Campbell High School

It’s the first week of Campbell High School’s F.I.R.S.T. Robotics Team, and organization has been the driving force behind our progress. With the help of Mr. Kaplo’s detailed daily agendas and constant guidance from the sidelines, this new team has started to flourish.

On Monday, the fifty-something participants were separated into six different groups depending on their interests and skills.  Each of the smaller teams was assigned a lead and assistant lead, and then began brainstorming, practicing, and designing.

The marketing team, led by Jess Gee, collaborated to form a team name, logo, and, color scheme.  In a nearly unanimous decision, the F.I.R.S.T. team agreed on the name, “Potential Energy.”  The name represents the first year team’s “potential” of doing well at the competition in February.  Marketing has already designed team t-shirts and is still debating between two color schemes.

The main objective of the software team, headed by Matt Rafferty and Matt Ryan, was to choose a software program to use to control the robot.  They have decided to use Java, because they are all well-versed in the software and they are using computers capable to run it. 

Matt Roberge, Zach Littlefield, and the rest of the electrical team, researched which electrical components to use on the robot, and practiced soldering and wiring diagrams to be ready when it is time to design the robot.

The strategy team, led by Bobby Cautela and Matt DuLong, has been watching videos from the last year’s F.I.R.S.T. competition, “Lunacy.”  They have been reviewing rules, researching previous robots, and analyzing the competition, in order to prepare for this year’s challenge.

Managers Evan Ordway, Mike Ortalano, Alex Efstratiou, and the rest of the mechanical team have made it their main goal to understand how to use the 80/20 aluminum that the team will build the robot with.  They are exploring how the metal cuts and figuring rough estimates of material to make the robot.

The design team, headed by Jess Rau and Tim Beauregard, has spent their time in the computer lab learning how to use PRO-E design and reviewing the fundamentals of design. Their job is a tough one, and anyone fluent or experienced in PRO-E should offer their services.  

The digital arts team, led by Evan Leith and Becca Howard, has been developing sample web pages to present to the class. Team names and colors have been implemented into the design, and info on all the top players will be found there. Blog postings and team updates will be found there, along with assigned work and team goals.