for testing and development. Thanks folks for that great effort.
Recently Mrs. Serrilla and Mrs Webster have taken over the task of arranging the travel and accommodations...as well as a lot of other "details" for which we are all grateful. Among other things, Mrs. Serrilla and Mrs. Webster completed the application for the WPI travel grant (see previous news post)and submitted it. Thank you for that effort. We are all grateful.
Mr. Stevens, Mr. Partridge, Mr. Long, Mr. Ayers, Mr. Westfield and Mr. Pickett have also been "In the Shop" (Some of these folks, every night, all night) helping to keep this project moving forward.
We are also very proud of the Robotics Alumni who have come to help out the team. These are professional engineers, scientists and mathematicians, who were former members of the Plymouth Robotics Team: Mr Carl Neilsen, Dr. James Partridge, Kurt Geissler, Andrew Sealey, Russel Bozek, Allison Burgess. Thank you folks for being outstanding role models for this team, and for helping to send the message that learning and doing is a lifestyle. Your all welcome "In the shop" anytime...but you know that.
This year's students have been nothing short of outstanding. Think about it...Plymouth student engineers working 10-14 hours a day (some of these kids all night, every night) thinking really hard, designing new technology, performing experiments, tests and continually learning new skills, all at an incredible rate..and...hanging out with old folks and being nice to them...and ...and, we hope,having a good time doing it.
This is turning out to be a stellar group of young scientist, technologists and engineers.
But...........we are not even halfway to the top of this mountain. The robot has not yet existed as a single entity, it's sub systems are spread all over the shop, and a lot of essential technical issues involving ball handling, targeting and software controls have not been resolved or fully evolved. We are still in the very early stages of development and we are running out of time fast.
Let's look at where we are at today, January, 27th....20 days into the build...and after a conservative estimate of a combined 1200 man hours of effort.
1. The cannon is showing promise but still needs refinement.
2. The cannon altitude mechanism has not even been tested, let alone gone through the refinement stages.
3. Ball pick up is still based on hope and a belief. Both pick up systems have only been bench tested. Neither pick up system has picked a ball up yet in a "Game" environment..
4. The chassis is not "Proven" and will require multiple design iterations and refinements over the next two weeks.
5. The control systems and programming remain in the discovery stage and cannot proceed rapidly until a working robot is delivered to the programmers....We have to provide this by Sunday night.
6. And believe it or not...if we continue working at this rate...and maybe work a bit smarter and with careful organization of our resources...we will accomplish this robot integration on time and on schedule.
What I'm saying here is that while we are not yet near done...we are doing well...we just have to "Kick" for the finish line.
Mrs Serrilla and Mrs. Webster have informed us of the following:
6 rooms have been reserved at the Marriott Courtyard the WPI First Robotic rate was $109 per night for 2 queen beds (room sleeps 5 ?) Link to the hotel is Marriott Courtyard Worcester At the moment all rooms are booked as check in on the 8th and check out on the 10th we can modify this as the date gets closer.
Right now the expectation is that a lead group of 10-12 students and teachers will go to WPI on Thursday March 8th and the rest of the team will arrive on Friday morning. If we double up on the rooms and put in an extra cot, we can save money. We do not yet know what the expected costs per team member will be, but we will make every attempt to keep the costs to a minimum and share the costs equally.
Thanks to those moms for doing this.
Thanks to a great team of students and parents for the efforts being offered, and for doing it all for the right reasons.
Go Plymouth School District Robotics…let’s continue shooting for the National Robotics Championship Title.
Important Information on WPI/FIRST Robotics regional
Important Information on WPI/FIRST Robotics regional
By: Mr. BGreetings PNTA Team 23 Members
There are posts about important documents on the WPI regional website today:
* Team Travel Grant Application DUE 6 FEB 2012 Teams may apply for grants to help offset their cost to travel to the WPI Regional. All teams are strongly encouraged to apply. Is there a parent that can look into this...we would welcome help.
* WPI Scholarship Application DUE 1 MAR 2012 Each team may nominate one senior for a $10,000 WPI Scholarship only available for teams attending the WPI Regional. Let's try and get this help for a PNHS kid on the team... who on the team has applied to WPI this year?
