Whats unique about ur team?

[Hymnson]

Everyone seems to be going thru the same struggles, strategies, obstacles, experiences but what sets your team apart from the rest of the League? Here's your chance to let everyone know whats so "special" or not about your team, random or not, doesn't matter.

I'll start it off......

1.) We're the ONLY all boy high school participating on a team in the FIRST robotics league.

2.) I THINK we're the only team so far to give out glowsticks.

3.) We have no professional engineers building/helping with our robot (though I'm sure other teams have this problem). Our robot was built ONLY by college students and several high school students. Miracle, aint it??

[Bill Gold]

Bellarmine College Prep (Cheesy Poofs 254) is an all boy HS

[XRaVeNX]

Crescent School (Crescent Robotics - Team 610) is also an all boy school.

[Scott England]

Team 401 has been built by college students and high school students for 3 years (to be 100 % honest we have had quite limited support from a few engineers, one, a students dad, and the other a VT alumn who is a manufacturing engineer, though it both cases there contributions were small relative to the total span of the project *hope i don't sound ungrateful, they did still help the team out*)
I'd also be willing to bet we're among the earlier second generation teams (teams spawned by graduates of other FIRST teams at some of the best engineering schools in the country)
We're also unusually fond of polycarbonate (take a look at last year's 8 inch tall sherman tank made with no structural metal)
and here's a shameless plug for this year's robot

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pictures.php?s=&action=single&picid=2212&direction=DESC&sort=date&perrow=4&trows=3

featuring the polycarb scoop, conveyor cover, basket liner, arm latches and certain motor mounts and more.

There's probably more that will come to me in a day or so when i've completely caught up on sleep

~Scott

[Mike Schroeder]

Our team Always has hundreds of weight reduc. holes that has become our trademark and we have a really cool team mascot named Mr. Volcano

[Wetzel]

We have Dave.

[Alfred Thompson]

We're probably the only rookie team to have hosted a FIRST Championship in our gym. Not a regional - this was before regionals.
There are other high schools who have hosted Championships of course but not their first year in FIRST.
We're a rookie team for the second time as it has been quite a few years since we first were in FIRST and no one who was part of those long ago teams is still at the school.

[dets002]

Well, I love my team and it is regretible that this is my last year with FIRST as a student, but we are a unique team.

1) We are a rookie team for the second time. The second year of FIRST, we created a team and were host to the national (and only) competition. After the third year, we lost our sponsor. Now we found an new one: MIT's Lincoln Labs.

2) Fog. Used as a general purpose explitive, especially since the fog machine we were going to use when unvailing our robot set off the fire alarms.

3) We got the whole bottom floor of the Catholic Charaties Building, but only for this year.

[lunatecs]

when i read this post i thought.....hmmmm what makes our team special? I really can't say that were any more special than anyone else, i myself being a first time first participant was a little reluctent to join but i fit right in with team 316, almost as though i was adopted or somethin, we have family dinners and were all like brothers and sisters. (yes there are the usual arguments between borhters and sisters!) I think were special because we have the respect that most people dont have for everyone else we try to cider "Gracious Professionalism" but during the end of crunch time "Malicous Professionalism was more like it, but we always have "MOM" to remind us where our minds should be i mean me and Sam errrr i mean Sam and I always try to keep FIRST, first. Oh well i guess were your ordinary run of the mill FIRST team.

Hey E-mail us at luatecs316@yahoo.com and let us hear your comments

[Dave_222]

Not to say our team conforms to the norm, but were a pretty standard team. if something must set us appart it is the fack that we have broken away form two other teams twice to form the current team 222 and we are rather small and unknown. Or unnoticed for that matter.

[Justin 188]

1st Canadian Team in FIRST :D and we work out of a house (thx Mr. & Mrs. A!)

[Manoel]

We're from Brazil... :D

[Joel J]

Our name (R.A.G.E.), I think.

[Wetzel]

Originally posted by Manoel
We're from Brazil... :D
If I am correct, you are not going to VCU this year, but to Washington State. :(
You will be missed.

[Manoel]

Originally posted by Wetzel

If I am correct, you are not going to VCU this year, but to Washington State. :(
You will be missed.

Yeah, VCU filled up just too fast for us to get in. We'll surely miss going there and meeting all those wonderful teams, but we are confident Seattle will be great as well. Maybe at Nationals? :)

[Clark Gilbert]

We the Technokats are

"The few, the proud, one of the orignals"

"Unchanged since 1992"


(Stole those from a Marines commercial and a Hersey Chocolate bar commercial)

And if u cant tell from that we are one of the few teams who have been in FIRST since 1992. Plus we've never changed sponsers or schools. :)

[l1jmx]

We didn't think we were particularly unique until we started looking around at other teams. Our robot was 104% built by High School students. No engineers, no college students, no teachers, no adults, no nothing. We have a couple of teachers/adults that are there to answer questions if and when we ask them b/c we're stumped or we don't know how to use some tool, but other than that all of our adults are basically completely uninvolved and of the mentality that we'll learn more doing something poorly on our own than watching them do something well. I've yet to see or hear of another team that's as completely student run as us.

Furthermore, we have nobody on our team or involved with our team that has ever been involved in FIRST in any way before this. No mentor team, and nobody joining us after branching off of another team. So we're more or less coming completely out of nowhere. It doesn't get much more rookie than this. :)

BTW, the 104% student built comes from the fact that when we had to cut 20 lbs in the final 12 hours of building, we did call on some adult man-power to help turn our robot into swiss cheese (we had 3 chassis punches going at once on the ball chute in the middle and we just needed more hands) . But since that was removing material, we actually had students construct more of our robot than is actually there.

[James Crivellone]

Originally posted by Manoel


Yeah, VCU filled up just too fast for us to get in. We'll surely miss going there and meeting all those wonderful teams, but we are confident Seattle will be great as well. Maybe at Nationals? :)

We get to compete with u guyz then, cool :D

[Melissa Nute]

We work in Todd's house for 6 weeks.
We have the All knowing Dave.
We've been the cause of several rules being added. :D
We're the only NE Florida Girls Robotics Club that is also know as Team Resistance when the boys actually do something.

[Wetzel]

Originally posted by Yearbook50
We work in Todd's house for 6 weeks.
We have the All knowing Dave.
We've been the cause of several rules being added. :D
We're the only NE Florida Girls Robotics Club that is also know as Team Resistance when the boys actually do something.

We have the all knowing, knows everybody Dave.
The one to be bald at nats.

[Melissa Nute]

Originally posted by Wetzel


We have the all knowing, knows everybody Dave.
The one to be bald at nats.
My Dave is gonna have green streaks like last year.

[AdamT]

Your Dave can NEVER be like their Dave. Now how was that for confusing?? Yeah, Dave is Dave, and their Dave is THE Dave.

[Spooks180]

we're S.P.A.M., 'nuff said :-D

[Matt Attallah]

Well, what make team #5, the Robo-Cards so special?

OK, here it is:

1. We have (another) Dave, Bob, Gary, Rob, and so many other people to mention here, but i am not gonna cuz u all don't have 3.5-4 hours to read it.

2. They have me!

3. We are a very, very small team, and i am 1 of the only 2 male students on this team. Our team has 9 chicks, better watch what i say..

4. We have no idea what we are going to do until we do it!

5. We where known as the "slinky team" for the 2000 year, and even had The Great Dean-O' come down to our pit for our slinkies at GLR.

6. Our engineers have donated over $3,000 from their own pockets, and they do not wish to be reimbursed!!

7. Did i mention we have Dave?

8. WE HAVE TONS OF DUCK TAPE!!!

9. Our team didn't have to drill tons of holes, just a few thousands...

and the 10th reasion our team is unique is....(drum roll)

10. WE HAVE DAVE AND BOB!!

:p

[Carolyn Duncan]

I feel as though I should step in here... the all knowing Dave is gonna have green hair at nats and Dave Lavery is gonna be bald (yeah I'm really hoping this happens because it'll be better than any prank I could pull). So let's not argue over Dave's anymore. And Melissa, I wouldn't be happy about being the reason for rules being made... but that's just me.
Our team is unique in that we are low budget but have the ability to acess things that other teams can't, like a lathe, mill, and welders. And it's all done by the students! (I'm not starting a war with this comment, just stating a fact.)

[dlavery]

If I am committed (or maybe it's "I should be committed") enough to make the challenge to my team that I will shave my head if we win at VCU, I want to know if I am the only one willing to risk their follicles.

OK, Adam and Carolyn, time to put your money, er hair, where your mouths are. Are you committed enough to challenge your team with the incentive: "win it and I shear it, or lose it and I keep it"? Or are you just an involved bystander? :) (at any given bacon and eggs breakfast the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed).

