teamXBOT brings home FIRST Engineering Inspiration & Silicon Valley Regional Finalist Awards!
teamXBOT #488 was awarded the
Silicon Valley Regional (San Jose, CA) Engineering Inspiration Award Saturday
March 17th, 2007. The Engineering Inspiration Award celebrates
outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering and
engineers within a team’s school and community. Criteria include:
This is the second highest team award FIRST
bestows.
teamXBOT brings home the Silicon Valley Regional Finalist award. With our
partners Athenian Robotics (Danville, Ca) and MAHS (Atherton, CA), we advanced
to the finals with the X7 four bar linkage robot lifting system providing the
60 bonus points to secure the outcome of the matches. A new cheer has been
heard at the FIRST events: “What time is it?” – 488! Please give a round of
applause to the 2007 teamXBOT students. Read our
Story:
Silicon Valley Regional – Thursday3/15, the first day of
competition, is reserved for robot minor/major repairs and/or adjustment and
practice matches. The competition pits 2 teams of 3 against each other and our
alliance partners on our team were having challenges due to unfortunate and
various malfunctions. This competition is all about teamwork and although our
kids worked hard and X7 preformed as designed; it was not to be their day.
On the first day of the competition, we ranked ~36 out of ~50
teams at one point. Again, our hard working alliance partners continued to
suffer from problems. We won 3 out of 6 matches, but due to our overall low
scores and rank, team xbot’s chances of qualifying
for the National Championship seemed hopeless.
On the second day of competition we came out with chins held high
knowing we came to play for the spirit of the competition and confident in the
team strategy that defined X7: our two robot lifting platforms that could gain
us 60 bonus points total for lifting each 120lb robot.
Lady Luck paired us with Alliance partners winning the last two
matches! X7’s rank was now at 22 and the lifting platforms/bonus points
were matched by only a few other machines. Team xbot
was selected as the 6th draft to play in the Regional double
elimination rounds. With strategic game play X7 had made it to the semi-finals
and advanced to the finals. In the very final match, our chain broke and the
robot made its last effort literally giving us all it had.
This is indeed a real come from behind story as we finished the
San Jose Regional's as the 2nd seeded team. The real success is the
fact that we also won the very distinguished REGIONAL ENGINEERING INSPIRATION
Award, which included an invitation to the National Championship in Atlanta! So
the kids went home with not one, but TWO medals around their necks.
We are most proud of the Engineering Inspiration Award. It bestows
an honor to our team for furthering science and engineering in the community.
When they are not working on their robot, the kids are working to inspire other
minority and diverse young men and women. They give their time and expertise to
help other teams make it to competitions. They participate in local
minority events including BAMS (Blacks at Microsoft) and parades such as Soulfest, Chinatown, and Federal Way Days.
In 3 short weeks we will be going to the Nationals in Atlanta. The
entry fee is $5,000 not to mention airfare and lodging. With support from Microsoft,
we also have mentors from Boeing, Devry University
and others but the costs are still steep with upwards of 30 competition team
members traveling from the west to east coast. 50% of our students are on free
or reduced lunch. Help send teamXBOT to the FIRST
Championship in Atlanta, GA. Your consideration would be most welcome and
your support is always appreciated:
Thank you, teamXBOT www.teamxbot.org/
SUPPORT US:
Tax deductible
donations for the Atlanta Finals can be made to:
Alliance for Education/XBOT Robotics
509 Olive Way Suite 500 Seattle, WA 98101-2556
Alliance for Education is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Our tax ID
number is 91-1508191
teamXBOT is a
F.I.R.S.T. robotics team that designs and builds a robot in six short weeks to
complete the game tasks. Students are recruited from Franklin
High School and surrounding south end schools. Students have
an opportunity to work side by side with volunteer engineering
professionals from major Seattle area companies. The objective of the 2007 game is to ring the spider with the
pool tubes and bonus points for lifting robots 12" off the floor. We
elected to lift two robots (60 points). 4 bar linkage with 2 (yes 2) 100 lb gas
springs (like the springs on the hatchback). teamXBOT also submitted a 3D animation entry
(designed and authored by students) –
5 Ways to meet the Kyoto Protocol. Do you know your carbon footprint? (http://research.microsoft.com/~rcutler/xbot/488_AVA2007.wmv)
FIRST
– For Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technology, FIRST Robotics Competition (
The FIRST Robotics Competition
challenges teams of young people and their mentors to solve a common problem in
a six-week timeframe using a standard "kit of parts" and a common set
of rules. Teams build robots from the parts and enter them in a series of
competitions designed by Dean Kamen, Dr. Woodie
Flowers, and a committee of engineers and other professionals.
Visit www.usfirst.org FIRST Robotics for more information.