San Dieguito Academy Foundation

We wanted to take this opportunity to give you a quick update post the Las Vegas Robotics Competition.

As you recall, Team Paradox had a successful San Diego Competition, qualifying for the semi-finals and being awarded the Engineering Inspiration award. With this success, the build team was energized to make further improvements in the robot arm moving from a pneumatic claw to a more sophisticated motor controlled roller intake gripper.

Recognizing the time constraint the team set the goals of redesigning the robot’s arm to increase functionality, improving the mini-bot’s transmission system, and minor modifications that would enhance the robot’s over-all reliability. It was a busy time for the students and their mentors. All objectives were achieved.

We took 44 students to Las Vegas, making us one of the larger presences at the competition. Our robot performed well, and the team made it to the second round of the quarter-finals, scoring all the points for our alliance. Here is a link to one of our best matches.

In this match we are on the blue alliance and our robot (2102) is on the far side. You can recognize our drive team by their red pants, gold t-shirts and blue SAIC hats. When the announcer says “Whammo it’s up there!” he is referring to our super fast min-bot. The video also has several close ups of our new gripper. If you watch it all the way to the end past the slide show you’ll see that we won 56 to 3.

The enthusiasm and personality of the team was recognized at the Las Vegas Competition as we were awarded our 4th Spirit Award. Of the many notable events at the competition, two stand out.

The first was the team hosted several other San Diego based teams at a game night on the second night of the competition. This effort is consistent with one of FIRST’s (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) goals which is the building of community.

The other event occurred during our quarter final match. One of our alliance partners had experienced issues with their mini-bot and asked if we could help. As it turned out, we had a spare mini-bot to lend to them. However, this meant retro-fitting their deployment device. The retro-fit was executed by members of both teams.

The teams willingness to share ideas and provide assistance was a fine example of one of FIRST’s key concepts … Gracious Professionalism. It was nice to see it so well demonstrated in a pressure-filled situation.

We are now busy preparing and fundraising for the the World Championships in St. Louis in less than three weeks. Attending the Championship Event is a great honor and also an additional expense for the team. It will cost us approximately $17,000 to attend this event. This is over and above the travel expenses that those attending are paying for on their own. Since we have qualified for the Championship we have raised $10,000 in 3 and 1/2 weeks!

We will give you an update after the Championship event. Again, thank you for your tremendous support. We are our proud of everyone who contributes to the success of this team and and partners with us in supporting hands-on Science. Technology, Engineering and Math Education, it has been a terrific season for all.

Sincerely,
Team 2102

Check out our recent media coverage in the North County Times:

“TECH: Robotics competition teaches skills in tech, life”

“Team has everything under its control”