Hmmm. If this turn into a real trend, we could see at least 17 newly-shorn regional-winning noggins arriving at Nationals...

On the other hand, maybe the challenge SHOULD have been "if we win, I shave my head, if we lose, the rest of the team shaves THEIR heads"!!! Yeah, I can see it now, a whole team of polished pates. THAT would make our team unique! :D

-dave

--------------------------------------------------

Gimme a head with hair, long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming, steaming, flaxen, waxen
Give me down to there, hair!
Shoulder length, longer (hair!)
Here baby, there mama, Everywhere daddy daddy
Hair! (hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair)
Flow it, Show it; Long as God can grow it, My Hair!

(extra credit quiz points: identify the date and place these lyrics were first publicly performed).

[Wetzel]

Originally posted by dlavery
If I am committed (or maybe it's "I should be committed") enough to make the challenge to my team that I will shave my head if we win at VCU, I want to know if I am the only one willing to risk their follicles.

OK, Adam and Carolyn, time to put your money, er hair, where your mouths are. Are you committed enough to challenge your team with the incentive: "win it and I shear it, or lose it and I keep it"? Or are you just an involved bystander? :) (at any given bacon and eggs breakfast the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed).

Hmmm. If this turn into a real trend, we could see at least 17 newly-shorn regional-winning noggins arriving at Nationals...

On the other hand, maybe the challenge SHOULD have been "if we win, I shave my head, if we lose, the rest of the team shaves THEIR heads"!!! Yeah, I can see it now, a whole team of polished pates. THAT would make our team unique! :D

-dave

--------------------------------------------------

Gimme a head with hair, long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming, steaming, flaxen, waxen
Give me down to there, hair!
Shoulder length, longer (hair!)
Here baby, there mama, Everywhere daddy daddy
Hair! (hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair)
Flow it, Show it; Long as God can grow it, My Hair!

(extra credit quiz points: identify the date and place these lyrics were first publicly performed).

How does the New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater on October 17, 1967 sound? I think I just earned some extra credit!:D

[Carolyn Duncan]

Originally posted by dlavery
OK, Adam and Carolyn, time to put your money, er hair, where your mouths are. Are you committed enough to challenge your team with the incentive: "win it and I shear it, or lose it and I keep it"? Or are you just an involved bystander? :) (at any given bacon and eggs breakfast the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed).
-dave
(extra credit quiz points: identify the date and place these lyrics were first publicly performed).
Dave, are you calling yourself a pig? hehehe I'm just kidding, but I would rather be a chicken than a pig. I'm not exactly willing to shave my head but I'm sure other arrangements could be made...
"Hair" was originally performed October 17, 1967 at the New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater.

[aka Scott White]

What makes us unique? Hmmm.

Well, our rookie year (last year) we broke 5 speed controllers during the building stage, and two more later. We had and continue to have no engineering help (really, our supposed sponsor, NJIT sent us a communications engineer who was specializing fiber optic line, and we spent a day explaining how to use pneumatics to her. This year the didn't even bother with that). Our sponsors live in our town. (Judy and Josh Weston, CEO of ADP ---THANK YOU) We have a team member who "went for a little walk" at 3 in the morning in the middle of Harlem last year at the columbia regional. We also have come up with and used our dollar shop soldering iron in no less than 17 different incorrect and unsafe ways, including but not limited to: Melting treads in wheels, melting carpet to the floor, making wooden signs, shrinking heat-shrink tubing, and creating small, scrap metal sculptures. We also turned our bridge from last year into this year's work table.

[Dave_222]

My name is Dave and I am going to have an orange mohawk at the philly regional.

[Mike S]

The Boeing comBBAT (team #21) team is the only team to give out the coveted aluminum bats!

Be nice, come meet us and bring good stuff and who knows one could be yours!

[AdamT]

Dave, I'm in. We win, my hair goes.

[ChrisH]

What Makes Beach 'Bots Unique?

Well, we're not supposed to say this but, we used to be the ONLY home schooled team. Now we're the only team that has mentored a home schooled team and there are two of us.:D

Our school's official facilities consist of a single office containing three desks. If more than one person wants to stand up at the same time there's a problem...

Our classrooms are wherever we happen to be. Though we do have places we use regularly.

Because we are a religious school, finding sponsors can be difficult. But as the Esteemed Mr Lavery pointed out in another thread, there are ways to achieve government (read NASA) sponsorship, even for us. We have been sponsored by JPL for longer than any other team. It hasn't been easy, but it can be done, legally even ethically.

This year we built our robot in a power plant that doubles as a movie set. (thank you AES!) If you've seen "The One", you've seen our playground.

If we take our robot across the street we can get beach sand in the drive train. Now you know why it's not allowed across the street by itself. Besides right now it's in a crate and on it's way to San Jose, I hope the driver knows the way.;)

Sorry, I couldn't resist

[Elgin Clock]

This year you will "see" what makes us so different. "I" believe we are the only team in the history of FIRST to do what we are attempting this year.

Come "see" us at NYC FIRST and UTC New Haven in CT.

You'll like what you "see".

[Wetzel]

Originally posted by dlavery
If I am committed (or maybe it's "I should be committed") enough to make the challenge to my team that I will shave my head if we win at VCU, I want to know if I am the only one willing to risk their follicles.

OK, Adam and Carolyn, time to put your money, er hair, where your mouths are. Are you committed enough to challenge your team with the incentive: "win it and I shear it, or lose it and I keep it"? Or are you just an involved bystander? :) (at any given bacon and eggs breakfast the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed).

Hmmm. If this turn into a real trend, we could see at least 17 newly-shorn regional-winning noggins arriving at Nationals...

On the other hand, maybe the challenge SHOULD have been "if we win, I shave my head, if we lose, the rest of the team shaves THEIR heads"!!! Yeah, I can see it now, a whole team of polished pates. THAT would make our team unique! :D

-dave


(extra credit quiz points: identify the date and place these lyrics were first publicly performed).


Originally posted by 401Mentor
Dave, I'm in. We win, my hair goes.

I'll bring an electric hair cutter thing!

[Solace]

Originally posted by Joel J.
Our name (R.A.G.E.), I think.


OH YEAH. Rage rocks my world

[Heather 45]

After reading through the question and through everyone's replies, I realized that no one from my team replied. I am not surprised because to them, it seems to be more of a girl question than one for our "manly men" to answer. I think the thing that makes our team unique is the fact that we all get along. Of course, at times we get on each other's nerves, but that may happen because we spend so much time together. Not only are we team mates in one of the most well-known teams, but we are friends. We hang out together outside of our shop where we work. We go to the movies together, we bowl together, we do everything friends do together. The Technokats are a very tight-knit circle of friends and it is incredibly important to us to be friends with everyone. When rookies come aboard, we go out of our way to make people feel welcome and we go out of our way to become friends with them. I have seen many teams who don't get along with some members, but that doesn't happen to us. We participate in many teambuilding activities where the WHOLE team (teachers, engineers, students, and parents) goes out and does something fun. We might go bowling, go cart-racing, or even paintballing.

Also, the Technokats are unique in that we all work so hard to achieve a common goal. Many stay all night working on the robot to get it completed and in top shape. The whole team is devoted to making things work, being the best at our task ahead of us, and having a good time. We like to have fun and even when crunch time comes flying upon us, we find ways to have fun. We find things to make us laugh and relieve some stress. Like on Monday, I was stressed out about getting things done. We ordered pizza and then Brett brought in a CD for me to listen to. I have never laughed so hard in my life because it was a country version of the infamous song "Gin and Juice". That may sound like nothing, but we do little things like that to make everyone feel better.

The Technokats take pride in the fact that we are a team and that we are all friends. Friendship is the key to making a successful team and robot. I hope everyone at one time or another will have as great of a team as I do.

:D

[Clark Gilbert]

Originally posted by Clark Gilbert
We the Technokats are

"The few, the proud, one of the orignals"

"Unchanged since 1992"


(Stole those from a Marines commercial and a Hersey Chocolate bar commercial)

And if u cant tell from that we are one of the few teams who have been in FIRST since 1992. Plus we've never changed sponsers or schools. :)

Seems that someone has forgotten how to read...:D

Oh well...at least correctly pointed out some more stuff about our team.;)

[Dr.Bot]

[

Urban, minority, disadvantged, continuation High School. We were the place where the losers went. We were the guys on the wrong side of the tracks. The gang-bangers, drug abusers. Robotics started in 1998. FIRST in 1999.

2000 Lead Seed FIRST National Champions
2001 Botball National Champions

Now the parents of kids at the regular HS in the district are trying to get their kids into the robotics program. Problem is they have to get kicked out of their regular school ;)

The mission statement of Foothill HS is "You will get your GED if you stick with the program. It was rare to go on to community college.

