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.

FOUR!!! <- yeah I had nothing creative...

This week was yet another of great advance!  Despite TWO closings, we kept on schedule and have a final chassis!  As the favorite team saying goes, we're "moving right along".  I would also like to make a shout-out to all of the Superbowl watchers of the FIRST community.  Although Will.I.Am. did not wear his FIRST hat during the performance, he did put emphasis on saying FIRST things FIRST and had an image of the FIRST logo reflected on his head during a related lyric change in one of his songs.  However, Team Paragon has larger issues at hand, or rather, larger accomplishments!  We have officially named the robot "Blue Cyclone" and have named the mini-bot "Spider".  I would like to focus on why this robot has been named Spider.  The goal of the minibot is to climb a post in order to score bonus points for the alliance during the end game.  The mechanics of this seem simple, but it is rather complicated to build something that will climb a pole quickly and efficiently, and then come back down automatically.  This has posed a great deal of difficulty to the team, as many of our focuses are on the large robot.  We are implementing the skills used by an elevator, something that we have fair knowledge of, having Otis Elevators as a main sponsor.  The skills that students are learning in the making the minibot will help them in future endeavors in fields such as elevator making and other related jobs.  Thanks for tuning in this week!!