Wednesday, June 6, 2007
    
     The demo that we were supposed to do at Roaring Brook has been canceled, due to the fact that they have no space to accommodate us tomorrow. We are, though, still planning on doing this event, just during the fall later this year.

   Sunday, May 27, 2007
    
     Hello everyone! We've got a few reminders just to keep you on track for the rest of the year:
    
     We'd like to commend everyone on a great season and some incredible teamwork. To celebrate our success, we're having a party on Friday, June 1 to commemorate our hardworking team members, dedicated mentors and coaches, and supportive parents. Please join us for dinner and dessert, surprises, goodbyes to our seniors, and thank-yous to everyone.
    
     As you may know, our team is student-run. We are currently in the process of election our student leaders for the 2007-2008 robotics season. Students running for a leadership office have campaigned and debated at the past few meetings, and elections opened Saturday, May 26. Students, please check your e-mail and remember to vote! We'd like to have our new leaders elected by June 1 so we can have a ceremony to turn over the offices at the party.
    
     Another important date is Thursday, June 6. A small team of students will bring the 2007 robot ("Dynamite") to Roaring Brook Elementary School for a several demonstrations throughout the day. We hope to inspire the students at the school to keep their minds active and enjoy the fields of science and technology. This tradition was started last year, and we hope to keep it going into the future. If you would like to help with preparations or participate in this event, please talk to Ellen McIsaac.
    
     Finally, June 15-16 is our first off-season competition of the year, Battlecry @ WPI. We had a great time last year and we aim to continue our success from this season at this competition. So far, it looks like the team will be staying overnight from Friday to Saturday, and we will be carpooling to get there/back. The competition cost is $15/student plus room fees. Students are welcome to come just for Saturday. (Remember to plan accordingly- this weekend is in the midst of final exams.) If you have questions about the competition or would like to attend, please contact Ellen McIsaac.

   Monday, June 4, 2007
    
     Thank you to everyone who helped with the planning of the ÜberBots party. It was a great way to celebrate a terrific season, and everyone who attended had a wonderful time. Also a big thank you to everyone who participated in the elections, and congratulations to our new student leaders for the 2007-2008 season.
    
     The end of the year is approaching rapidly, and so is our next competition. This reminder is just to keep everyone updated with the latest information team activities such as Battlecry. If you're on the list to go, you should have received an e-mail with information and a few questions. If you didn't receive an e-mail and you still wish to attend the competition, contact Ellen McIsaac as soon as possible.
    
     The competition cost for students staying overnight will be about $50/person, including room fees. The cost for students traveling up on Saturday is $15/person. We plan to bring most of the team up on Friday, June 15 and stay overnight through Saturday, June 16. Those staying overnight will be staying in the dorms at WPI. A few other students will be coming up Saturday for the day. We still need mentors and parents to help with the carpools both Friday and Saturday. We'll need transportation for students, the robot, and our parts.

   Monday, April 16, 2007
    
     The 2007 FIRST Championship Event, the equivalent of the Super Bowl but for robotics, was a worldwide competition for all three divisions of FIRST. It was held from Thursday, April 12 to Saturday, April 15 in the Georgia Dome and adjacent buildings in Atlanta, Georgia. Teams selected from dozens of countries gathered to compete and share their talent. The ÜberBots competed as one of about 380 robots in the FIRST Robotics Competition, or FRC (other competitions include FIRST Lego League, or FLL, and FIRST Vex Challenge, or FVC). Our sister team from the town's middle school, the ALL STARZ, also attended the competition as FLL team #5569, one of about 95 teams in their competition. We're proud to say that both of our teams had an incredible experience there with equally amazing outcomes- after two long, hard days of competition, the ALL STARZ took home the gold. Over in the FRC fields, the ÜberBots spent three days of intense teamwork and cooperation in the Newton field, striving to meet our maximum potential, ultimately ending up as division finalists. By the end of our qualifying matches on Saturday morning, we were the third-ranked team in the Newton field, meaning that we were "alliance captains" and got to pick our alliance partners for our elimination rounds. We invited teams 1592 and 1816 to be our partners, and they gladly accepted. Together, our powerful alliance won the quarterfinals and the semifinals, making it to the finals, where a DQ for one of our teams for an accidental rule infraction prevented any further playing. We continued to the Einstein division (where the winning alliances from the four subdivisions compete to determine an overall winner) as a replacement robot for the winning alliance. Though our robot wasn't called in, the alliance from Newton used our assistance for things such as batteries, which allowed them to win the entire championship. (Congratulations to teams 190, 987, and 177.) Team 190 of WPI gave us an award for all of the assistance we gave them. Overall, the experience at the Championship was very exciting. Our team has come a long way since our rookie year, and we are proud of all of our accomplishments. We have truly gotten to the point where we have established ourselves as a team, and the ÜberBots is now a household name in FIRST robotics. Thank you on behalf of the team to our dedicated mentors, the encouraging families of our students, the local community, and all of our sponsors for your support throughout the season. This is our greatest season yet! We are looking forward to even greater things to come. Our leadership position election process will begin in May, and we will compete at an off-season competition (Battlecry@WPI, hosted by team 190) at the end of June. We'll keep you posted - hope to see you all there!