80% of the 2000 FIRST team went to 4 year colleges,
2 with scholarships that were a direct or indirect result of robotics.

Our rainbow collective is on a role. The community, school board, city, county and sponsors are proud of our accomplishments. Our team members are mostly
Latino and Asian, our mentors and teachers are black, white, yellow and tan.


The big lesson we learned from robotics competition is that our past does not limit our future, that superior attitude will beat out big budgets. Our team name is Odyssey - because it is the Journey, not the destination that is important.


*Personal note - in 1999 just before our rookie robot was shipped I read the book Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam. (Later made into the movie October Sky) I later met Mr. Hickam - his message to me is one I'd like to share with all FIRST teams. His key
philosophy for a mission to succeed is you need
"Passion, Planning, Perseverance." Each member of your team has to contribute something in these catagories in order for you to succeed.

[MissInformation]

Urban, minority, disadvantged, continuation High School. We were the place where the losers went. We were the guys on the wrong side of the tracks. The gang-bangers, drug abusers. Robotics started in 1998. FIRST in 1999.

I've been waiting to hear there was a team like this. Hoping for one. Call it a love of the underdog, the desire to see the disadvantaged become advantaged.


The big lesson we learned from robotics competition is that our past does not limit our future, that superior attitude will beat out big budgets. Our team name is Odyssey - because it is the Journey, not the destination that is important.


There's a thread somewhere on this forum wondering why the Chairman's award is so important, and to me what you said about the journey, not the destination, being the important thing is something I hope everyone realizes one day.

MissInformation

<=============>
Loves Rocket Boys (and even liked the sappy, over sentimental October Skies)

[Joe Matt]

Team 384's Sparky 3.0 can get three goals.

[Mark Pierce]

This thread has been on my mind for a while. What does make the "Built on Brains" team unique. Like other teams we have to scramble for sponsorship. Like other teams, there are some really great people (maybe a higher percentage than some, since they all seem to be great people). We've been around for a long time (seven years I think). The other day as I drove into town, I saw this and wondered how many teams have something like this sign?

For a small town, the Zeeland team did well last year, and the community felt it was worth proclaiming to all visitors.

My intent isn't to start a long discussion about the ranked 3rd wording. With alliances and what not, we all understand what is meant. It's very difficult to explain to outsiders. I also understand how much alliance partners and other teams helped Team 85 succeed last year.

I can't wait to see how we do in a couple of weeks!

[Joe Matt]

Either looks like someone knows Photoshop or...
CONGRADULATIONS! All we got was a sign on our marque outside...

[Wetzel]

This is the best we got.
http://www.invisiblerobot.com/robotics/robot_24/index/p1264873.html

Some explanation, that is The Rock. Anyone can paint the rock, so long as it isn't vulgar. Some really interesting things have been painted on the rock, but its mostly unimaginative 'Happy 17 Sean!!" type things.
Its always fun when painting the rock, but sometimes it can get out off hand, as show by this picture:
http://invisiblerobot.com/robotics/robot_43c/index/p2169616.html
That was another time we painted it in nice eye poping colors...

Our team is really wierd...
I blame Dave. Not that he is a bad thing, just odd.

[SPAMcutie180]

OkaY.....begins to think....what makes SPAM unique?!?!?!
HmmMMMmmm?!?!?


10. We're named SPAM!!!
9.Everyone on our team gets along, most of the time!
8. We have AWESOME team parties thanks to the Durjans!!! We all love you guys!!!
7. Mr. Dillard and Warren!!=) HeHe I lvoe you guys!!!
They make up for not having a Dave.......they top Dave off!! If you only knew these two fellows!
6. Fluffy The Flesh Eating Bunny
5. My team has me that's unique enough.
4. It's the two local RIVAL schools put together!!
3.OUR LINUX BUTTONS!!!!!
2.We have lil 2 and 3 1/2 year olds on the team=) hehe

And the #1 reason SPAM is unique is.......(drumroll)

1. We all have special talents!!! HeHe well find em and Darrin at NATS and you'll understand!!


Well that's basicly what everyone else said but i wanted to post so deal with it=)
hehe


Love ya all!!
Nicole!!
Team 180 SPAM!!!

[SPAMcutie180]

HeHe how many teams do YOU know of that foes out back behind thier pit to feed GOATS.......yes REAL LIVE goats......SPAM in order to make nosie makers out of the can!!!
WE DO! Yes we fed GOATS many cans of SPAM!!
......Thinks where are those goats this year......opppssss


Love ya all!!!
Nicole
Team 180 SPAM!!!

[Joe3]

Hmmmmmm

This was a tough question but I did come up with a few answers.

top 10 reasons MOE team 365 is unique:

1. MOE Green (who else has thier own color?)
2. ability to put 1800 holes in one piece of aluminum
3. More Green
4. Shirts
5. Green Robot
6. MOE sticks (if you have gone to a regional with us- you know what I mean.
7. Bandanas
8. we hand out earplugs
9. We have a guy named Action Joe
10. Oh-oh-oh-oh clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap Go MOE

[Amanda Aldridge]

Any guess what team this is?

Made up of 20 students from not one, not two, but 4 rival, inner-city high schools.

7th year in competition.

Until this year, no major financial sponsor. Financed completely by community donations and fundraising.

Technical support provided by a local, family-owned company.

Only about 5 engineers, total.

Students build entire robot, except for parts that students cannot make due to school-district safety regulations.

Students are best friends. Team members go bowling every week together. A former team member changed the date of her birthday party this year because the team had a meeting and no one would've been able to come.

In the off season, many students work for another company owned by the family of their technical sponsor.

One of the most successful small teams in the history of FIRST.

Any guesses?

[The Lucas]

Team 365 also has The Uppet, the original super tall 130 pound puppet mascot that was the most photographed thing at nationals last year. Major props to Ducky for hauling that thing around. We are probaly the only team to ever giveaway holographic stickers.
We have a Green Crate with most of the team member's signatures. We made a custom pit with a drill press, vise, programmed LED Board and string of green lights that say "GO MOE". Our Pit Crew rebuilt a completly destroyed wing (very complex and huge) in less than 15 mins (I'm not taking any credit for that I was only a tool runner).
We also have SuperJake, our national champion driver and captain and the most dedicated and enthusiastic team member ever. He has been with the team for all three years and has even had a major influence on the team this year despite the meetings he had to miss because he is in his freshman year at Drexel. See ya at nationals Jake!

[Katie Reynolds]

Hmmm.... what makes the N.E.W. Apple Corps unique? Well, first off our robot is all designed, machined and built by students. We have a shop at our high school where we make *most* of our parts. If the parts aren't made there, students go over to the tech and use machines there. Our motto (Student Conceived. Student Achieved!) reflects that. We also have **awesome** support from the area. Some of our biggest supporters include Plexus Technology Group, Kimberly Clark, Appleton Area School District and Fox Valley Technical College (thanks everyone!!) where we get all of our advisors from. We have cool swappables this year (including carmel apple suckers - yum!!) AND we'll have a soccer ball in our pit area at Motorola Midwest for people to sign!! ;)

- Katie

[118 Tech]

What makes the Robonauts Team 118 unique? I have a lot to say, I’m in college now and miss being on our team. We are one of the first FIRST teams in Houston. NASA/JSC means something a little different to us than other teams because not only do they sponsor us, we work on-site at Johnson Space Center. Up till 2001 we have worked in JSC’s building 9. Building 9 is the building that houses full sized shuttle mockups that the astronauts train in. Parts of our robot have been machined in the same machine shop as flight parts for space shuttle missions. Now we work at NASA’s Sonny Carter Training Facility. It is home to NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab or NBL, one of the largest swimming pools (there have been many late nights where a dip in the pool didn’t sound too bad). We work next to a giant baked potato looking thing. Actually it is a backup space station truss module that is covered with some protective wrapping. Some of our NASA engineers, Rob, Bill and Fred, have been on the Discovery Channel’s “Inside the Space Station” talking about their Robonaut arm project. This robot will replace astronauts in some space walks for the space station and has very dexterous human-like hands. Lucien and Scott, two of our other engineers, have started many FIRST teams and some even in other states. Not to mention the other great engineers on our team, hey there veredyw. At nationals every year we hold an engineer vs. student water fight. From the time we get into Florida the war is on. In 2000 the war encompassed most of All Star Music. People were getting thrown in to the pools. People were staked out waiting for engineers with waterguns. Us students even used radios to talk to each other. In 2001 we had a set time and held it in this field just outside the FIRST complex. We even had people form other teams join in. Finally at nationals last year our cart had a lightbar and siren from a real cop car and is made from the front end frame of two Chevy Malibu s. That’s all I can think of for now. Im just glad I had the privilege to be on a team with the great resources and people we did.

