Get Excited for 2007!

Hello Team!

Thank you so much for signing up for Castilleja's Robotics Team: FIRST
Team 1700!
This will be our third season as a team, and we expect to rock! This email will outline the major dates for the 2007 season, what to expect and how to get involved. Please look it over, mark your calendars, and get psyched!

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), was founded in 1992 by Dean Kamen, "To create a world where science and technology are celebrated... where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes". In 2006, its flagship program, the FIRST Robotics Competition, reached more than 28,000 high school students on
1,133 teams in 33 regional competitions. FIRST's multinational competition teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. Its goal is to motivate young people to pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, while building self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills. Check out the website:
http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/

Sat Jan 6, 2007 KICK OFF DAY! Meet at Castilleja, in the Choral Room, at 12 noon. Team leaders will be returning from San Jose State with the Challenge Announcement, Game Rules, and the Kit of Parts. Be ready to brainstorm, inventory all the cool gadgets and gizmos, and start working on the challenge. Plan on working with the team until 5pm. ALL PARENTS
are urged to stay at 12 noon for a special parent meeting to discuss team supervision, meals and logistics. Be there or be square - Lunch will be served!
As a reminder, the kick off day is the SATURDAY BEFORE school starts. Although we would love if everyone could come, we also realize that some of you might be away of vacation. Please let us know ASAP if you are unable to attend.

Sun Jan 7, 11 am to 5pm - continue brainstorming/ possibly prototype the robot.

Mon - Fri, Jan 8 - 14 (Global Week) We will meet daily after school 4 - 7 pm to work on the Challenge.

The team will work daily in the evenings after school, and weekends, to prototype and build the robot, develop the programming that controls it, create the team web site, and our team animation entry. Find the project that interests you most, work hard and HAVE FUN! We ask that Parents help provide supervision and meals.

Feb 20, 2007 Robot Shipping Deadline - Fed Ex will pick up our Robot by 5pm. Please note that the Ship Date is during Ski Week. This is usually the most intense time for build and programming, so we ask that everyone be here for it.

Feb 22, 2007 Website Design Deadline - our Website is up for Award consideration.

March 1 - 3, 2007 Pacific Northwest Regional FIRST competition in Portland, Oregon.
About a dozen team members will go. This is where we won the KPCB Entrepreneurship award in 2006.

March 15 - 17, 2007 Silicon Valley Regional FIRST competition at San Jose State Event Center.
All team members participate in this exciting tournament. This is where we won another KPCB Entrepreneurship award, and
the Engineering Inspiration Award in 2006.

April 12 -14, 2007 FIRST National Championships in Atlanta, Georgia.
About a dozen team members will go. This is where we won the Daimler Chrysler Team Spirit Award in 2006. Keep in mind that the Nationals are during the second weekend of spring Spring Break (meaning that we will leave the wednesday of break).

We'd love for the whole team to go to the out-of-town competitions, but unfortunately that is not financially or organizationally feasible. Team members will qualify to attend the out-of-state tournaments by hard work and dedication to meeting the goals of the team and through their "gracious professionalism."


Thank You and GET EXCITED!

PLEASE send me an e-mail saying that you have read this, and let me know if you are able to make it to kickoff, a simple yes or no in the subject line will suffice :)
THANK YOU!!!

Team Lead
-Chrissy Crone
(Cell: 650-339-2028)

Technical Lead
-Julia Lee
(Cell: 408-482-5196)

Non-Technical Lead
-Hannah Sachs
(Cell: 650-248-8687)

More cool stuff

photos from our trip to IDEO (and more)!

check out Jim's awesome shadow on the wall (in the welding fieldtrip album):

http://picasaweb.google.com/castilleja.robotics

Field Trip to Ideo + WELDING

so today we (kersten, julia, and chrissy) brought the crew (nandini, melissa, ida, caroline, mary, and sherri)to ideo to 1. show them around the shop and 2. watch jimmy (who most generously skipped his meeting)weld the side rails onto the prototype chassis, so now it is all (most) ready to put wheels on.

upon return to casti, we got to work drilling holes for wheels, playing with the electronics board, taking the old tread off the wheels and putting the spiffy new tread on. we're also working on putting together some new wheels, so yay!

have i mentioned how excited for the season i am?

...

i am SO excited for the season!!!

Field Trip to Alan Steel!

Today we went to alan steel. As usual, it was a ton of fun and we saw some really neat stuff. We also bought the additional aluminum we need to finish building the prototype chassis, so we can move forward with that next week. We'll also put treads on the new wheels because we bought a hose clamp! Get excited!
Happy Birthday, Erin.

1st Build Meeting!

YAY! The build team has met!
Tursday night we convened in the project room in the science wing (not the presentation rooms, fyi) from 5-7, as usual. Thanks to Nandini, Caroline, Sherri, and Melissa for showing up. We took the wheels we are going to re-use off Rosie (last year's robot) and assembled the other wheels to be used for this year's robot. We also drilled more holes in the proto-type chassis. Yep, lots of hands-on work : ) Hooray!