Alright guys, let's finish this up

So I will continue blogging, but my presentation is this Thursday.  I'm pretty much done with my presentation, but I need some feedback!  I've raised some money for the team which is part of my senior project, and all that's left to do is find out what I taught you.  Please!  Tell me what you think!  What have you learned?  What did I do well?  What didn't I do well?  I need your help! :)  Thanks guys

Smart phones :)

I have to say that my favorite innovation ever was my cell phone.  I don't know what I would do without my phone.  It is practically attached to my hands all the time, and I use it for everything.  It's not necessarily the highest level smart phone, but it is something that's come a long way from the beginning of cell phones.  Now, the world is recognizing Japan as a leader in smart phones.  Despite the leaps made by the Apple company, Japan's phones are being regarded as the leaders in development.  The supposed key to Japan's success is its development in isolation.  This has allowed the economy to thrive for years.  However, the globalizing world is jeopardizing this development.  The Apple company is growing, creating a threat for Japanese technology.  Japanese society is opting for the less expensive and highly popular Apple products.  The most popular area for this shift is in the business society, making certain that the technology will be compatible with that of the rest of the world.  It's really interesting to see how much of an impact globalization actually has on the global economy.

Information from: http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/transcripts/japan_cellphone_innovations_100518/

Ohh Hartford :)

So I've had to face the sad truth, I just attended the last regional of my high school career.  It was a blast of course, but the ending was bittersweet.  The past 4 years have been amazing, and I can definitely see how my life has been shaped by the team.  I was talking to my dad and I realized that I've attended 8 regionals, and no two were ever the same.  I was met with new experiences each and every time.  That's part of the whole learning process.  Every situation I've encountered has shaped me, adding to my FIRST experience.  So now that my sappy part is over, let's get to the fun stuff.  Team Paragon has changed a lot, and this year we produced a fantastic robot.  If we had been able to complete our minibot, we would have easily been in the top seeds.  Sadly we were unable to get our deployment system working correctly.  We performed well, but this game was very dependant on the minibot deployment.  However, we did make a break through.  For the first time in the past two seasons, Team Paragon had a working autonomous.  After a great deal of troubles, we got one working and were able to score an ubertube!  This was huge for our software team, and shows how much we've grown.  Our spirits were high throughout the weekend, and when the music finally picked up, so did our energy.  We attended the team social, which was really cool because we were able to meet people outside of the stressed environment of the competition.  It was a great weekend filled with fun.  I really can't find the words to explain it, but here's a slideshow that works a little better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmXCeNu4CCQ.  Thank you to all of our dedicated mentors and all of the people that made this regional happen :)  Happy offseason!

YAY REGIONALS!

Hey Guys!  Sorry it took so long to post, this week has kind of been hell week at school.  However, we went to WPI this weekend, or really, we took WPI by storm.  Having a regional at a college is an awesome idea for FIRST.  It gave students a chance to see the school and its surrounding areas.  I know that after visiting again I have fallen even more in love with the great campus and curriculum.  So our team went, and on Thursday we were one of the few teams with a working robot.  Although our minibot deployment system didn't work, our robot was phenomenal.  Our scoring mechanism is consistent and strong, and we were able to lead our alliances to many victories.  Never has Team Paragon been a force to reckon with, but this competition we were a target.  After choosing the 8th seed alliance for the final matches, we won our first match against the NUMBER ONE! alliance.  This was an awesome victory, but soon enough they realized that they needed to stop us.  In the next two matches, the other alliance's defense improved and we were shut down.  Hopefully for Hartford we'll be able to get a minibot and we will be even higher in the ranks!  This was an amazing competition for the robot.  However, our students were just as good, if not better.  We won imagery award and our spirit was high the ENTIRE weekend.  Everyone noticed us as a team and congratulated us on our performance.  In my opinion, it was the best regional since 2008.  Let's keep it up team!

And so the madness continues

After an almost flawless ship, the team has been busy with driver practice and making little last-minute adjustments.  We're looking forward to the packing session, followed by WPI!  Everyone is excited to get to the competition that we have be working towards all summer.  With our strong drive team and an (almost) finished robot, we have a shot at doing well!  Team Paragon has an annual drive team test, given to everyone who wants to be on the pit crew or on drive team.  This year the drive team consists of Zac as driver, Joe as coach, Greg as operator, and Dijon as human player.  I personally think we have a good shot at doing well this year at the competitions.  It definitely snuck up on us, but we're ready to go!

So... Who has actually finished their bot?

Week six was full of adventure, as the team geared up for ship.  We're shipping this Tuesday and there is still plenty to be done!  While half of the students stayed at the site to continue building, a group of us went to Suffield Shakedown, a scrimmage at Suffield High School that shows teams what they're looking at for the competition season.  While some teams were well prepared, it was obvious that most still had some work to do.  This season has definitely been rough up here in the Northeast, with all of the snowstorms and whatnot.  Although there were only two working mini-bots, it was clear that they would become the deciding factor in the coming regionals.  At the competition, I got to see a lot of people from a lot of teams.  We saw the rookie team from Mercy High School, and came to find that they were doing very well in terms of completion.  I also got the chance to talk to Connecticut's Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman.  I gave her my team shirt and made her an honorary member of Team Paragon.  It was an exciting day for everyone!

Five... Wait What?!?

So.  Let's just talk for a minute about how we have exactly one week left of build.  One week.  That's like, nothing.  The next few days are going to be insane.  Hopefully we'll have a working robot for Suffield, although at this point it looks like we won't even have a spot to compete anyways.  The important thing is that we go to learn about how the game is played and whatnot. So.  This weekend we had some very special guests come to the build site.  We had a few girls from a new rookie team at Mercy High School come to tour our site and see how we run our build days.  All of these girls were new to robotics, so it was a really valuable trip for them.  FIRST is all about "Gracious Professionalism", and working with others to reach a common goal.  It is important to realize that despite the competition, the veteran teams (like Team Paragon) should reach out to help rookies teams such as the one from Mercy.  This year, Team Paragon is mentoring two rookie teams, and has been visited by three.  We have made it a responsibility to spread our knowledge in order to make the FIRST community a stronger place.  The same goes in the world of a more broad spectrum of technological advancement.  If one country holds a great deal of power in one aspect of technology, they should help spread it, making the world a more cooperative and efficient place.  For example, the two boys that I discussed in my post about the Seiman's Award needed the help of others to implement their ideas.  If the world can learn to work together to obtain a common goal, much more will be completed in a much shorter time span.