[Elgin Clock]

Well here it goes, now that our secret system was unveiled at NYC FIRST, "I" can let you in on it, and more importantly stop dropping these crazy subtle hints; ie: "see" & "I".

A mini press release if you will:

The 2002 Robot

The Watertown High School Sie-H2O-Bots have created the 2002 PAL (Professionally Automated Landrover) to be a combination of simplicity and robustness. The machine uses a total of eight motors to function. These motors include three Bosch drill motors with planetary gear transmissions, one Fischer-Price motor with a custom built planetary gear transmission, two power window drive motors, one air compressor with 120 psi capacity, and one small servo motor. The final product is a durable, fast robot with good maneuverability.

The robot consists of two operating systems controlled via remote control through a computer-generated program. The two systems control the locomotion of the robot as well as a grasping system to capture and release goals. These two systems will allow the team to score points on the field by maneuvering the goals into different positions of the field.

PAL 2002 utilizes a 4-wheel drive system. The primary drive system consists of two wheels located on the east and west sides of the robot. These propel it forward and backward with tank style steering via two flight sticks in the driver’s hands. Speed is achieved with the click of a button, which activates two small air cylinders, shifting the drill motor drives from low to high range and vice versa.

The secondary drive system wheels are located on the north and south side of the robot. They are engaged when the primary drive wheels are raised off the floor and the secondary drive system is lowered. In this position, the robot moves from side to side. The tank-style steering drives are toggled by the student driver who, at his or her discretion, regulates the speed, power, and direction they deem necessary. During driver training, the ability of the robot to rotate around the goals proved to be a valuable asset. It enabled the robot under strong power to slip out of normally pinned positions with other ambitious robots.

A pneumatic system consisting of an air pump, storage tanks, regulators, valves, flow controls, and actuator cylinders is used to give the driver the luxury of switching drives instantly at the squeeze of a trigger.

The grasping systems consists of two “fork plates” that are located on the north and south side of the robot. They are ¼” aluminum plate shaped like a fork. The controls are designed to deport the fork arms by raising them vertical to horizontal from the profile of the robot, like short wings. When driven into the goal structures, the arms will automatically grab and hook the goal. The second driver controls each fork arm independently with a small control box at the driver station. Lowering the arms and driving the robot away releases the goal.

The team’s very ambitious electrical team has developed sophisticated controls, wiring, and programming to navigate the machine. The navigational system compliments the robot design very well. Important symbiotic relationships continue to develop between the electrical and mechanical systems as well as between the drivers and driver feedback systems.

The electrical team of students and engineers has created a system that would enable independent control of the machine by a visually impaired driver. Code named I.D.A.N. (Intelligent Detection, Analysis and Navigation), the system allows the robot to provide audio feedback to a laptop computer.

The cornerstone of this system is a tiny magnetic sensor that will read the earth’s magnetic field. The signal it sends out will identify the direction the robot is facing. This information also establishes the robot’s location within the five zones of the playing field. An optical switch receives a signal every time the robot moves over a line of white tape bordering each zone.

The robot has been installed with optical switches on servomotors, which allow it to “scan” for the goals and correct its path automatically. The optical switches respond to the retro-reflective properties of the tape on each goal. A pressure sensor inside the robot arms will determine that the goal is secure. The Sie-H2O-Bot team looks forward to gaining extremely valuable experience with this very sophisticated system as the season progresses.


Our experimental "Blind Drive" system won us the leadership in controls award in NYC as well.

[Amy Beth]

Oh, don't you see, all your teams are unique for the very fact that you are participating in FIRST. FIRST is a rainbow of uniqueness. Everyone is unique, and everyone is a winner.

Hey, look, i could be dean kamen!

[Kris Verdeyen]

Originally posted by Elgin Clock
The cornerstone of this system is a tiny magnetic sensor that will read the earth’s magnetic field. The signal it sends out will identify the direction the robot is facing. This information also establishes the robot’s location within the five zones of the playing field. An optical switch receives a signal every time the robot moves over a line of white tape bordering each zone.

Expect to see me in your pit Thursday morning at nationals - I have got to see this! It seems like you went all out on the custom circuit board allowance.

[Elgin Clock]

Awesome, come check us out by all means. It's still an expierimental device but I do know that the compass part of it does work! And very well at that!

[Michael Murphy]

What's unique about TJ²?

1) Tie-dye (shirts, socks, hats, pants, we've done it all!)
2) The original thunder-sticks (now banned from FIRST competitions)
3) The ORIGINAL Moe (before team 365)

also, if anyone wants to trade shirts in Florida, let me know

mmurphy@inspirationinc.org

[Elgin Clock]

Ok so what are these "thunder sticks"?

[schitnis]

If you smell-l-l-l, what TRIMANTIS is cooking ! :mad:

This is why I think our team is special:

1. We started with 40 students and 2 mentors, we have 15 students only...others did not participate.

2. Our Robot is named TRIMANTIS, it has nothing is triplets !!

3. We are rookie team and our robot is relatively pro.

4. We were led by a computer teacher and we also were helped by a tech teacher.

5. I believe, we got only one girl on the team, she is a good team participant.

6. All high-school students.

7. Every body on the team ( that is 15 students) are dedicated students.

8. Our robot, part of our TEAM, has a special armor !! Aluminum :)

Now tell me, that how special is my team... rate 1 for least special and 5 for most special

I will say 5 !

Hehe Haha

Can you dig that, sucka!

[Joe Matt]

Those sticks MOE uses.

[Michael Murphy]

A thunder-stick is basically a stick that has a team logo at the top. The sticks are pounded against the ground to make a loud rumble. Last August at the FIRST forums, it was brought up that t.s.-like devices had caused several thousand dollars worth of damage in Philadelphia. It wasn't us (we competed at Rutgers that year), but nonetheless, we were asked to stop using them at competitions. We had to cut them up to use as drumsticks. As far as i can tell, there is only one stick left somewhere in New Hampshire.

[VampyrNoireGoth]

We are the only team with a vampyr on it ;) Bet ya'll can't top that one :p

[Adam Y.]

What makes our team unique is there team colors. Never mind the team next to us has the same school colors as us.
We have our own website.:confused: No wait that isnt unique im on a first website right now.
We managed to get a giant hacky sack ring going during the LI regional party. Heheh our one teacher is pretty good at it.
We're a bunch of crazy and smart people people and thats pretty scarry when you see those two words go together. Good night.:p
www.longwoodrobotics.org (http://www.longwoodrobotics.org)

[Matchew]

our robot was built by seven high school students

[Simon]

Originally posted by The Lucas
We made a custom pit with a drill press, vise, programmed LED Board and string of green lights that say "GO MOE". Our Pit Crew rebuilt a completly destroyed wing (very complex and huge) in less than 15 mins (I'm not taking any credit for that I was only a tool runner).

we were fortunate to have all the bosch for our pit donated to us (if we hadn't, we wouldn't have such a swanky pit). another thing that you didn't mention was that that pit was TOTALLY designed and built by students. on our robot, most everything is machined by high-schoolers (with the exception of using the bandsaw, which is huge and scary and we're not allowed to use cause dupont doesn't want to find any loose fingers).

Also, we had that wing back together in less than 10 minutes, thank you very much, also taking into consideration that we switched from 1x2 angle with lightning holes to 1x2 channel without (for all those who think we had a weight problem, we took off a piece that weighed 8 pounds so that we could strengthen our wings). while this change doesn't sound like much, we didn't have any of the pieces cut so we had to start from a 15 foot piece of metal and make a wing out of it.

we are also a team made up of people from eight different high-schools and one homeschooled student. this means our meeting schedule is completely after school. our meeting schedule can therefore not be told us over the morning announcements, but rather has to be communicated through the use of our website.

we're probably the only team that you can guarantee not to miss thanks to our overabundance of green, so keep your eye open, we'll be at nationals in full force.

Simon

[patrick gill]

our team has one very cool hula doll and we pass out lai's, while wearing full hula girl attire, at the competitions:)

[IsabelRinging]

4 members of our team are convicted felons.

18 members of our team are narcoleptic.

Any member of our team could bite off your face and eat it like a baby, but only on Wedesdays.

9 members of our team are missing vital internal organs.

1 member of our team is lying to you right now.

[Kit Gerhart]

Originally posted by angel55
Any guess what team this is?

Made up of 20 students from not one, not two, but 4 rival, inner-city high schools.

7th year in competition.

Until this year, no major financial sponsor. Financed completely by community donations and fundraising.

Technical support provided by a local, family-owned company.

Only about 5 engineers, total.

