This year we've had some extra time in between competitions due to picking a week 2 and then week 6 event. 
We've worked on the changes we wanted to make to our robot by using our practice bot. Then started to implement them using our 6 hours of "unbag" time.  Speeding up our shooter and gear intake, perfecting our climber and finalizing some programming. 

Happy with our progress so far and have 2 hours left to use tonight to make some final adjustments and test everything. Then Thursday we're off to our final District Event at Marysville High School hoping to do well enough to qualify for the State Championship next week!

Wish us well! 

1-2: Practice bot prototyping 3-4: Unbag time adjusting Artemis 5: Programming 6-7: Making a pit addition for safety and creating spirit gear 

THE LOWDOWN:

Our team competed in 12 qualification matches and ended up 8th overall with a record of 8-4-0 and landed in the 5th seed alliance with Team 314, The Megatron Oracles and Team 5527, Cyber Phoenix.  Our alliance fought hard, but was eliminated in the quarter-finals. 

Our team earned The Quality Award which "celebrates machine robustness in concept and fabrication." It shows that the entire team demonstrated quality in workmanship in all areas with execution being superb and that the machine was built with a detailed plan in mind and can withstand the rigors of competition. Building it adds to the teams' overall success in FIRST.
As a team, we were incredibly honored and proud to win this award! 

Two students, Sydney Barker and Gavin Storts, were acknowledged as nominees for the FIRST Dean’s List Award, which "recognizes outstanding student leaders whose passion for and effectiveness at attaining FIRST ideals is exemplary." Criteria for this award includes: Demonstrated leadership and commitment to the ideals of FIRST, effectiveness at increasing awareness of FIRST in the school and community, interest in and passion for a long-term commitment to FIRST, overall individual contribution to their team, technical expertise and passion, entrepreneurship and creativity and the ability to motivate and lead fellow team members.  
​Sydney Barker was chosen out of all the nominees at the Kettering event as one of two Semi-Finalists who go on to compete for this honor at the Michigan State Championship!!! 

Mentor, Matt Wagner was nominated by our team members for the Woodie Flowers Award, which "celebrates effective communication in the art and science of engineering and design. Dr. William Murphy founded this prestigious award in 1996 to recognize mentors who lead, inspire and empower using excellent communication skills." A winner for this award is chosen at the Michigan State Competition. 

Our team next competes during the last week of district competitions at the Marysville District Event at Marysville High School, April 6-8th. From there hoping to qualify for the Michigan State Championship which will be the next weekend and then the World Championship in St. Louis at the end of April. 
Wish us luck! 

Without the generous support from our Sponsors, Partners and Donors we couldn't do what we do, which is to forever impact the lives of our students in more ways than one. 
These kids learn lifelong skills not only in the areas of robotics and STEM, but also in leadership, teamwork and building relationships. Being a part of this program changes the lives of everyone involved. We see the difference in each student that's ever been a part of this team. 

So thank you for giving us the ability to keep this team running and continue to build not just robots, but futures as well. 

Kettering University held a "Week Zero" event in which teams could come and try out the new FIRST Steamworks field and play a few practice matches. Since our robot Artemis is sealed in a bag, we brought her brother, practice bot Derpimis to see what it could do. He performed well, picked up and placed gears quickly since that was the only task he had been built for yet! 
It helped our drive team get a feel for the field and gave us some ideas as to what we wanted to improve on Artemis before competition. 
It was a fun afternoon with other FRC teams! Can't wait to compete in a few weeks! 

Our robot for 2017 officially named "Artemis" was revealed via video after the end of Build Season. 

Having a six motor drive train, a single shooter fed by a line of mecannums up against the rear wall of a 70 ball capacity hopper and a ground gear pickup. *We designed a gear pickup since one of our strategies was to be able to pick up dropped gears instead of having to always drive across the field to get one from the human player station.
A four second climber using a spool with Velcro connected to a 100:1 planetary gearbox with a 775 pro motor driving it.  Powder coated, laser cut team number and LEDs added for style! 
She's fast, spins on a dime, delivers gears, shoots, climbs and ready for competition! 

On February 21st at 11:59pm we put or robot in a bag and proclaimed the end to our Build Season!
Officially called "Stop Build Day", this date and time is set by FIRST and all FRC teams worldwide must do the same thing. 

After the new game was revealed we had six weeks to build a robot for competition. Lots of prototypes, designs and different builds.  Many long days, an insane amount of hours and an incredible amount of hard work put in as a team! It's all worth it!  During this time not only did we build an amazing robot and learn new skills, we also grew stronger as a team. 

We are pleased with the robot we built and are ready for competition to start in March.
Our first being at Kettering University March 9-11. 

Special thanks to our mentors for guiding us along the way, to all the parents that kept us fed and replenished and to our sponsors and partners for their support. Without each of you we could not do what we do! 

Reporter Nick Pugliese of The County Press and View newspapers stopped by one of our meetings to talk with the team about what we were up to and questioned our 3 seniors about how being a part of robotics has impacted their future decisions. 
Read the full article here --->  "Chimeras robotics students destined for engineering pursuits"

Grateful to have the support of our local media! They have been amazing at keeping the community aware of FIRST robotics and STEM in not just our town, but the whole county. 

Two of our youth robotics teams, The Chimichangas, Teams 1684X & 1684Z competed on Saturday, February 4th at the VEX IQ Crossover Event at Avondale High School. 
This was their first ever competition and BOTH teams made it into the finals!  The elementary team placed 8th overall and the middle school team came in 9th with their respective alliance partners out of 41 teams. 
It's an incredible accomplishment for these two rookie teams and we couldn't be more proud of them! 
Congrats to our mentor, Bernadette who is their coach and to the team members - 1684Z (elem): Rylen, Brayde, Kiersten and Holden - 1684X (middle): Aiden, Braeden and Daniel.  Great job!
We can't wait to see what the future holds as we continue to mentor and support them! 
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