   Tuesday, March 27, 2007
    
     We put up with everything imaginable, including an unexpected snowstorm and sickness, to get our team to the 2007 UTC Connecticut Regional, but we made it there in the end. From Thursday, March 15 to Saturday, March 17 team 1124's dedicated team members cooperated with one another and other teams under intense pressure and limited time to compete at the Regional Event, where we worked our way to the top - for the second year in a row! Yes, the ÜberBots were UTC Regional Champions again, with the assistance of our alliance partners team 195 (Southington High School Cyber Knights) and team 558 (Elm City Robosquad). After winning six of our nine qualifying matches over the course of Friday and Saturday morning, the ÜberBots were the eighth seeded team. We joined the sixth-seed alliance when the Cyber Knights selected us to be on their alliance. Combined with both the Cyber Knights and Robosquad, we fought long and hard against many other highly competent teams in a number of intense matches. In fact, in both the semi-finals and the finals, three matches had to be played. The finals was a series of tough matches against team 25, who won the New Jersey Regional, as well as against team 176, who was on our winning alliance last year- how incredible! Additionally, we won the Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award for our completely autonomic arm, which allowed the drivers to score much more efficiently than with traditional joystick positioning. Our overall excellence in both mechanical design and programming has begun an amazing season for us. Thank you to everyone who has supported our team with their time, resources, materials and funding; we couldn't have done it without your assistance. We aim to continue our teamwork and our success when we attend the Championship Event in Atlanta, Georgia from April 12-14 - hope to see you there!

   Sunday, February 25, 2007
    
     As most of you should know, Tuesday, February 20^th was our shipping day, which means that we no longer have our competition robot with us. The prototype robot, though, has been finished and moved over to our warehouse at Reflexite. For the next three weeks before our regional, we will be practicing our offensive and defensive strategies with this robot and our 2006 robot, as well as laying down some autonomous code. For those of you who wish to participate in this, the address of the warehouse is 50 Tower Lane, in Avon Connecticut. The meetings during the week will be occurring at the regular times- every day from 6:30pm to 9:00pm. The Saturday schedule is still 9:00am to 5:00pm.
    
     A couple of important dates to come are March 15^th through 17^th,which are the dates of the UTC Connecticut Regional. If you haven't marked this event in your calendar, this would be the perfect time to. Our goal is to practice with our prototype robot up until then, so we can do well at this competition.
    

   Wednesday, January 3, 2007
    
     On Saturday, January 6^th, the Kickoff event for the 2007 FIRST competition will occur. For those of you that are attending this event, you need to be at the school by 8:30am, as we will be leaving for Farmington at 8:45am. This is a long meeting, and will continue on until 4:45pm, when we will begin to head back to the school. Make sure that you bring $7-$10 for lunch. This is a very important meeting where we will be working out the strategy to the game and the proposed designs for our robot, which we hope to narrow down to one or two by the end of the day. This is a mandatory meeting- failure to attend will leave you clueless through the rest of the season.
    