Students build entire robot, except for parts that students cannot make due to school-district safety regulations.

Students are best friends. Team members go bowling every week together. A former team member changed the date of her birthday party this year because the team had a meeting and no one would've been able to come.

In the off season, many students work for another company owned by the family of their technical sponsor.

One of the most successful small teams in the history of FIRST.

Any guesses?

Sounds like Team 71

[The]

GRT, the original G-Force, builds our whole robot at our school, with little non high schooler manufacturing of designing, and come competition, over 50% of our team permanately dyes our hair bright red. We also bring drums to the competition, and pretty much have a massive "sixth man club" to cheer for our robot.

[Amy Beth]

Originally posted by The
GRT, the original G-Force, builds our whole robot at our school, with little non high schooler manufacturing of designing, and come competition, over 50% of our team permanately dyes our hair bright red. We also bring drums to the competition, and pretty much have a massive "sixth man club" to cheer for our robot.

I definitely agree that GRT is unique
~head still pounding from the drums this weekend~
not a scooter!!!

[SSwaszek]

A sort of tradition our team has started last year is dying or coloring our hair. It was only a few of us last year and this year its increasing greatly. At Rutgers this year we colored the MC's hair and sprayed our team number on the back of his head.

[karlean]

Also, some GRT people, (myself included) put our hair into ridiculously big mohawks. One of our mentors gives himself a tri-hawk. (Ken "The Man" Krieger) Finally, we have a rousing cheer that makes no sense whatsoever. Ouee Ouee Acha? I mean, even I don't know what that means!

[Beowulf]

Originally posted by karlean
Also, some GRT people, (myself included) put our hair into ridiculously big mohawks. One of our mentors gives himself a tri-hawk. (Ken "The Man" Krieger) Finally, we have a rousing cheer that makes no sense whatsoever. Ouee Ouee Acha? I mean, even I don't know what that means!

Could you guys lay off with the drums a bit? My head still hurts. Nice 'bot. see you guys at nationals. Congrats on winning regional Chairman's Award.

[Mike Schroeder]

WELL THE YEAR IS 2000 AND OUR TEAM WAS NEVER A HIGH QUALIFYING TEAM SO AS A JOKE OUR ADVISOR (WAYNE C) SAID IF WE WIN THE REGIONALS AT RUTGERS THAN HE WOULD SHAVE HIS BEARD AND WE WON.

THAN OUR SPONSORS GAVE US THE MONEY TO GO TO FLORIDA AND HE SAID IF WE WON THEIR HE WOULD SHAVE HIS HEAD AND UNFORTUNATLY (FOR HIM YEA FOR US) WE WON AND THEN INVITED TO GO ON GOOD MORNING AMERICA. SOMEONE SAID THAT HE STILL HAD TO SHAVE HIS HEAD AND THE GMA PERSON SAID WE COULD DO IT ON THE AIR AND THEY SHAVED HIS HEAD ON NATIONAL TELEVISION.

WE ARE PROBOBLY THE ONLY TEAM THAT HAVE HAD SOME ONE HAVE THEIR HEAD SHAVED ON NATIONAL TELEVISION[/COLOR


[COLOR=tomato]YOU CAN SEE IT AT http://www.usfirst2000champs.org

[DaBruteForceGuy]

OH THAT IS EASY....
I'M ON IT!

[Madison]

Originally posted by DaBruteForceGuy
OH THAT IS EASY....
I'M ON IT!


Hehe. . . I thought, for sure, that it was going to be 'excellent driving'.

You surprise me yet again, Steve...

[DaBruteForceGuy]

Hehe. . . I thought, for sure, that it was going to be 'excellent driving'.
u c when u get me u get the whole package..
-excellent driving!
-assistance of a master in the feild of Bruteforce
-A man who works wonders with a pair of dikes
AND - a MOTIVATIONAL SPEEKER!

:D

[Team238-aholic]

We participated in the very first FIRST competition...and it was held at my high school...well the high school i went too...lol....

[238junior]

We have a two drive system that we can alternate any time during a match. Tracks and Wheels



238 Wat???

[Keith Chester]

No one can beat Mr.Volcano's white boy dance. Stand back and be amazed by his skills...
Or just point and laugh. Either way.

[mike pawlak]

ok, why team 109 (S.P.A.Z. tek) is unique?

for starters we have two schools (probibly 1 after i graduate this year)

i am the only senior on my team:)

i am the first student to be on the team for 4 years

our team colors are blue and orange

our robot has always been bright orange and usually a cube

the robot is student built

there was a movie filmed at our school

and finally we were the only team that was not designed to cross the field in 2000, instead we just flipped out the other alliences balls with our poker.

[mike pawlak]

one more thing our theme song in 2000 was magic carpet ride by steppenwolf:cool:

[Robocardgrl5]

For 4 yrs we had always had the same mentor/teacher and engineers. During the summer he left our school and went to our rival school meanwhile hiding it from us. He took a job as vice principal and started a robotics team there. Not only did he leave but he tried to take our engineers and his contacts with him. The great team of engineers stuck by us but kept this all a secret. So with our 1 and only mentor gone we were left high and dry. At our school robotics is also a class. We were given a new math teacher to help but he was very mean, rigid, and didn't know too much about robotics. we tried to work with him but he wasn't interested. so we had our engineers come in and try to set up a new cirriculum since our mentor took everything with him. Then like our mentor he decided he had some issues and had to leave the math department. Thus again leaving us without any help. Once again we were passed on to another math teacher. One of whom wasn't the favorite on anyone's list. We started having meetings and decided we had to start from scratch. so from the garage of the school with no heat we began our season. So then we had a new mentor one who also had no idea of what to do and our engineers. Our engineers' company hardly had enough money to give so we had to fund raise it all. We had raffles, worked concessions at U of M (State is better), worked with lego league, sold pizza kits, and collected pop bottles. There was alot more but those were the main ones. With 13 memebers this season seemed bleak but we still worked hard and got to the quarter-finals each regional. :D

[Elgin Clock]

Originally posted by mike pawlak
ok, why team 109 (S.P.A.Z. tek) is unique?

there was a movie filmed at our school



Out of curiosity what was it?

[mike pawlak]

new port south

[Jgreenwd1]

do you even have to ask that about our team

[Martin]

Our team, unique? ask anyone at the canaian regional which team had the ugliest bot, an i guarantee you they will answer, #907 :)
We buit Our bot with heart :)
two shop teachers an 5 students who actually did work. 0 sponsors. 0 school support (people didn't even know we existed). But we ha one heck of a time, im still floating in a FIRST high, things are going very well for us, next year we will put a kickbut bot :) We are soon to be finished a promotional vieo, an work on the sponsors begins in a few days.

good luck to all :)

[shawny963]

we can pick up balls like a "hoover", at least we did in the second day of competition at MMR

[Jgreenwd1]

you must not have seen our robot yet. we pick them faster the a hoover.

[mpking]

Originally posted by Jgreenwd1
you must not have seen our robot yet. we pick them faster the a hoover.

I noticed. I was upclose an personal when you guys were testing out in the pits. It was pretty unerving watching those balls literally disappear.

[Elgin Clock]

Number 95#s robot came to be known as the "popcorn popper" in the 237 circle of members, just because of how fast you guys had your motors set to spin in Quincy MA during the scrimmage before shipping!

[Phil Chang]

team 469 is unique because robotics is our only sports team, u heard it. we have no football, socer, tennis you name it, we dont have it. First RObotics is the only organized school sponsered team sport at the International Academy in Bloomfield Hills Michigan where a majority of the studnets on the team coem from, myself included.

-thechosun

[Elyse Holguin]

Originally posted by Kit Gerhart


Sounds like Team 71

I'd like to add that 2 of those High Schools are EXTREME rivals in just about everything imaginable (Gavit/Morton). We also have about the most extreme dance parties on top of vans in parks at night, and have a bowling team, not to mention, oh.... 66% of the team loves each other, and the other 34% is loved by them too, most of the time. We also have a representative from every activity our school city has, from poms to science olympiad, golf to basketball, cross country to soccer, and all those in between.





(who knew robotics could be a dating circle???)

[andred2]

we´re the 2nd team from Brazil and we´re the first team from brazil that developed a robotic course during the last year

http://planeta.terra.com.br/educacao/projetorepio/fotos_competicao.htm

[Koko Ed]

Besides being one of the few remaining original teams left we are the only two time Chairman's award winner in the history of FIRST.

[Ryan Meador]

Wow, this is a big thread... I guess it's gone a little off topic, but maybe I can bring it back ;) My team is (semi) unique because:

We have no large corporate sponsor... we have tens of small business sponsors.

We have students from 4 high schools, spanning two states (including two intense rival schools), plus several home-schooled kids.

