The Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School / FIRST Robotics Team 88

Getting ready to travel.

By Ben Clark

After long weeks of intense preparation, TJ2 hits the road!

As soon as the school bell rang on Tuesday afternoon, the students and teachers of TJ2 packed the bus and began our long trek to Baltimore, Maryland for the Chesapeake Regional competition. In total, we spent 9 hours on the highway, gearing up for the competition to come. Of course, we made two very important stops along the way. The first stop was at McDonalds where we snacked and stretched our legs, and the second was at a convenient highway rest stop that housed not only Starbucks, but a Cinnabon as well! Happily, the bus finally came to a stop in front of our new home, the Embassy Suites Hotel just outside Baltimore. We unloaded all of our assorted luggage and bags, and walked exhaustedly to our rooms. Sleep finally came at 12 am!

Exploring D.C. , TJ2 Style!

Ryan and Brad checking out the rockets at the Smithsonian

We all woke up at 7am sharp to catch a bite to eat before we headed out to explore our nation’s capital. The hotel kindly provided a complimentary breakfast, and we took full advantage of their delicious food! After we were fed and dressed, we trooped onto the bus and drove an hour south to Washington D.C. to spend a day visiting and enjoying the sights. Our first stop was at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Seeing as we are a robotics team, we were extremely interested in all the cool planes, jets, and spacecraft! The exhibits were impressive to say the least, and they even sold space ice cream in the gift shop! After touring this remarkable site for about two hours, we all went to lunch at McDonalds… again! Luckily, we had a lot more activities planned, so burning calories was easily accomplished.

At the Smithsonian, we were met by Stephen, who would be our tour guide for the day. Stephen led the team to the bus, and then to the Museum of Natural History, where we spent the next hour and a half. Even though robotics is associated with math and science, we quickly found out that we had not lost touch with our love of history and nature. From giant squids to butterflies, and stuffed wallabies to giant crystals and the famous Hope Diamond, the Museum of Natural History astounded us at every turn. This site by far was the most diverse and interactive of the day! Once we had finished exploring our natural world, we took a trip across the Potomac to Arlington.

Steven the Guide talks about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Once there, our guide Stephen took the team on an intense tour of Arlington National Cemetery. Never before had I witnessed TJ2 so somber and quiet. Thousands of white grave stones marked the final resting place of brave men and women who gave their lives to allow people like us to enjoy freedom and equality. It truly was a memorable experience, one which I certainly will never forget.

From Arlington we drove downtown to the Sizzle Express, a gourmet buffet restaurant. Once there, we realized that we needed to restock on calories, and so we stuffed our faces.   After dinner, we met the bus and traveled over to the White House where we got out and continued on foot. We took a team picture in front of the President’s porch, and spotted a news camera crew pitching a story on the political events of the day. Sadly, we couldn’t figure out a way to sneak into the shot…no matter though, we went on to bigger and better things! Our next stop was the Washington Monument, where we all got cricks in our necks from looking up at the 555 foot obelisk. Of course, by this time it was dark out, and the lighting made the whole experience ten times more exciting. From the Washington Monument we walked to the WWII memorial, and Stephen filled us in on the many uses of symbolism of the monument. We explored the memorial for a few minutes, and took crazy pictures in the dark, then trooped back to the bus to continue our tour of D.C.

TJ2 visits the White House... sort of. ; )

We wrapped up our visit to D.C by visiting the Jefferson Memorial, Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, and finally, the Lincoln Memorial. Each monument held a special significance, and each was wonderfully explained by our brilliant tour guide Stephen. At last we got on the bus one last time, and drove back to the hotel. We arrived at our rooms tired and full of wonder at the sights and sounds of our nations capital, Washington D.C.

I am back again; about halfway through junior year and three weeks into the build season. It’s all very exciting and a little overwhelming as well. Being a part of TJ2 has been a fun and interesting experience so far. I have made a few new friends and a lot of new memories. I am still going to the build, chairman’s, newsletter, and art groups. This has become more time consuming since the kick off of the new game, but I don’t mind. I am enjoying every minute of it. My favorite of the groups is the build group. I have been learning a lot about different tools and how they work and I think this will be beneficial for me in the future. Before joining this team I had no idea what certain tools were, let alone the throught that I would be using them. We have been designing, testing, and fabricating nonstop since the beginning of the season. I have no idea what I was getting myself into. It is hard work, but I am very glad that I joined the team this year and I can’t wait to see how the robot and the competitions go.

