Happy Vex-giving!!As the season is coming to its midway point, the Firestone Robotics Club must stop for a few hours and give thanks. The club took this time to bond with one another and think about how important club and its members are to each of us. This year had the largest spread yet and included a variety of sides, entrees, and desserts. Outside of eating until our bellies are over stuffed, our teams are hard at work preparing for the next robotics competition in January. ~Mica Heffner Media Officer
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New Year, New WebsiteAs the season begins to wind down and club members start to chose new teams in preparation for new year, the website got a new look! We still have the same information and pictures, just a more updated theme :) The website will continue to be updated in the following months! Hope you enjoy! ~Mica Heffner
Media Officer Elections!!!Congratulations on your new positions! President: Logan Benninghoff Vice President: Michelle Reitz Secretary: Daphnie Kennedy Treasurer: Carissa Eplin Media: Mica Heffner Thank you to those who served the club during the 2016-2017 school year :) President: Maddisyn Hillyard Vice President: Maggie Weiss-Vopat Secretary: Melissa Cardew Treasurer: Nick Raymond Media (Brand New):Logan Benninghoff ~Mica Heffner
Your New Media Officer STATES 2017- We're all going!For the first time in our club's history, all of our Firestone robotics teams have qualified for states. We will be competing, alongside the top 68 teams in the state, in the hopes of qualifying for the VEX Worlds competition in Louisville, Kentucky. This ranks all six Firestone teams among the best in the state of Ohio. Event Information We will be heading to Harding High School in Marion, Ohio on March 4th and 5th for the state competition. Driver and programming skills events will take place on Friday, March 4th, while the main competition will occur on the 5th. Trips to worlds will be provided for the tournament winner, the tournament runner-up, and the other two semifinalist alliances. The excellence award, design award and the top two programming skills and driver skills scores will also qualify teams for worlds. In addition to these qualifiers, the state of Ohio received an extra six qualifications to worlds due to the region's rapid growth in the past few years, and these trips to worlds will be awarded to the the six teams with the highest overall skills scores, who haven't already qualified through one other the other criteria.
...And all through firestone...Set-up will be taking place today after school, with the competition on December 10th. Former club officers and team members will be returning to help referee and run the competition, including last year's club president, Chris Wertenberger. This will be the first competition hosted in Akron, so the competition is bound to face some road bumps along the way. ...Every Robot is stirring...Robots are in the last stages of testing and programming for the most part, forgoing any future mechanical failures. Teams 7316B, 7316C, 7316D, 7316E and 7316F have yet to qualify, so we'll be banking on getting one of our teams qualified this competition. Autonomous programs are in the writing, so we will see how our teams are doing at competition tomorrow. ...with a few kinks.From 7316E's motor gearing dilemma to 7316D's twisting axles, there are clear issues to be worked out once competition closes. Teams will be ironing out the kinks and preparing for the next competition, but for now everyone is focused on trying to sweep competition.
Thanksgiving CelebrationTeams gathered for a small Thanksgiving celebration on the 22nd and in order to catch up on redesigning and building after our second competition. Teams were supposed to leave with bellies full and robots built, although someteams ran into a bit of trouble. This led to an extra day of celebration and building on the 23rd, as our home meet is approaching quickly. 2016-2017 Competition Status updateTwo competitions into our VEX robotics competition season, only one team is qualified for states (7316A). We have three competitions to go, and five teams to get qualified for states. Preparations are beginning for our home meet for robotics on December 10th. Updated team rosters will be coming to the website soon (a bit late, I know), and a rework of the pages is in progress.
Lock-in (9/16-17/16)Our new annual lock-in tradition among the Firestone Robotics Club was held on the 16 of September, 2016. Teams brought in a finalized design (supposedly) to school on the 16th, then once classes ended the teams got to work on their robots. Former club members came in to assist the newly formed teams and to help Mr. Spak set up the competition field. Parents brought food and observed the proceedings, as teams debated design choices and put together the shells of their robots. Progress at the end of the night was mixed, but positive overall, with some teams even looking forward to redesigns in the next few weeks (former club member Jasper Nitzche would be proud).
Starstruck 2016-2017Now that Worlds has come and gone, the new VEX game has been announced. Info on the new game, VEX "Starstruck" here. Now that we have our new game, next year's preparations have kicked into high-gear. Teams are being developed and tested, new officers are being elected (Including myself) and people are packing up to move to the new building next year. ElectionsOut with the old and in with the new (sort of)! Elections have been held and the results are in. Once this year concludes, our new officers will take the place of our current officers. The New Blood: President: Maddisyn Hillyard Vice President: Maggie Weiss-Vopat Secretary: Melissa Cardew Treasurer: Nick Raymond Media (Brand New): (yours truly) Logan Benninghoff Deposed Rulers: President: Chris Wartenberger Vice President: Aaron Bowie Secretary: Kelsea Ray Treasurer: Nicolai Van Reuter New teams for a new seasonPlanning for the new year has begun, meaning that teams will have to be formed for our 2016-2017 Vex robotics season. Nothing can be set in stone until the new year begins, as there are still freshmen we have yet to meet, but the "stars" have begun to align for next year. Teams will be comprised of 5-6 members, and the addition of an additional team, 7316F, will probably be necessary. Let the team finding free-for-all begin! ~Logan Benninghoff
Your New Media Officer Team 7316E takes home the gold! Or whichever medal a judge's award is equivalent to. They left for the VEX worlds competition on the 20th and have returned victorious, taking home the first international award earned by Firestone high school. They received a judge's award at worlds, meaning that of all the teams in their division, their interview and design were the judges' favorites. Not only that, but they got to see the new game first hand and updates on VEX "Starstruck" will be coming soon. ~Logan Benninghoff
Website editor After our states competition at Marion high school last Friday and Saturday (March 4-5), there's some good and bad news. The good news is... One of our teams won! Break out the streamers and party hats, we're going to worlds! Then there's the bad news. Not everyone can pull off a win at states, so it's time to pay our respects to our "fallen" tributes. Worlds 2016- Who's Going?The alliance of teams 7316E, 9185 and 7882B took home the Tournament Champion Award, qualifying all three teams for worlds and making them the proud owners of a fancy new trophy. How is 7316E preparing?In order to prepare for worlds, 7316E is redesigning/rebuilding their robot, so that it can be competitive at worlds. They plan to keep their original flywheel for close range shooting, but all other sections are being reworked. The intake is going to become a vertical conveyor to elevate the flywheel and make pickup easier, since balls can be picked up from the front of the robot. The speed of the drive train will be reduced, in order to keep motors from burning out. Finally they plan to add a nautilus gear (in layman's/my own terms, a slingshot) to shoot long distance. This new design will make 7316E's robot more versatile and hopefully help them do well at worlds. We shot ourselves in the foot- A farewell to the rest of our teamsSo, what happened to the rest of our teams at states? 7316B, 7316C and 7316D were all allianced together and got knocked out in the quarterfinals. Who did we lose to you may ask? The third alliance, also known as the combination of teams 7316E, 9185 and 7882B. So, although there may be some animosity in the air, we're still happy for 7316E and are glad they will be representing us at worlds. Afterwards a pizza party was held in honor of our time at states and then our teams parted way to go work on 7316E's robot and to prepare for next year. ~Logan Benninghoff
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AuthorsAnyone who posts should sign off their name, you can find more about us in the 'About Us' section. This is the overall club blog, full of our usual shenanigans and plots and schemes and occasionally funny stuff. Archives
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