Everything we do is done largely by the students -- no professional engineers doing all the designwork.

We've gone through 2 generations of coaches (even 3 head coaches) since the team began in '97.

elyse71: And we're very familiar with the robotics-becomes-dating-service syndrome...

[Anarkissed]

Well off the top of my head a few things make our team unique. Most prominent being the letter A. ;)

Another being the fact that we had a pneumatic fork lift last year on our bot :D

hmm... we have too many mikes on our team.... mbiddy mmiddy etc.

last year i ran for president on the platform of being friendly :D maybe thats unique... *shrugs*

[FAKrogoth]

My school has no sports teams either. In fact, our only competitive teams this year are Varsity Quiz, Debate, and FIRST.

Also, the only college student helpers we have this year are freshman who were here last year. We have no professionals.
Of course, this *might* have something to do with our being a sophomore team this year.

[DanLevin247]

My team isn't just a team. It's a class at our school, and at times, It's even a family.

[johnscans]

1.we have two dans: fat and skinny/crazy and normal
2.our fundraisers are LAN's
3.mr. Z

[GILLIGAN!!!!!!!]

we are the only highschool to have a PGA golf course, and our team is named after a canned meat, and i think we are biggest team, 56 memebers+adults

[srjjs]

We are the only team that has our fundraising manager plan our build schedule. At least I hope we are.

[mpking]

Originally posted by GILLIGAN!!!!!!!
we are the only highschool to have a PGA golf course, and our team is named after a canned meat, and i think we are biggest team, 56 memebers+adults

I'm sure there are larger teams. This is our travel team from 1997. We left about 20 people behind because they failed to meet travel requirements. (Grades dropped from beginning of year, didn't meet fundrasing goals. etc..)

I will say that having a PGA golf course is pretty unique.

http://www.tj2.org/1997/imagepages/team97.html

[MacZealot]

I'd have to say the ability to cook up things so fast. ;)

This is only year 2 for us and we already have some reeeeealy good experience :D

[Ed Crammond]

Unique?

We're the only team from Europe
Pink Floyd went to our school and wrote "Another Brick in the Wall" about it
I dont know if its unique but we have a fully metric robot ;)

[Koko Ed]

Originally posted by GILLIGAN!!!!!!!
we are the only highschool to have a PGA golf course, and our team is named after a canned meat, and i think we are biggest team, 56 memebers+adults

We have 37 kids and 24 adults. And this is one of our smaller teams. Back in the day the team went over a hundred members (http://www.x-cats.org/2002%20website/index1.htm) in 1995 . I doubt we'll get that big again.

[D.J. Fluck]

Originally posted by Koko Ed
We have 37 kids and 24 adults. And this is one of our smaller teams. Back in the day the team went over a hundred members (http://www.x-cats.org/2002%20website/index1.htm) in 1995 . I doubt we'll get that big again.

Our team usually starts out the year with 60+ students, but by the time the build comes around the impatient ones quit and we end up having 20-25 students that attend the championships. I wonder what scares these kids away. Actually, I can think of several things, and this could be an interesting thread idea

[chellyzee93]

we're pretty notorious for cleaning up... You'll find us helping out in the stands and in the playing field helping out/cleaning up in anyway we can after competitions. At least the janitors appreciate us. :)

[Mullet]

Our name is SPAM

Can't get any more unique.

Unless you name your team Manwich.

[mpking]

Originally posted by Mullet
Our name is SPAM

Can't get any more unique.

Unless you name your team Manwich.

Hamburger Helper?

[Da Moose!]

we are actually a "rookie" team every year, since we only have about 3 people from the previous year, everytime we have entered the first competition, we completely design it, our teacher just says, "no, we dont have enough money for that". :D

[Clanat]

Rookie team winning a regional last year -- and as one of the drafters, not draftees. We teamed us with Brazil and Hawaii teams.

Our team is relatively small (10-15), I can't see how you could do anything with 50+ people.

We may soon have a pizza company as our sponsor (free pizza!)

We were probably the only team to use unmodified fisher price motors and gearboxes as our drivetrain last year.

We also had duct tape on our wheels :)

This year, our robot is going to have a drivetrain that is at least 300% more powerful, as well as being faster. I don't think there are many teams that can say that :)

[mpking]

depends on how bad you can design your drive train. :-)

Picture this. Direct Drive Seat motors. Hand cut wood wheels.

It wasn't pretty, since the seat motors have thermal limiters in them, and when they overheat, they shut down. (many a time in the match the motor would overheat, and shut down.)

http://www.tj2.org/1996/imagepages/jnj.html

[Teedoff101]

Our team is really small, (5-10 actually dedicated members), but we are really good at what we do. We have only 5 faculty and adult mentors and this was the same size as our team last year (a rookie team that won the Xerox Creativity Award at SoCal.) Our bot's name was R.A.L.P.H (really awesome low rider powered by hampsters). Our team size may be due to the fact that our school 7-12 has a total of 450 kids. We gave out the most wanted giveaway last year at SoCal regionals (tortional yo-yos). Our team is just a bunch of nerds wanting to get a head start in life. Not much else though, we are just a normal team with normal goals.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally posted by Teedoff101
(tortional yo-yos).

Explain! What is a tortional yo-yo!

Our team is unique by being the FIRST team (I think) to experiment with a blind drive system that makes the robot able to essentially be controlled by a person who is vision impaired. Code named I.D.A.N. or Intelligent Detection And Navigation system, this feature won us the Leadership in Controls Award at last years NYC Regional. If you would like more info on IDAN, PM me or search for "IDAN" on the search engine on these forums.

[Duke 13370]

We were rookies twice:D

[Anarkissed]

hey alex message me on MSN or yahoo

vandals_sxe_punk at yahoo

or
willyg76@hotmail.com

my AIM is messed up and i need some help with somethin

[Melissa H.]

We have NO Seniors what so ever...we're all rookies...and I believe we don't have any full time engineers yet...AND we're the last of 16 FORD teams!:D

[vertigojoe]

My team builds everything by ourselves. We don't send anything out to get fabricated/built. We don't have any engineers, just 2 super smart high school teachers. Obviously it works, because last year as a rookie team we won Delphi's "Driving Tomorrow Technology" at the Pacific Northwest Regional in Seattle and posted one of the highest qualifiying scores in a single round in the nation. (Ya, remember the gumball machine?) Anyways, I think I'm rambled on long enough, we'll see you at regionals.


Team 998

BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID!

[Hailfire]

Originally posted by Tetra248
We have NO Seniors what so ever...we're all rookies...and I believe we don't have any full time engineers yet...AND we're the last of 16 FORD teams!:D

We do have Ronnie Tront doing pneumatics for us and other stuff remember?

[Melissa H.]

Who?!(Nowadays, I don't know who's on the team and all that stuff...):confused:

[HolyMasamune]

Umm...we have the weirdest team with the weirdest talent?

[Alfred Thompson]

Weirdest? Among FIRST teams? A bold claim indeed. :)

[Hailfire]

Originally posted by Tetra248
Who?!(Nowadays, I don't know who's on the team and all that stuff...):confused:

Well, it is true we don't have any FULL TIME Engineers, but believe me, we're trying to get some.

[GateRunner]

We have a theme song!

And ive heard it so many times it haunts my dreams....

[JMastahFlex19]

we have Bill:

http://www.jcalabro.com/bill.jpg


-Team19

[Hailfire]

Ok... Well, I was wrong about the getting full time engineers thing. We only have Ronnie Tront, John Vukovich, and Matt Rizzo helping us along with a few additional engineers who are parents of some of our team members.

[JasonWestHigh]

Our Team (648 Quad City Elite) represents two states. We are from Sherrard, IL and Davenport IA. Our robot name is Oiy (Organized Iowa/Illionis Youth). :D

[illumanat'i]

bill, bill, i know i've seen that kid before... did team 19 go to nationals?


we're the only team with a lucky piece of wood (it has its own hanging place on one of the closet doors the school gives us, all to its self when we have no storage space and hang all our tools on those doors...)

[JMastahFlex19]

Originally posted by illumanat'i
bill, bill, i know i've seen that kid before... did team 19 go to nationals?

yup yup.. good ole bill.. he was our driver last year at nationals... he's special...

[Ashley Weed]

We may actually be the team with the most school districts covered by our team area. This year, we have members from Waverly, NY; Athens, Troy, Towanda, and Northeast Bradford, PA. Our team area covers in addition another 3 school districts, one Christian School, and many homeschools.

We cover two states and two counties. We pull members from small cities to villages with a popultaion of less than 50.

We branched from one team which is now three teams..84, 222, 284.