     It is also important to note that starting Saturday, the build season for the robot will begin. This means that there is a meeting every night from 6:30pm to 9:00pm (or later depending on the project and the mood of the janitors). This schedule applies for Monday through Thursday, with Friday being an optional meeting, which usually takes place but not always. On Saturdays, there is a long meeting that goes from 8:00am to approximately 4:00pm, but usually goes later. Meetings on Sundays usually don't happen, but that is decided upon during the Saturday meeting. So if you are going to come to a minimal amount of meetings, it is suggested that you attend on Thursdays and Saturdays.
     Have a great build season!
    

   Monday, March 13, 2006
    
     Saturday, March 11th is a date that team 1124, the ÜberBots, will not soon forget. We, with our "Corpse Bride" robot (some called it the Millennium Falcon), in conjunction with teams 177 (The Bobcats) and 176 (Aces High), were the winners in the 2006 UTC regional. It was a Cinderella story for this relatively young team. Yes, after 4 years of trying and learning, we have finally done it. We are grateful to both team 177 and 176 for choosing us as their alliance partners over others that seemed more capable in the qualifying rounds - we knew we had it in us and we're glad we were able to make our alliance the one to beat!
    
     We are also grateful to team 173, the RAGE team, and team 178, the Enforcers, for helping us through our early stages of development as a team and loaning us their coaches, mentors, brains and sometimes their playing fields in previous years!
    
     The ÜberBots (unlike Aces High or the Bobcats) were DEAD LAST entering our final qualification round. But there was something about us that made the winning alliance (5th seed: 8th, 23rd, and 34th in qualifying rounds) choose us, despite finishing in 34th place. Maybe it was our sometimes quirky autonomous 3 pt shooting, our sometimes effective 5-6 pt ball "dump", or our robot's defensive potential - or maybe it was simply that we were good listeners and strategists as a team - we just worked well together as an alliance and that's that. Yeah for us and our alliance!
    
     In any case, the final matches in the UTC Regional this year seemed brutal - who says FIRST is not a contact sport! In other words, the elimination rounds literally sent sprockets flying and parts a breaking - including our own. The pit crews and mentors really earned their keep! The spirit team was awesome - UB ** ER ** BO ** TS ** UBERBOTS - UBERBOTS-UBERBOTS GO AVON!
    
     So eventually, though some extremely stressful matches and frustrating "replays", we ended up beating the 4th seed alliance, the 1st seed alliance (and those exceptionally scoring robots from teams 126, 20, and 571 - nice job, guys), and then the 3rd seed alliance in the final round. We are incredibly humbled to have ended up where we did - thanks again for the experience!
    
     Just for the record, last year we placed 10th in the rankings, and got eliminated in the quarterfinals. The year before we placed 27th in the rankings, and didn't participate in the elimination rounds. The year before that, we placed 9th in the rankings, and got eliminated in the quarterfinals. So, this year has been the farthest we have ever gotten. Now that we have won the regionals, we get to move onto the national competition.
    
     GREAT JOB to our UTC Alliance teams from South Windsor (Team 177) Suffield and Windsor Locks High Schools (Team 176) and to the Avon High School ÜberBots team (Team 1124), especially our senior drivers Steve and Kristen -- hopefully we will do even better in the finals in Atlanta! See you there - remember, we "Eat Kryptonite for Breakfast!"
    

   Monday March 6, 2006
    
     Tomorrow, Tuesday the seventh, 5:00pm to 9:00pm, is the annual Flatbread Company Fundraiser. This fundraiser will be held at the Flatbread Company, a restaurant that serves excellent quality flatbread style pizzas. We urge you to come tonight, as not only is this a major fundraiser, but it is a lot of fun with good food. Be prepared for speakers from the team, and possibly a robot demonstration.
    
     Don't be afraid to bring family! Critics of the flatbread restaurant have described its pizza as the "Ben and Jerry's Pizza". We expect to see you there.
    

   Tuesday, October 17, 2006
    
     When asked to describe the atmosphere of a FIRST robotics competition, one member of Avon High School's team 1124, the ÜberBots, said "the atmosphere of a robotics competition is literally indescribable. You can almost...feel it in the air. Like a buzzing of excitement and anticipation and nervous tension all mixed into one. And from that moment, I guarantee it, you'll be hooked."
    