Find the applications and more details here: http://www.wpi.edu/news/firstregional
WPI FIRST Robotics Regional Competition
WPI FIRST Robotics Regional Competition
By: Mr. B and the folks from WPITeams-
Welcome to the 2012 WPI FRC Regional Tournament! We are very excited to have your teams joining us this year and look forward to another wonderful event!
Some quick but very important details:
* We will continue to update important information on the event website here: http://www.wpi.edu/+firstregional
* Thanks to the generous donations of The MathWorks, Inc and WPI we will once again be able to offer Team Travel Assistance Grants! Application will be posted soon.
* We also plan on offering WPI Regional Scholarships to well-qualified seniors on teams participating in the regional. Again, application will be posted soon.
* Through a partnership with the Worcester Sharks, Friday night will be "Robotics Night @ the Worcester Sharks". For $10 per person, teams will receive a ticket to the hockey game plus a voucher for a hot dog and drink. The game will feature a robot dropping the ceremonial first puck as well as robotics displays in the lobby areas. The game is at the DCU Center (right next door to the Hilton Garden Inn) and should be a fun relaxing night with the teams at the event! Contact me directly to purchase tickets.
* We are working with local hotels to block rooms and get discount prices. We have definitely blocked space at the Hilton Garden Inn and are waiting on the contract. We are also working with other hotels nearby WPI. However, if you will have regular access to transportation while at the event, most hotels in Shrewsbury and Auburn are just a short drive to the venue and may be less expensive.
This weekend
This weekend
By: Kevin JohnsonHi folks,
This weekend we have an updated schedule.
Saturday, 1/21/12: No Hours.
Sunday, 1/22/12: 10:30am to 3pm.
Update to Build Schedule
Update to Build Schedule
By: KurtThere has been a change to the build schedule for Saturday 21st: the new build hours are 7AM - 3PM.
Build Schedule
Team Twitter Account
Team Twitter Account
By: Bryan HughesI thought it’d be a good idea to use a communication medium that everybody can access during school and easily share links and ideas. I made a Twitter account for the team (@FRCTeam23). Twitter is unblocked on school computers unlike Facebook and some other sites. Please ask me if you need help using Twitter.
http://twitter.com/FRCTeam23
Rebound Rumble Rules Review Rquiz Ready
Rebound Rumble Rules Review Rquiz Ready
By: KurtWhat an awesome game! FIRST has designed a great game that is going to make for some very interesting game play and robot design strategies. The rules are relatively simple, and mostly unambiguous.
I've finished making the rules quiz. Click on the following link to access the quiz. When you get there, please enter your FULL name. The quiz should take about five minutes.
If you end up needing to take it multiple times, that's ok. What matters most is that everyone understands the rules so that design meetings are run smoothly. We don't care what it takes to get there as long as we arrive.
If you find any errors in my quiz, please let me know. If you have any questions on rules, or you think you have found an ambiguity that could use clarification, email me and let me know, and I'll begin making questions to direct to FIRST.
Here it is: http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=rebound-rumble-rules-review-rquiz
Thanks, Kurt
Failed Emails
Failed Emails
By: KurtThe following email addresses bounced: lmwebblb@verizon.net suzieq3144@comcast.net jess9@msn.com eserrilla@plymouth.k1.ma.us heatherjadamsz@gmail.com sinisa1s04@gmail.com please help me in correcting them so we can ensure these members receive future communications.
The Kick Off Weekend is Here
The Kick Off Weekend is Here
By: Kacey DoryIF YOU WANT TO WATCH THE SATURDAY KICKOFF EVENT ON THE WEB FROM ANYWHERE HERE IS THE LINK: If you can’t make it to your local kickoff tomorrow.
Attention PSHS and PNHS students: FIRST Robotics Competition Kick off is right around the corner and we have some great news!
Some past PNHS "Engineers" are returning to lend us some help and advice. These are PNHS students who graduated from competitive engineering colleges and universities and who are volunteering to help our team. We could not be more grateful or more proud.