..... we have a ManDad :p

[gilachick]

Our team is special because our team was started by alumni from the Gila Monster that are attending the University of Arizona the best school ever!!!! Also because we have all known each other for a couple of years and really love robotics.

[mgreenley]

Originally posted by Manoel
We're from Brazil... :D

Did your team attend the 2001-02 ramp riot?

[nragod]

we got ducks

[HolyMasamune]

We're the only team that has managers who don't manage and moderators who don't moderate :P and we're proud of it!

[Blacknight]

We're S.P.A.M. and we got capes!!!:D

[Marc P.]

Hm, where to start-

We've moved between 4 differant work spaces over the past 5 years, and we currently have no sponsor.

:eek:

[ChewyMasterFlex]

Originally posted by JMastahFlex19
we have Bill:

http://www.jcalabro.com/bill.jpg


-Team19
Are you trying to kill us all, Master?
My god, that was ghastly...

[Sachiel7]

RAPTAR is an all-homeschooling team...
We have plenty of time for FIRST...
We have had a few issues this year w/ the kit but overall, we're making some great progress!

[FAKrogoth]

For all those who were at the Southern California Regionals last year, you might remember us . . .

"Team 990 needs a miracle. If anyone can provide a miracle, please see Team 990."

Aaaah, John caught so much flak for that one.

[whiskas]

Originally posted by Manoel
We're from Brazil... :D

So what's so special about it?

=)


#1156 - The #1 Rookie team from Brazil in 2003.

[Sean_330]

We are building our robot in an abondoned Mexican restaurant that smells really bad. Also, I bet we are the only team who had a member get the crazy idea to spray a fire extinguisher just to see what would happen. It took forever to clean up!

[GoDaisy341]

TEAM 341 WAS THE FIRST TO HAVE A TEAM CD. JUST THOUGHT PUT IN A PLUG TO THE MEDIA DEPARTMENT.:D

[Simone]

Originally posted by whiskas
So what's so special about it?

=)


#1156 - The #1 Rookie team from Brazil in 2003.

That's special 'cause:

We are the first Brazilian team
In 3 years we won two regionals and two awards, including the Judges Award
And we are very happy for having other Brazilian schools learning with us :D
And to us the fact of being Brazilians is special and we are proud of it.

Members of #383
The Brazilian Machine

#383 - The first brazilian team ever :yikes:

[Ashley Weed]

...we have a bankrupt abandoned Ames department store for our complete control of!!!!!...... playing field !

...enough said :)

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally posted by Sean_330
I bet we are the only team who had a member get the crazy idea to spray a fire extinguisher just to see what would happen. It took forever to clean up!

Hey neighbor, our team last year had 2 members fill up the auto shop and empty the fire extinguisher. Must be the beach air!

[Sean_330]

Wow! Has any other team in here ever used a fire extinguisher?

[OneAngryDaisy]

Did anyone else ever name their robot after a flower? :D Don't think so..

[Raven_Writer]

Our team got the old inschool room (really depressing I might add)

[esellers]

what makes team 1201 different is that all the students are not just from one school we are from 5 different ones in one county. we were the first team in north Mississippi to ever to compete and get a NASA grant. Some of our students are the smart quiet type, some are loud and obnoxious, some are into piercings and tattoos, some (like ME) just like to have fun and are a little CRAZY! Also our teacher is about as crazy as we are and likes to have fun just like we do. This is our first time ever competing and our community has backed us all the way. And our robot has a very interesting story behind it about one of our students at the center. We cant say just what it is because we hope to keep it secret until the unveiling before we ship, but keep in contact and I will tell ship date!

[BBFIRSTCHICK]

Well, with team 1077, we all branched off from another FIRST team, there are only 10 of us (its scary, im used to looking around and seeing like 60), we all have our Engineers that had been working on the previous team since they were in High School, and our now College graduates,we consist of about 4 or 5 schools, and we all build Battle Bots. LOL!

[Matthew936]

We are the only Job Corp out of the 119 centers to compete in FIRST.

We recieve credit in school for working on it.

We are a rookie team with no mentoring from other team

If we go to nats, we plan to bring less people than we do to regionals

[Gimpy]

Our team is the only FIRST team to hold a FIRST Lego League State competition in our high school. We fund the FLL tournament ourselves, with help from parents, volunteers, and returning team members.
We also have a student work policy. The engineers and NC State University students help us, but the robot is built and programmed, and the animation is created, by our students.
The robodogs also have a structure like a bussiness with a Board of Directors, 5 sub teams (including a parents team), and managers.
Oh, and you can't forget Ms. Kellogg (aka K) 'id rather be slow then dead.'

[Yan Wang]

Umm... we're moving 2x faster than last year due to organization and we'll be done by Friday easily... and yes, it's quality. You should see the gear boxes, omniwheels, and stacking mechanism we designed and had machined by our sponsor... testing some final stuff before taking it part and having framed welded (than current bolts), switching wooden electronics board with lexan, and then driving it... the final 2 weeks are pretty much free for debugging programming and final adjustments.

[Specialagentjim]

Originally posted by Sean_330
We are building our robot in an abondoned Mexican restaurant that smells really bad. Also, I bet we are the only team who had a member get the crazy idea to spray a fire extinguisher just to see what would happen. It took forever to clean up!

Not the only one....

We just got a new building for our tech magnet built, so the old building was bare except for the occasional "WARNING: ASBESTOS" signs. So on one of my friends trek's into the building, he relized they were going to tear the old buildign down with the fire extinguisher's still in it...Well, you can guess what happened from there....

[MisterX]

Last year our team was made up of 12 Seniors, 1 Junior, 2 Sophmores, and 1 Freshmen

This year 1 Senior, 2 Juniors, and 2 Sophmores and, 17 Freshmen (only 12 or 13 Freshies come to most of the meetings)

Not real nething special but that is a whole lotta Probies!!!!!

[nragod]

Originally posted by MisterX
Last year our team was made up of 12 Seniors, 1 Junior, 2 Sophmores, and 1 Freshmen

This year 1 Senior, 2 Juniors, and 2 Sophmores and, 17 Freshmen (only 12 or 13 Freshies come to most of the meetings)

Not real nething special but that is a whole lotta Probies!!!!!

Last year our team was made up of 8Seniors, 1 Junior, 3 Sophmores, and 2 Freshmen

This year 2 Senior, 4 Juniors, and 2 Sophmores and, 0 Freshmen

[Aaron Lussier]

Originally posted by Gimpy
Our team is the only FIRST team to hold a FIRST Lego League State competition in our high school.

Nope, sorry dude, Our team also held a state FLL tournament in our high school gym

[x-catSean]

My team, team 191 the X-Cats, were one of the founding teams of FIRST, and we have been in FIRST all 13 years!
We are the ONLY team to ever win the chairmans award twice!
We are 2/3 girls
GO X-CATS!

[Elgin Clock]

Originally posted by Matthew936
If we go to nats, we plan to bring less people than we do to regionals

That's probably not as unusual as you would imagine. Even for novice teams like mine (5yrs) or even the X-Cats (13 yrs).

It's just a matter of funding and probably a lot of other factors.

[JVN]

Originally posted by x-catSean
My team, team 191 the X-Cats, were one of the founding teams of FIRST, and we have been in FIRST all 13 years!
We are the ONLY team to ever win the chairmans award twice!
We are 2/3 girls
GO X-CATS!

1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003

I count 12 years...
This is the 2nd time in the past few days someone from a TWELVE year team has jumped the gun by a season... :D

[Katie Reynolds]

Originally posted by Gimpy
Our team is the only FIRST team to hold a FIRST Lego League State competition in our high school. We fund the FLL tournament ourselves, with help from parents, volunteers, and returning team members. Nope, we hold the Wisconsin state FLL tournament here at our high school, and also help out at the Appleton regional (held at one of the middle school.) :)

- Katie

[edomus]

Our robots name is rinol

[f22flyboy]

ummm... our robotics club has only 1 adult. He is not an engineer or machinist, but a physics teacher. We have no access to any engineers, college students or machinists. This may not be entirely in the spirit of FIRST, but we can say that our bot is built entirely by high school students

And our name...

[Koko Ed]

Originally posted by JVN
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003

I count 12 years...
This is the 2nd time in the past few days someone from a TWELVE year team has jumped the gun by a season... :D
We X-Cats are so eager that we can't wait to get to the 13th year!:p

[Spitfire]

For anybody that was at the Silicon Valley Regional event at the San Jose Event Center, in San Jose, California. They probably saw our drivetrain, it seemed we were the only ones that used a timing belt pulled by pulley's

Quite a few people came by and commented on it. Though *when it works* it is effective, we had a LOT of problems with it. The tread slipped off numerous times and we broke 3 of those cheap tranny's they gave us. As one of my teammates said to someone who asked about our drivetrain: "Everyone likes our drivetrain but us"

It's a pain in the butt to maintain, but oh well.

btw, if you didnt know we are team 409 :ahh:

[Pin Man]

Moe socks.... We are the only team with signed Moe socks...

