Auburn Mountainview Recap
Our first District Event Competition on March 9-10 drew a crowd of more than 50 team members, mentors, parents, family member and others who traveled to Auburn Mountainview High School to cheer us on! Their support was amazing; the Drive Team could hear them cheering all day long, and they danced both days leading many in the crowd to do the Macarena to nearly every song!
We made it to elimination matches when our robot CHAOS was selected by the #6 ranked team, Team 4450 Olympia Robotics Federation (ORF), during alliance selection. After inviting Team 6350, Clawbots from Enumclaw, our Alliance proceeded into Quarterfinals. While we were eliminated after losing two consecutive matches in Quarterfinals, we’re still very happy about what we learned from the competition.
While CHAOS encountered many mechanical and programming issues, we were able to make quick repairs and adjustments after nearly every one of our 12 matches. CHAOS was also one of the few robots that could do what is called a Level 3 climb. Our robot made several successful Level 3 climbs throughout the competition. At one point, Spartronics was even ranked as high as #6 out of 38 teams!
Finally, we are extremely proud of our mentor Riyadth and two of our students, Declan-Freeman Gleason and Cruz Strom. Riyadth, who has been with the team from the beginning, was nominated as a Woodie Flowers Finalist, an award for outstanding mentors. Declan and Cruz were both nominated for the most prestigious individual honor in FIRST, the Dean’s List Award.
Overall, the team learned tons and had loads of phun at the competition. We’re very excited for our next District Competition this coming weekend at Glacier Peak High School south of Everett on March 23-24.
Subteam Updates
Every subteam is busy preparing for our competition at Glacier Peak next week.
CHAOS’s cargo launching chute didn’t work as well as we would have liked at Auburn Mountain View. Luckily, students in Mechanics are making improvements so the launching mechanism will be ready for Glacier Peak. They’re also working on CHAOS’s ability to manipulate hatches. While these efforts won’t be completed in time for Glacier Peak, they would make a difference if we make it to District Championships, set for April 3-6 in Tacoma, WA.
Electronics is mostly working on fixing electronic and pneumatic systems that were broken at Auburn Mountainview. They’re also collaborating with the Mechanics subteam on CHAOS’s hatch mechanisms.
Programming is trying to improve the robot’s autonomous programs for Destination: Deep Space during the Sandstorm phase. They hope this will help CHAOS at Glacier Peak!
Just because our Open House is over doesn’t mean Marketing’s work is done! Other than updating portions of our website and keeping everyone current via our social media channels, Marketing students are also busy editing Spartronics’s Summary Business Plan, which briefly outlines our fundraising, marketing, and outreach efforts. This document will be given to judges at the Glacier Peak Competition in hopes of it winning the Entrepreneurship Award for Spartronics. While we didn’t win the award at Auburn Mountainview, we believe that we still have a strong chance at next week’s event!