Special thanks to:
Kurt Giessler - Carnegie Mellon
Andrew Sealey - Worcester Poly technical Institute
Karl Neilsen - Worcester Poly technical Institute
Kesha Neilsen - Wheaton (Mathematics)
We are also looking forward to the experienced help of many of the parents of both present and former students.
Special thanks to Mr and Mrs. Ron and Paula Partridge and Mr. Jim Stevens, these are seasoned FIRST veterans who will be available to our team for help and advice.
We are fortunate to have the help and support of these former students and parents...and looking forward, today's students will develop the technical and creative help and expertise that will be available to the program in years to come.
Note:This is the link to the source of information for all things FIRST related.
January 7-8 Weekend Itinerary
PNHS Saturday 1/7/12 Rm 222 from 10-2PM
PNHS Sunday 1/8/12 Cafeteria from 10-2PM
This is the agenda for the coming weekend
1.) Watch the Kick off on Saturday and learn as much as possible about the game, rules and the competition.
2.) Read the rules Saturday night.
3.) Think about robot designs on Sunday morning.
4.) Come to the PNHS meeting Sunday 10-2 and be prepared to:
a. Study the KOP (look it up on the FIRST website)
b. Participate in some formal ideation activities
c. Sign up to be a team leader or join one of these teams:
i. Playing Field
ii. Robot Kart
iii. Travel and Logistics
iv. Accounting and Rules Conformity
v. Robot Chassis
vi. Robot Manipulator
vii. T-Shirts and Logo
viii. Programming
ix. Wiring and Controls
x. Website and Communications
xi. Shop maintenance
Remember: The Rules quiz is coming...and we all want to pass this test so we can participate knowledgeably in the design and construction of the robot.
The good news is that you can keep taking the test until you pass...so fail early and often in order to succeed sooner!
Advice from a Teacher, Engineer and PNTA member
Advice from a Teacher, Engineer and PNTA member
By: K.GeisslerHi PNTA Teammates,
My name is Kurt Giessler. I am a former PNTA student and I’m excited to be working with the team this year again as a mentor. I am writing you today regarding the rules.
Every sport has a set of rules. In basketball you can’t take 2 steps without dribbling, in football you can’t move before the snap. Rules are specific to the game, and like those I just mentioned, often have intricate exclusions that greatly change what happens in the game. Understanding them fully is imperative to succeeding.
Robotics sports are no different in this regard. The rules will affect every step in the process, starting at the very first design meetings up through the last moments of a match (PNTA has won matches in the past because we knew the tie breaker hierarchy and the other teams did not!)
On January 7th FIRST will release the game and the rules at their kickoff meeting. Teams everywhere, including ours, will be reading these materials immediately upon release. Mr. Bastoni has asked me to create a rules quiz to gauge a student’s readiness to participate in design meetings. Within 24 hours I’ll have this quiz ready and you will receive an email with instructions and a link to the quiz.
Throughout the season FIRST will update the rules, sometimes with clarifications or entirely new rules. While it is the responsibility of all members to read these updates, I intend on making myself a ‘rules guru’ and will serve as a reference when questions arise. I am best reached at kgiessler@gmail.com
Regards,
Kurt
FIRST KICK OFF INVITATION
FIRST KICK OFF INVITATION
By: M. BastoniPlease plan on attending the FIRST Robotics Kick off at PNHS.
When:
Saturday January 7th from 10AM until 2PMWe want every member of the team to watch this NASA WEB Televised kick off event...in order to fully understand the game intent and the rules.
We will meet again at PNHS on the following day - Sunday
When:
Sunday January 8th from 10AM until 2PMThese are important dates, because this is when the robot will be designed, and team members will learn what needs to be done.
So thanks in advance, and welcome to the start of the 2012 FIRST Season.
Important File
Important File
By: Kevin JohnsonHey folks, Could you please read this file: Click Here. It is also on the resource page.
New Website!
New Website!
By: Kevin JohnsonHey folks! I've been working the last few weekends to completely re-create the website. If you would like to share your thoughts on the website just find me on one of our Monday meetings, I\'ll definitely take your thoughts into consideration. See you around. -- Kevin