Flashy tie dye shirts (for me pants, socks, and head wear)

Buttons Buttons Buttons ( I have over 200)

One of the biggest teams...

[roboticscom13]

For anybody that was at the Silicon Valley Regional event at the San Jose Event Center, in San Jose, California. They probably saw our drivetrain, it seemed we were the only ones that used a timing belt pulled by pulley's

Quite a few people came by and commented on it. Though *when it works* it is effective, we had a LOT of problems with it. The tread slipped off numerous times and we broke 3 of those cheap tranny's they gave us. As one of my teammates said to someone who asked about our drivetrain: "Everyone likes our drivetrain but us"

It's a pain in the butt to maintain, but oh well.

btw, if you didnt know we are team 409

Don't worry we feel your pain too. We have a unique crab steer design that we were having problems with for a while but it is now taken care of for the most part. We like to refer to our robot in general as "A ballerina in a mosh-pit."

[Libby Ritchie]

What makes 393/Full Metal Jackets Special...

~Our high school has an enrollment of 271 students and yet we have on average 30 kids on our team each year, after we make cuts!

~I am married to the team leader of team 234/CyberBlue, which makes for an interesting/stressful life at our house.

~This year, we have a female robot, named Scarlet! :)

~We have only one engineer and one parent volunteer to help us.

~Our adult leaders/mentors/students are like family.

[AlbertW]

our robot was held together by giant staples :D

and, the bottom line in my signature.

(try saying THAT 10 times fast ;))

[Austin]

Originally posted by Clark Gilbert
We the Technokats are

"The few, the proud, one of the orignals"

"Unchanged since 1992"


(Stole those from a Marines commercial and a Hersey Chocolate bar commercial)

And if u cant tell from that we are one of the few teams who have been in FIRST since 1992. Plus we've never changed sponsers or schools. :)

Actually, clark, we used to have NorthWestern school partnered with us as well. Also, we have had various team names. But you're right, we are one of the originals

[Pat Fairbank]

We, 296, were the first only team in the whole of Quebec (the largest province in Canada) until this year, our 5th.

We seem to be the only Canadian team who shows up to the regionals in the new england area.

We have a crazy guy on our team who wears a chicken suit and runs around at regionals, although we have no mascot and no relation to chickens.

We never fundraise 'cause our school doesn't let us (there go all hopes for a chairman's award)

Our driver also makes up the larger half of the animation team, is the only programmer, does all the wiring, most of the pneumatics, and a fair portion of mechanical work.

Oh yeah, and we all speak french fluently.

[Alaina]

Everything. :rolleyes:

On a more serious note..."Couch Bot."

[codeoftherobot]

Mascots. At our regionals we probably had the most diverse mascots than any other team. Pirates, astronaut suit, oh my. Those were some of the reasons why we got to be rookie of the year twice. Cheering sections comprised of our team and team 692 (all-girl team who stomped everyone at the Sacramento Regional). we made sure that we were the loudest and largest group there.

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally posted by codeoftherobot
At our regionals we probably had the most diverse mascots than any other team. Pirates, astronaut suit, oh my. Cheering sections comprised of our team and team 692 . we made sure that we were the loudest and largest group there.

*envy*

[sanddrag]

Our team does a lot of yelling at each other. It is just the cultural nature of many of the students on our team. Many of our students are Armenian and the language is said in a yelling angry sort of way. We are also a very diverse team although we have only 17 students. The nationalities on our team (in no particular order) are

Armenian
White
Chinese
Korean
Persian
Indian
Egyptian

Cool huh?

[J Flex 188]

hehe, seems you speak fluent english too : P

you guys couldnt make it to the canadian regional?.. i saw like only one quebec team.. i think 1129

Originally posted by Patfair
We, 296, were the first only team in the whole of Quebec (the largest province in Canada) until this year, our 5th.

We seem to be the only Canadian team who shows up to the regionals in the new england area.

We have a crazy guy on our team who wears a chicken suit and runs around at regionals, although we have no mascot and no relation to chickens.

We never fundraise 'cause our school doesn't let us (there go all hopes for a chairman's award)

Our driver also makes up the larger half of the animation team, is the only programmer, does all the wiring, most of the pneumatics, and a fair portion of mechanical work.

Oh yeah, and we all speak french fluently.

[Powers]

our team is made up of two schools and we absolutely HATE each other in everything else but robotics... for example:


3 years ago they cut down a large tree worth several thousand dollars in the middle of the senior quad

we retaliated by spray painting their gym and all over their brand new sports facilities

fights have been known to break out at parties, burger kings, anywhere else possible, especially sporting events

(edited)
We are also thinking of letting a third school join our team, and this school is another hated rival of my school, not so much of the other school, but it will be funny to see the three working together.

[Pat Fairbank]

Originally posted by J Flex 188
hehe, seems you speak fluent english too : P

you guys couldnt make it to the canadian regional?.. i saw like only one quebec team.. i think 1129

We went to the canadian regional last year, but this year it landed right during Spring Break. We went to BAE and UTC instead, easier for shipping too.

Yeah, 1129 is the rookie team here in Montreal who ended our term as the only montreal or quebec team.

[Pin Man]

We have about 40-45 kids on our team... We always make the loudest noise...

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally posted by sanddrag
Our team does a lot of yelling at each other. It is just the cultural nature of many of the students on our team. Many of our students are Armenian and the language is said in a yelling angry sort of way. Cool huh?

:D Very Cool!!!

I didn't notice any yelling while you were at our facility.

[J2Kraatz]

Whats unique about my team well there is nothing really wait there is one thing we have a NELLY.

[Dr.Bot]

Well, we had a great rookie year and our team mascot is the Energizer Bunny. We wear pink bunny ears during our matches. Since we are a religously affiliated school, we have a big problem. The Rabbi won't let the students operate the robot on Saturday, so we need to recruit drivers from other teams to operate our bot. Since our school is new, our rookie team consisted of 6 students which was about 20% of the entire school body. We rotate drivers, operators, etc. so everyone gets a chance to play. We never give up. Our robot really was like the enegizer bunny. It kept going and scored 25 points in all but 1 of the qualifiers. We won the SVR Rookie all-star on the 1st day.

[tonyargote]

What makes our team special this year is that out team worked on our robots, we had no "professional help" (except for welding, and automode). We saw a lot of teams that had only adults work on their robot in the pit. We where proud of our robot each time it performed because it was our work.

Go RamTech

[sanddrag]

Originally posted by tonyargote
What makes our team special this year is that out team worked on our robots, we had no "professional help" (except for welding, and automode). We saw a lot of teams that had only adults work on their robot in the pit. We where proud of our robot each time it performed because it was our work.

We designed, machined and assembled everything with very very little adult help. We have 4 welds and 2 CNC pieces that were not done by the students. The only time engineers would step in is if we were really screwing up. We did auto mode ourselves too. You will never find adults working in our pit, or anywhere else really.

[Pin Man]

Six is good... But 8 is better...

[Wayne C.]

Team 25 bets against me each year! I lost the bet in 2000 and had my head shaved on Good Morning America as the result.

But it has grown back and is ready for another go if lightning strikes twice!!

What I want to know is how come my kids bet on my shaving or disfigurement!!!?

WC cool:

[Kit Gerhart]

Our team is unique in that it is one of the smallest teams in FIRST. We had about 3 students and 2.5 adults as "regulars" this year. We had 3 students and two adults at our regional. That should change next year, since we'll be in a new, and much larger school.

[tonyargote]

oh yeah, one more thing: where the only team with Cirilo on it. AHHHHH!!!

[Marygrace]

Lets see, what makes our team special. Umm, we ranked 33 out of 37 at Phoenix regional than were were finalists in LA. I am the only fifteen year old female welder for our team. We were national champions in 2001 but then did horribly in 2002. (Oh it was bad!) We have an open house every week. The senator of California came to visit us. We are the only team (as far as I know) to have a full out mural and every side of the crate, including the top.Click here to see pictures (http://www.bcrobotics.org/2003/2003photos.htm)

We have a ten year old member that completely designed, built, and programmed a robot from the edurobotic kit all by himself. We have sophmore as a team captain..well soon to be sophmore, i am a freshman right now. No, the seniors weren't to happy about it. Don't think there is anything else. :)

[Christina47]

we're diverse ! =P

[SarahB]

Our robot’s on Hot or Not (http://www.hotornot.com/r/?eid=NRHMBUA&key=CSL) :D

And we didn’t even put it there…