The Mukwonago BEARs

Steady Progress

Megan Thurow — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:46:39 +0000

More Fun Works in Progress

Megan Thurow — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:05:12 +0000

Photo Gallery: Construction Begins!

Megan Thurow — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:09:57 +0000

From behind cameras I lurk

Caidlena Krohn — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:17:25 +0000

I joined FIRST because it was something my best friend was doing and she told me it was oodles and oodles of fun, and it is. I mostly became interested in joining the team because said best friend said that the team was in need of an individual who would be able to make videos and take some pictures and what not. Every video so far this season with the team’s logo in the beginning and in the corner was once in many pieces in my video editing program.

From my perspective, I don’t just get one part of the picture. I see many pieces of the many groups working on manufacturing ideas and parts for what will soon be our team’s robot. As I edit and put the many video fragments together, I get to see much of the progress our team makes day by day, week by week, and so on. I’ve helped the team brainstorm different prototype ideas and filmed them piecing together the robot’s skeletal base, constructing different shooter models, figuring various courses of action to take, and so on. It enables me to get a rough idea of what everyone’s working on.

Joining the team was probably one of the best decisions I’ve made. I’ve gotten to meet so many awesome people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise.

Robotics Dodge Ball!

Megan Thurow — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:08:30 +0000

Dodge ball time is just around the corner! Come release your stress from the build season in a fun way!

FIRST Team 930 Second Annual Dodge Ball Tournament
When? ~ February 25
Time? ~ 6 pm to 10 pm
Where? ~ Parkview Middle School gym (930 N. Rochester Street Mukwonago, WI 53149)

Regional robotics teams are invited to bring their Rebound Rumble basketballs and wear their team shirts to an evening of high-energy dodge ball fun. Two-topping pizzas can be pre-ordered for $10 by February 21. FRC Team 930 will provide soda and water. Please register for the event by e-mail at mukwonagobears@yahoo.com with your team number, number of members attending, and pre-order of pizza, if desired.

Here a just a few pictures from last years game.

Hansen’s Scouting Talk

Megan Thurow — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:31:51 +0000

Hansen talks to the team about scouting, have a look at what he has to say.

Safety Tip #3

Christa — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:24:18 +0000

With half the build season over, hopefully most teams are somewhere in the constructing process. I know my team is struggling a little, but we’re getting there.

For the safety tip this week, I’d like to remind you all to be aware of your tools. If a tool isn’t functioning properly, or not to its full capacity, it needs to be replaced. Our Dremmel just broke today, so we went out and bought a new one (which is amazing).

That’s it for now, wishing you all luck for the rest of the season~!

This Year’s Obstacle

Josh Santarelli — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:18:26 +0000

This year we’ve had to face a new obstacle, one that has been faced by this team before, although not by any of the members currently on the team. During the 2008 season, Team 930 was in many ways reborn. All of the members were new but one, and most were freshmen. The good side of this is that during the last few years, we’ve had a large amount of experienced juniors and seniors. However, the bad side of this kicked in this year: all those seniors graduated. Although we’ve been able to recruit a good amount of new members, we now must work with a team in which over half are first-timers, and only one senior.
But our team has risen to the challenge, and every day I see an example of veteran members stepping into the numerous responsibilities left for us by our current alumni, or new members diving in and going the extra mile.

This year, we’ve decided to go with a fairly competitive design, and although I (and I suspect others) have some doubts about whether we can pull it off, this team has shown that we’re willing to try our hardest. This year will be stretching for everyone, but that’s what this program is about. Win or lose, every one of our members will get that much more experience in “the hardest fun you’ll ever have.”

Stepping into the shoes of electrical lead

Adam Talajkowski — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:39:13 +0000

I had to face it; at the end of last season I knew I was to fulfill the position of Electrical Lead. I tried to gain as much knowledge and advice from our previous lead, Sam, to prepare myself for next year. The off-season came and went, with minor jobs involving the well-being of our team and large amounts of fundraising and public relations, and I was still thinking about how I would be able to step up and meet the standards I set for myself. As the team started to meet more often I became more confident; I wasn’t as nervous but I could still sense that gut feeling of “what can I do?” and, “am I able to?”. Kickoff quickly flew around the corner, and the excitement grew and then burst the day of kickoff. The next three weeks after that, up to this day, have been a blur of thoughts and ideas; a flurry of tasks, designs, prototypes; and preparing for when it is time to finally mount and wire a control system.

Like the last two years, I was extremely excited for this year’s game, Rebound Rumble, especially since I play basketball in my free time. I like how the game is set up similar to the game of basketball, with technical fouls, a lane, the key, and “Inbounder”. From many years of experience, I knew that to be a great competitor in basketball, you need to be fast, agile, accurate, and be able to depend on your teammates. I took many of these aspects in real life and tried to incorporate them into my ideas during brainstorming in the first week. With the team decision to use mechanum wheels for our drivetrain, I thought that we started down the right path toward being agile and maneuverable. After further prototyping with our shooter mechanism, I felt that we could also accomplish the aspect of being accurate, arguably one of the most crucial parts of the real game of basketball. The mechanical side of the robot seemed relatively complex because of the game, which in turn, makes it harder for me to perform my job.

In my prototypes there is little space to mount important electrical pieces and I have to take a lot of time to design my side of the robot to insure things will come together in the end. Creativity also inspired my designs, as they need to be very different from previous years. It’s very exciting to be able to take an important role on our team this year.

If there is anything I’ve learned halfway through the season so far, it’s that I finally know how Sam felt all of last year, being overwhelmed by what you and other people on the team are asking you to do and to make it work with as few problems as possible and as fast as possible.

The Most Important Algorithm

Megan Thurow — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:16:09 +0000

Have a look at the “most important algorithm of our lifetime”.

How Speeding The “Most Important Algorithm Of Our Lifetime” Could Change This Modern World