Our team is so hot we set off the fire alarm

[Larmahaffy]

the time was 9:30 at night, there was snow blanketing the ground, as fog just as thick as pea soup that had been left in the robotics team's food cabinet crept around the school building. The team was going about their business working diligently--when suddenly a shrill screeching was heard and strobe lights flashed before our eyes.
The fire alarms were going off.
We knew*dramatic pause* that it wasn't a drill, it was far too late at night for that. As the team rushed out of the building into the cold night everyone was questioning--what had happened? Was the robot alright? What about our precious laptops?

As it turned out the reason for the alarm was not due to a fire at all. Alas our school is so old, that a portion of the ceiling of the Junior High wing leaked causing an electrical glitch due to the recent blizzard. We had to stand out in the cold for what felt like an eternity as two police cars, an ambulance, and a fire truck raced past us into the other parking lot.

*this post originally sounded a lot cooler, but dear readers this author has been subject to censorship*

Have any funny/interesting robotics stories to tell? please feel free to add on!

[Jon Stratis]

At least the sprinklers didn't go off! Our biggest fear with our current build space is that we'll hit a sprinkler head with one of our robots and flood the entire room...


Now for our interesting story form this year.

We had our annual open house on Saturday. As we show up to the build space in St. Paul, we notice a lot of construction stuff going on and a couple of news vans half a block down the street. Naturally, our first thought was "I wonder if there's any way to get the news vans to tell people about our open house?"

Then we find out why they were all there... the water main had burst! So, we had an open house with no water. None to drink, none to run the plumbing in the restroom... truly a nightmare. Some quick phone calls, and a discussion with one of the building maintenance people gets some bottled water in the build space and some jugs in the restroom. But the worst part of it... a large donor to the school was going to bring us some coffee for the open house. She ended up driving to over a dozen coffee shops in a 5 mile radius until she finally found one that had water and could fulfill her order - not what you want a big donor to have to do for you!

Like any team, we managed to get through it and had some great turnout for the open house. But man, what a nightmare!