     The ÜberBots got a chance to put that theory to the test when 22 of the current 34 members of the team arrived at the high school bright and early on the morning of Saturday, October 14. They were there, of course, to pack and prepare for their first competition of the year. After groggily-(err... energetically and excitedly)-loading boxes stocked with spare parts and tools onto the bus and securing the robot, the team headed off to Old Lyme as one of 25 teams attending the off-season event known as Bash @ the Beach, a competition graciously prepared and hosted by team 236, the Techno Ticks of Old Lyme. Like most, they were hoping to introduce the experience of a robotics competition to the newest members of the team, as well as to train both old and new members in different fields, and of course to have a great time.
    
     At this competition, like all others, teamwork was vital to overall success. Students were split up into groups, each group playing an integral role in the total function of the team. These sub-teams include the drive team, the scouters, the spirit team, the pit crew, and the programmers.
    
     The drive team consists of the people who physically control the robot and strategize about how to outwit their opponents. Each match, three teams- drive teams are randomly paired, creating an alliance for one side. Alliances support each other by bringing different talents for a powerful network of skills and strategies. During Saturday's competition, many new drivers were trained and practiced, improving immensely over the course of the day.
    
     Planning and strategizing would be nearly impossible if there were no basis for it, which is why the scouting is crucial to the team's accomplishments. Scouting teams talk firsthand with other teams about their robot in addition to scrupulously sitting in the stands and observing, taking notes about each robot's attributes and performance on the field during every match. Without these precise notes on individual strengths and weaknesses, the drive team would have been unable to plan and maneuver their robot and their alliance appropriately towards victory.
    
     Also in the stands was the spirit team, who helped to keep up the morale and cheer on the drivers. It always feels really good to know that the team cares and supports everyone, win or lose. This general goodwill and team spirit is very important to keeping unity and success on the team, and will always be well appreciated.
    
     The pit crew was always there to repair the battle scars earned with each match and ensure fresh batteries, time and time again. Saturday's matches took a heavy toll on the robot; without the pit's amazing record-speed chain repairs and the assistance of the almighty duo, zip ties and electrical tape, the robot debris from the electronics board and the chains would still remain on the field today, a broken robot the souvenir.
    
     Finally, the programming team can never be thanked enough. Constantly updating codes, the programmers increased precision and helped to ensure proper communications and robot function. It took a few tries, but eventually the robot's autonomous functions worked and the team successfully scored during the autonomous period-several times in a row! This is a feat that has not been seen by the ÜberBots for a very long time. Much too long. Congratulations, programmers!
    
     Overall, team operations went smoothly. Improvement as the day raced on meant that by the time the seeding matches were complete, the ÜberBots held a record of 4-3-0, placing them as the sixth ranked seed of the 25 teams. This earned them the right to enter the quarterfinals as the captain of their alliance, along with partners Gompei Herd, (team 190 from WPI in Worchester, MA,) and Team USA, (team 500 from the Coast Guard Academy in Waterford). Their alliance played against the third seed alliance, compromised of GUS, (team 228 of Meriden,) team 2067 (a newly registered team from Guilford,) and team 1740 (of Ledyard). They won both matches and advanced to the semifinals.
    
     During the semifinal matches, the ÜberBots played against the second seed alliance, which included The Birds of Prey, (team 181 from Hartford,) team 571, (Team Paragon of Windsor,) and team 839, (Rosie Robotics from Agawam MA). After a rare tied score during their first match, a field malfunction caused slight delays and a shift to a sudden death format. The ÜberBots's alliance won this match, too, and continued to the finals.
    
     The finals placed the alliance against the number one seed alliance, consisting of team 1519, (Mechanical Mayhem from Milford NH,) Rage, (team 173 from Hartford,) and the Megatronic Maniacs, (team 1027 of West Springfield, MA). Team 1519 was the number one ranked seed of the day, a powerhouse who had shocking accuracy in the high goals. This first seed alliance won the final match, exhibiting a breathtaking display of talent and teamwork.
    
     This placed the ÜberBots second overall, a sweet and surprising victory for the team. Additionally, they received an "All Business" award, designed to commend the team "that is most serious about their robotics and their fun". Both these awards were great achievements for the team, adding to the valuable day that brought about tremendous collaboration and effort in addition to the general excitement of a competition. Judging by the teamwork and success exhibited on Saturday, the ÜberBots predict an enjoyable and successful year once the new competition is announced in January.