2008 Season

2008 Team

Team 696 pictured with The Burd (2007)

Team members from left to right:
Back row: Muntasir (rookie year 2007: mechanisms), Biju (rookie year 2008: mechanisms), Nitesh (rookie year 2007: mechanisms), Dalar (rookie year 2006: mechanisms/systems), Adrian (rookie year 2008: mechanisms), Rayhan (rookie year 2007: mechanisms), Arjun (rookie year 2008: electrical/programming), Emily (rookie year 2006: systems), Scott (rookie year 2005: drive train/machining)
Front row: Arielle (rookie year 2008), Angie (rookie year 2006: electrical/programming), Sarah (rookie year 2008: electrical/programming), Antonella (rookie year 2006: mechanisms/drive train), Laura (rookie year 2008: systems)

Officers

President - Antonella
Vice-president - Dalar
Treasurer - Antonella (training Sarah and Muntasir)
Secretary - Angie (training Arielle)
Safety Czar - Rayhan (training Adrian)

Members

The end of the 2007 season saw the graduation of many of our team members, leaving the team with very few experienced veterans. At the start of the build season, our team (rookies and veterans) numbered just 14 - one of the smallest teams in our history. Balancing work, school, other extracurriculars, and robotics, we forged through obstacles, challenges, and mounds of work to create a functioning robot, JawZ.

Mentors

This season sadly saw the departure of some wonderful long-time mentors: David, who was a student until 2004 and mentored the team for three seasons after; Mrs. Hughes, one of our faculty advisers from 2007; and Mark, a mentor since 2004. We missed them greatly, but we were thankful for the other wonderful mentors who stepped up or joined to fill the void. Roger, Kevin, Martha, and Laurie, all parents, were always on call to help with design, manufacturing, and planning considerations. Andy and Hannah, mentors from JPL, played major roles in how the robot turned out. Ian and Mike, also from JPL, joined the ranks this season and helped with the programming and mechanical systems, respectively. Bryce and Sterling helped the programming and electrical team greatly, and Michael always showed up to offer CAD help and machine parts. The team would like to thank our 2008 mentors for their incredible generosity and support.

Build Season

Check out photos of our 2008 season here!

Read some news articles about this season from local papers.

2008 Subsystems

Systems - Emily, Dalar (CAD), Laura
Mechanical: Gripper - Dalar (lead), Nitesh
Mechanical: Tower - Antonella (lead), Muntasir, Biju
Drive Train/Chassis - Scott (lead), Antonella (design), Laura
Electrical/Progrmming - Angie (lead), Arjun, Sarah

Six Weeks

We started out the build season by splitting the team up into four groups of rookies and veterans and designing a robot to play the game, Overdrive. On Friday evening at the end of the first week, we held design presentations, which were attended by community members, a Girl Scout FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) team, and several engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After reviewing all the designs, we narrowed down our options to a telescoping tower, and had to choose a ball-handling mechanism. We chose by majority rule to pursue the design of a "U-prong" gripper over a giant 12-jointed claw which, while cool, was deemed to be impractical and unlikely to be completed in six weeks.

The prototype of the giant claw, featuring the Magic Triangle!

After three and a half weeks, we decided on our traditional tank drive system over a much-more-complex crab drive system, which had been explored by several members in depth but was not feasible due to scarce design and machining resources. By the end of the six weeks, we had completed both the tower and the gripper, assembled the drive train, programmed an autonomous mode, and JawZ was ready for the regional.

Competition

Drive Team

Coach - Emily, Dalar, Antonella
Driver - Scott, Rayhan, Arielle
Operator - Adrian, Arielle, Dalar
Robocoach - Rayhan, Adrian, Arielle

San Diego Regional

We learned a lot of lessons in San Diego. Our robot was entirely untested, and a lot of problems with the mechanical subsystems and programming had to be resolved. After a gruelling three days, we had many of our robot's bugs worked out, but were not picked for the elimination rounds. It was on to Los Angeles!

Los Angeles Regional

The 2008 drive team strategizes before a match at the Los Angeles Regional

We went into the Los Angeles Regional with our heads held high, with the goal of having a lot of fun! Though JawZ did not perform as well as we had hoped, the L.A. Regional was still a fun experience. Playing with the other teams there, and seeing the fruits of others' labor, just reinforced the ideals of FIRST. Winning isn't everything, and though it's fun to have a competitive 'bot, the fun of the competition is enough. In FIRST, it's not about winning, it's about learning as much as you can, having fun, and being gracious in your team and in your community.