Done with FTC, on to FRC!

Jeffrey and the BEAR Bots placed 11th out of 27 teams at the First Tech Challenge regional event last Sunday. It was an all-day extravaganza with many of us arriving before 7:00 AM and staying until after 6:00 PM. We are proud of what we accomplished in our first FTC regional, and it has given us the experience to do better when we start the First Robotics Competition build season in January. For more information about FTC and FRC, please visit the FIRST USA and FIRST Washington websites.

Reflections on Our Rookie Year

By Bryan

This is our first year in the First Robotics competition, and the entire team is incredibly excited and eager to do the best they can. This is a wonderful opportunity for everyone on the team to have an amazing experience building a robot and taking it to competitions. The mission of First USA Robotics is to inspire more young people to become science and technology leaders and give them a desire to become science and technology leaders.

As a rookie team we know we have a lot to learn about the intricacies of robotics. The team is dedicated to its goal and we feel that we can learn from and embrace the challenge of designing, programming and building a robot.

While the team is excited to build the robot and to compete, these things will not be possible without adequate funding, as building a robot, creating team uniforms, buying parts, and going to the competitions can be quite expensive. The good news though is that the team has already received a lot of support from the community and various organizations such as OSPI, NASA and Boeing. However, more assistance will be needed to cover the expenses of this program. One potential source of revenue that the team is looking into is the possibility of obtaining sponsorships from various organizations.

Overall the Cascade High School BEARbots is a young team that has exceeded expectations so far. We are eager, determined, and ready to compete. With the support of our mentors, our school, our sponsors and the community, the team is will continue to be competitive while practicing gracious professionalism, assisting other teams when and where we can. New mentors and sponsors are always needed, and those interested in supporting our team should contact Linda Anderson at Cascade High School.

On to Regionals

After our first competition we decided to make changes to our ramp so other robots would be able to drive up. This was a success for Round 2 on November 30. We scored more points and still maintained our second place ranking. Round 3 was more of a challenge, however. All of the other robot teams had modified their designs and were very successful in scoring a significant number of points. We redesigned our arm so it could extend higher, but it wasn't enough to win the crucial matches we needed to maintain second place. All teams that competed in the league rounds will also compete in the Regional Qualifier on Sunday, December 16. This has been a busy and exciting first year for CHS robotics, as we need to get ready for the FRC build season at the same time we are wrapping up the FTC season. If you wish to learn more about the FTC game, please visit the Ring It Up page on the FIRST robotics site.

Our robot, affectionately named Jeffrey.

Bruin Pride!

  

Our First FIRST competition

We participated in our first robotics competition on Friday, November 16, at King's High School in Shoreline. We got off to a very late start with the FTC season, and our kit did not arrive until October 30. However, team members have been working very hard with the help of Boeing mentors Neil Palachuk and Tondra Holeman, sometimes staying as late as 6:30 or 7:00 pm. After 18 rounds of rotating alliances with or against 10 other teams, the BEARbots were in second place. This was round one of a continuing competition. Round two will take place on Friday, November 30th and round three on December 7th. We are very proud of our performance but know we have a lot of work to do to improve. We were making design changes in between matches, and we will have to do repairs to the arm that was damaged in a collision with another robot.