The FRC game for the 2010 season is called Breakaway. Breakaway is played similar to soccer, but there are some key differences. In Breakaway is a 3 vs. 3 match with two goals at each end of the field, and the objective is to score as many soccer balls as you can into the goals at your end of the field, each ball is worth one point. Another key difference is that there are two bumps that span across the field, and divide it into three sections. Robots need to be wary of crossing over the bumps, because the bumps are high and may cause robots to flip over. Also in the middle of the bumps is a structure known as the tower. From the tower teams can pull themselves up and hang at the end of the match for two bonus points. Also teams can hang from other robots for three bonus points at the end of the match.

This year’s game has just been announced and TJ2 is extremely busy building a robot to meet the high standards that we set with our success during last year’s competitions. These weeks are what we have been working towards all year and our excitement has been difficult to contain! This fact, however, does not mean we have been sitting idly by and letting time go to waste. Our team has been engaged, not only with other competitions, but also fundraisers to help our students obtain the funds required ofthem. This pre-season has been especially eventful for our students. During the VEX robot season, we reached triumphs that were unprecedented. During Savage Soccer, 2 of our 5 teams were in the top 8, allowing them to choose robots that were most complimentary to theirdesign and strategy. Most of our other groups were chosen during alliance selections, making only one of our robots left out in the qualifying matches. One of our teams went farther in the competition than any other. Bang it Out reached the finals and came in second for the whole event. The alliance that was able to beat them was the only undefeated team of the day. All while this was in process, a small group of our students and one teacher attended the Java Programming seminar that was available that day. This information is being used for the programming of our robot during this build season. After Savage Soccer was over and done with, a few students and two mentors attended Savage Soccer North. During this competition, TJ2 was able to dominate over the opposing robots. Every robot present participated in the qualifying matches, many being seeded in the top 8. One team in particular was ranked number one and later was able to win the whole competition. They also won the judge’s award in “Excellence in Design”. Never before have we been so victorious during the VEX season. Fundraising this year has, as always, been helped along by our annual auction. We were lucky enough to be able to acquire a larger function hall to accommodate the growing interest in this particular event. Also, many alumni were invited, increasing our number of attendees and also the total night’s profit. The whole night exceeded our expectations by raising over $12,000 for the team and the individual students that donated items. Some of our largest selling items were a Cape house rental, two kayaks, and a drum set that were competitively bid at. We hope that next year’s auction will do just as well, ifnot more so, than this year’s. The beginning of this season has been most eventful from a number of different outlooks. Our VEX robots reached a new height of excellence, while our auction raised more for fundraising than we dared dream. All that can be wished for now, is that our build season and competitions do just as admirably as these past occasions. We have our fingers crossed.

Our team is full of mentors. Some, like Mrs. Calef, are known throughout the entire organization. Every student knows them by name and has at least one interaction with them. Others, however, are less well known and yet contribute just as much to Team 88’s success during the season as any other mentor or teacher. Most students would not know Harry Jahnke unless they themselves attended the build sessions after the game is announced. The students that do attend these meetings know this man to be one of the most knowledgeable and helpful mentors that we are lucky to have. Since he is the master of the milling machine, he assists and teaches students how to use the machine while fabricating parts for the robot prototypes and later the actual robot we use in the season. In the general assembly and design ofthe robot, his ideas and workmanship are a huge factor that enable to compete as well as we do.

Last year, during the off-season, Harry showed his kindness and generosity to the team in an extreme way. Using the equipment in his own shop and precious time, he fabricated more than 4,000 key-chains. Thes e were designed in the shape of our team name and also available in a variety of colors. We used these for trading with other teams during the competitions and also as gifts to family and friends. Harry might not be well known throughout the entire team, but his help is evident within the robot’s design and construction. Every student received four of his key-chains last year to trade, and yet many knew not who they came from. Harry deserves the utmost respect and gratitude for all the time and energy he has put into this team.