Chimeras Girls Take Second Place at Bloomfield Event
The Chimeras took second place in the Nov. 1 Bloomfield High School Girls Robotics Competition.
The team, which was ranked 32nd after September's Kettering competition, was determined to turn their robot into a contender and worked late every evening for nearly two weeks to remake the bot.
On Saturday, 32 teams from Michigan, Canada and neighboring states competed in elimination matches. By the final rounds, contenders had been reduced to eight teams, which formed two alliances of four teams each. The Chimeras' alliance partners included alliance captain Team 1501, the Huntington County Robotics Team; Team 2337, the EngiNERDS of Grand Blanc; and Team 5053, the Lakers of Waterford.
Chimeras Coach Jon Uren attributes the second-place win to the team's willingness to re-engineer the team's robot. The alliance also seized on a winning strategy, with the Chimeras team effectively blocking while alliance partners concentrated on shooting.
To make it to the final round, the teams had to face an alliance which included 2014 World Championship Team 469, Las Guerillas, of Bloomfield Hills International Academy High School.
ROBO-CON 2014!
More than 350 people came out for the team's first ROBO-CON event, which took place July 19, 2014 at Lapeer's new Center for Innovation.
The free robot-themed event, which grew from an idea to a full-fledged community festival in a matter of weeks, featured a complete range of operational robotics fields, from the FRC field towering over the main gymnasium, to a FIRST Lego League tabletop model, to mid-size fields covering the floor of CFI's auxiliary gym. A life-sized, talking replica of the "Lost in Space" B9 robot greeted visitors in the school's cafeteria, courtesy of team adviser Tony Diodato, owner of Cypress Computer Systems and The Robot Space. Along with serving as a prop for selfies, B9 underscored ROBO-CON's moonwalk theme, saluting the 45th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. Diodato called the event a "giant leap" toward inspiring a love for robots and engineering in Michigan's thumb area. In the "Human vs. Machine" and obstacle course events, visitors competed against full-size student-built robots throwing discs and dunking basketballs, and used a game controller to steer knee-high VEX robots through a student-built maze. Along with Lapeer county FRC and FTC teams, other Michigan teams came to be part of the fun and for an opportunity to practice driving robots on a full-sized field, free from the demands of competition. |
Along with the Chimeras team, participating teams included Lapeer Team 3535, the GalakTech Invaders; Capac Team 2604, Metal & Soul; North Branch Team 5201, the Bronco Bots; Ortonville-Holly Team 68, Truck Town Thunder; Harper Woods Team 5239, the Product Pioneers; Ann Arbor Team 5067, Steiner Steel Storm; and Lapeer’s Mechanical Mayhem, a FIRST Tech Challenge middle-school team.
While driving full-size FRC robots is normally relegated to teams' official drive crews, ROBO-CON teams generously loaned their robots for community members to drive. Volunteers lined up for a turn, in between rounds of door prize drawings and impromptu field dance sessions. Along with highlighting robotics, the event featured "accidental learning" activities, intended to engage kids in hands-on fun, such as a table covered in Snap Circuits, a toy for learning about electronic connections. Parents who planned to stay just a few hours stayed all day long, unable to drag their children away from building mini disc-shooting robots. Kids and adults alike were absorbed in playing with tabletop battling and Rock'em Sock'em robots. Little ones needing a break from the excitement listened to robot or space-themed stories and chose their own free books from a courtyard display hosted by Lapeer's Family Literacy Center. Children also made their own take-home robots from recyclables at the event's Adopt-a-Bot workshop. Outdoors, students soaked in science and math concepts while calculating the angle required to shoot water balloons or Angry Birds from a giant slingshot, then learned through trial and error how to best launch paper rockets they'd made from a PVC stomp launcher. Team Captain Kelly Malone, a senior who also worked professional as a programmer during her high school years, hosted a children's programming workshop, using the Scratch game developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). |
The success of ROBO-CON has inspired Team 1684, as well as new Lapeer Team 5460, to make the festival an annual event.
The Chimeras are grateful for the help of many local businesses and organizations, as well as Michigan robotics representatives.
The Chimeras are grateful for the help of many local businesses and organizations, as well as Michigan robotics representatives.
Lapeer Days 2014!
The Chimeras team had a great time rubbing elbows with the Lapeer community during Lapeer Days, Aug. 15-17, 2014. Lapeer Days is not only one of the team's annual fundraisers, but it's a time to create exciting challenges for kids of the community, who love coming out to have fun with robots and inspire future engineers. |
During this year's Lapeer Days, which happened Aug. 15-17, 2014, the team set up a Kiddie Carnival on the lawn between the old courthouse and Farmers' Market pavilion.
Team members worked to create robot bowling pins which players bowled down with a mini bot, along with a tabletop game in which kids operated a claw robot to catch HEXbugs, as well as a coin drop and lollipop pick game. Students volunteered all weekend to staff the booth, as kids lined up to play games and get free face painting. As a bonus freebie, kids could try their hand at operating 2013's Frisbee-throwing bot. |
Team members lined up to march with other local FRC teams in the Lapeer Days parade, lending a hand when the fire department's robotic dog needed help. This year marked the team's 10th downhill derby, when children 7 and younger can pull on a helmet, climb in a wooden car and race down a striped ramp. The event also inspires some young racers to engineer their own vehicle, as was the case this year. |
Team Coach Jon Uren said the derby and the team have "improved each
other." Similar to robotics competitions, the derby event is a prime opportunity to model good sportsmanship. "The robotics students are taught that when you lose you say little, and when you win you say even less," he said. Tony Diodato, team adviser and owner of Lapeer's Cypress Computer Systems, brought the derby idea to Lapeer from his native New Jersey. In New Jersey, downhill derby is a tradition dating back to his father, who raced in the 1930s. |
While young Tony grew up building models and tinkering with electronics, building a derby car was the first time he “had a vision, made a plan,” and took the initiative to implement it, a process he later recognized as engineering. At 10, he recalls, the ramp seemed 2 stories tall and the race seemed as long as the Indy 500, although in reality the cars race only a few seconds. Chris Long, an alumni team member who has been announcing the derby race since 2010, said one year a racer built a car styled like an army tank. |
"His dad asked us if he could shoot fireworks out the turret as he went down the hill. We were like, 'that would be really cool, but too unsafe,'" said Long, who admired the pair's creative thinking.
Many thanks from the Chimeras team to our Lapeer community
for your support and enthusiasm for robotics! |
Our Ice Bucket Challenge
(Thanks 68)
(Thanks 68)