Team 2472 Update - 2/13/2010

In the intense process of the build season, teams work their hardest to design, build, and program a robot to complete an exceedingly difficult task in front of hundreds of spectators cheering on the legion of super-nerds that are the soon to be leaders of science and technology.

Throughout the build season Team 2472 has made some excellent progress. We have chassis with wheels and a mounted kicker, and are working on a lifting mechanism. Programmers have enabled the wheel and programmed the kicker and an autonomous program. A ball mounting centering device is being mocked up and tested and will soon be installed on our robot. The wheels and the kicker are operational, while the raising mechanism is not completely assembled, which to be redesigned for the previous idea had had a setback of weight too great to lift. The bumpers are assembled and ready to be placed on the robot at a moment’s notice. Before we had the kicker mounted, mock ups were made, and found that the most practical systems were a systems of gears and chains. A ramp, goal, trident, and tower have also been built.

Programming is currently working on the lift system for hanging on the tower, an autonomous mode, the kicker program, and the tank drive function is already programmed and ready to be applied to the robot.

Media is continuing to work on the Chairman’s Award essay, and an “About FIRST” section for the website. Recently as part of Spirit week at our school Media decorated a part of the hallway. Promotional work is being done to promote FIRST. The website is also being updated.

On December 22^nd 2009, our team volunteered at the Feed My Starving Children in Coon Rapids. A total of 75 people (team members, mentors, family, and classmates) accompanied the team on their trip. Feed My Starving Children is a nonprofit organization that focuses on packing and distributing healthy, nutritious meals to people across the globe that live in extremely impoverished countries.  Volunteers in the organization work to pack meals containing rice, soy, chicken, and dehydrated vegetables, which contain a balanced, nutritional

Here's how it works:

First, the food is placed in a bag in the order of rice, soy, chicken, and then dehydrated vegetables. This single bag can be produced for $1 and can feed 6 children 1 meal. This process is done by pouring food down a funnel and into a bag, which is then weighed and checked for problems.  It is then passed to the sealer, who seals the bag, and then gives it to the boxer, who also inspects the bag and places it on a table.  When there are 36 bags on the table, the bags are placed into a box, and when the box is filled, the group yells a phrase specific to that group which alerts the volunteers in the warehouse, who come and take the box to prepare it for shipping. When the box is carried away the rapid process is repeated, and the fun begins again.

The FMSC program is based entirely on donations of time and money. 94% of all donations given go to buying and shipping food and the remaining 6% goes to fundraising, which will bring in more donations. Even more importantly is the time given to serving those around the world with little to nothing to eat.

“It’s amazing how much food can be given in the little time you serve.” “It’s important to spend even the smallest portion of your time serving and helping those in need, it’s refreshing to give something back.” “Packaging food doesn’t sound fun, but I had a blast.” Comments such as these were becoming refreshingly repetitive. But it was more than just fun, “it was a good experience, a good team building experience, as well as helping those in need.” “It’s fun and helps the world.” Everyone had a blast but never forgot the reason we were there: to help those in need.

Our group of 75 volunteers packed 9,936 meals, which can feed 27 kids for an entire year. That was in one hour, and volunteer groups come in four times every day.  Such an exciting number was only reached through teamwork, and our mission to feed starving children. Thanks are given to CAD Group Leader Andrew Turner for organizing the event, and to all volunteers for giving the most valuable thing they have: time.

The 2010 build season has begun!

This year's competition, named "Breakaway", involves scoring goals with soccer balls, along with several other challenging tasks:

After attending an event known as the "Kick-off" at Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota on Saturday, January 9th, we got the kit of parts that we use to build the robot, and went back to Centennial High School to discuss the game.  We now have six weeks to design, build, program, and test/debug a functional robot.  After the six weeks is up, the robot will be crated and shipped to a warehouse, and will stay there until the North Star Regional competition in April.  It is quite a challenge, but we shall succeed!

GO CENTURIONS!!!

Team 2472 - The Centurions is now collecting empty inkjet cartridges for recycling.  We receive up to $4.00 for each cartridge recycled.  Cartridges can be deposited in our collection bins located in the Centennial High School, Centerville Elementary School, Golden Lake Elementary School, and Centennial Middle School main offices.  (Directions to these schools can be found at http://www.isd12.org/schools.html.)  Simply place your old cartridge in a plastic sandwich bag and deposit it in our collection bin.  Most businesses would simply throw their empty cartridges in the garbage, so check at work if they would donate their would-be garbage.  The acceptable cartridges are listed below.  No laser cartridges are accepted with this program and will not fit through the holes in our collection box.

In addition for raising money for the Team, recycling inkjet cartridges has a positive impact on the environment.  Consider the following: nearly 1,000,000 inkjet cartridges are thrown into our landfills everyday.  Less than 5% of the cartridges produced are recycled.  It takes 1,000 years for the plastic to decompose.

Questions about the program can be directed to head mentor John Cloues, who can be reached by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by telephone at 763-792-5168.

Read more...