[PayneTrain]

I take my Sundays of Build Season off to get all of my homework done, but I have, in Week 0 and Week 1 at least, been thinking of how the team is doing in handling the challenge. We have our core group of 12 students (they are there just as/more often than my five days/week) that have been doing their part to really push our build season along. We're using the drive kit AndyMark donated to the teams in the KOP for testing. Hopefully it'll give us an idea of sensor and camera usage. The team is finalizing collection/manipulation prototyping today, and after we choose that system, we'll move into wheelbase and hanging. The hope is to finalize the design by Wednesday and send out the parts, then really hit the shop by the weekend.

With semester exams unfortunately looming, we have to push to get our action plan together for the actual build. Barring a surprise snowmageddon, we'll have an extra two weeks we lost last year due to paralyzing conditions. Everyone's thinking that if we can put together a New Jersey finalist in 12 days (we literally built the bot in 12 days), we can build a real force with more time.

Good luck to everyone, especially the snow-weary Midwest and Northeast teams. Although, I don't think anyone would mind another year of 65 lbs. provisions!