By Aila Ikuse
 

The day after Kickoff the team put their noses to the grindstone and started the design process. The team met for the first week, and regardless of their assignments, everyone came together to brainstorm ideas for the robot.
Over the course of the next two weeks our ideas turned into drawings, drawings into designs, and designs into the final design. We have decided on our designs for the chassis, lifting mechanism, Mecanum drivetrain, and pneumatic systems.

We are back in our subteams - including Programming, Construction/Mechanical, Electrical/Pneumatics, Marketing - and working hard.
Programming has split into smaller working groups to tackle each part of the robot that needs programming, such as the autonomous mode, drivetrain, vision, and our grabbing mechanisms.
Engineering has sketched out everything, put it in CAD, and are currently cutting and building, while Marketing has been getting ready for our Open House, which is on February 25th from 5-7.

Two major announcements in Marketing:
First, we have launched our new Spartronics website!
Marketing has been working with one of our mentors, Jeff, to build a new website using Wordpress.
The website is mobile friendly and up to date on the build schedule and competitions. Check it out at www.spartronics4915.com!
 

Second, Marketing has also been working to put together our 2nd Annual Community Open House, February 25, 2015 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm.
Everyone is invited to come see what we have been up to all build season, with a sneak peek at our robot.
Community leaders, sponsors, team members, state representatives, FTC team members, and parents are just some of the people expected to attend. Come and learn all about our different subteams, design process, and our new robot!

Raffi Minasian, a well-known industrial designer and illustrator who has worked for Toyota, Ferrari, Boeing, McDonalds, and Mattel, visited Spartronics on January 17th and gave a presentation about the importance of design in our daily lives.
Raffi has designed everything from cars to toys, and commutes weekly from Bainbridge Island to San Francisco where he teaches at the California College of the Arts.
Raffi also brought a special guest, industry colleague John Clancy, who has been a lead designer at Nike for 17 years.
John and Raffi shared the importance of original creativity, encouraging students to skectch out all of their thoughts and plans throughout the robot build process.
The team was inspired and has taken his advice to heart, looking to find ways to make a robot that is not only functional, but looks cool. Thanks so much for an awesome experience Raffi and John!