$23K!!!

A big thanks to everyone who came out to our MLC Dinner tonight.  Special thanks to the cooks and helpers (Davie Brightbill, Kelly McGrath, Brian Burke, Dave Rothamer, Julie Rogers, Elgin, Pete Broderson) who spent hours upon hours prepping the delicious meal.

The efforts from this event and a recently awarded grant of $2,000 from Consortium for Florida Education Foundation via AT&T, we are excited to announce that we have achieved our fundraising goal of $23,000.  This is just in time for build season beginning in less than a month!  A complete list of our sponsors will be posted on our website very soon.

A big thanks to all of our sponsors and supporters for helping make this happen.  We WILL do you proud at our upcoming competitions!

MLC Dinner Fundraiser Tomorrow!

Hello everyone!

 

We have one last big fundraiser before build season.  Join us on Saturday, December 15th for a gourmet dinner and robot presentation.  Drive the robot and shoot the layup. Then at 6:30 enjoy a fantastic meal by some of the best chefs on the Co-Op served by SAIL robotics team members themselves.

The meal will be 100% vegetarian including the rennet used in the cheese. This is a pasta dinner featuring an Alfredo sauce made by Brian Burke, a traditional sugo (tomato based red sauce) by Davie, pasta, salad, garlic bread and for desert, home made biscotti and coffee or tea.

 

We will ask for a $10 suggested donation. 

 

To students and parents:

We need as many students there as possible in order to make it go smoothly. Students should be at the Miccosukee Land Co-op by 2 pm. The dinner will be starting at 6:30. The dinner will go on until around 8, and then students need to stay and help clean up until around 9. Please RSVP and let us know if you are planning on staying for dinner.

Hope to see you there!

 

~The Octo-PI-rates

FIRST Team 3502

Join us at Ghengis Grill tomorrow!

Dear friends, family, and OctoPIrate supporters,

Please come to our fundraiser at Ghengis Grill tomorrow!  All you have to do is purchase a meal and tell your server that you are there for the robotics club and we will get a percentage of your final bill.  This is actually an ALL DAY event so you can go for lunch and/or dinner.

Here is a flyer about the event:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/18D-zzbZXnbNQDFnGHM6SRdoBspayap258Gfqum0WbXFdNv2YJTu_ztg8CFgy/edit

Thanks in advance!!
The Octo PI rates

Panther Prowl and general updates

This weekend we will be traveling to Melbourne, FL to attend Panther Prowl, an off-season competition featuring last year's game "Rebound Rumble".  We are bringing a smaller crew this time due to limited funding.  We have a few veterans attending as well as some new members.  The goal is to expose new members to the excitement of the competition.  Live streaming of the event can be viewed at http://floridatech.orgsync.com/org/firstatfit/results.

On the fundraising front, we are doing well!  After numerous grant rejections, we finally been awarded grants from JCPenney again this year in the amount of $1000 and from CFEF/Motorola in the amount of $5000.  This is great news as it gets us our entry fee into the Florida Regional.  A big thanks to JCPenney and CFEF and Motorola for getting us to this huge milestone!!

We are still however, about $12,000 short of our goal this year.  We will continue to apply for grants as well as organize fundraising events.  As of now, we have firm dates for our Open House on Oct 25 and a benefit dinner at the MLC on Dec 15.  We are also running ongoing bake sales, planning for car wash(es), merchandise, and more.

The new Crandall Machine shop is coming along slowly but surely.  We got power hooked up about a month ago and had some training sessions on the mill and lathe with volunteers from the Mag Lab.  We have also received a MIG welder donated to us by Lively Technical Center.  It just arrived today!  So some more legwork will have to be done to get these machines set up and ready to use before build season.

In general, club meetings are continuing to meet on Mondays and Thursdays after school.  We have a promising set of new young faces.  Workshop training sessions were held early on and will resume after Panther Prowl this weekend.  So far, we have taught cleaning/organizing, measuring, hardware, and safety.  Future workshops will include hand tools, power tools, electronics, programming, CAD, etc.

There is so much more happening than what is posted here!  If you would like to volunteer in any way, please contact Jasun at jasun.burdick@gmail.com.

Let the games begin!

From Jasun:

Welcome to the 2012/13 Season.  We have a lot of momentum right now and several events coming up soon.

 

We will be meeting Mondays and Thursdays 3-4:30 till build season begins. Students will start Thursday with: Introductions, Tour, Panther Prowl Paperwork, and Drive "The Farrell Beast"

• In our 2 years of robotic building we have come along way.  From motors taped to frames and screwed into plywood. Now we are shooting basketballs, autonomously video processing shapes and lining up shots and distances.  Using sensor feedback to control flywheel RPM, position of arms, and robot navigation.  Yet we still have a long way. 
• Our Mission to spread STEAM to our team and beyond.  
• We will beginning our COBB mentor-ship program starting next week when the FLL Mindstorm game is announced on the 28th.  
• Our robotics class is looking strong.  We have lots of excitement and a difficult project ahead.
• 1st 9 weeks Build 4 line following robots to be used for demos
• 2nd 9 Build projects around SAIL
• 3rd 9 Compete in the FIRST FRC competition (This was the basketball game last year).
• 4th 9 Individual projects
• Projects
• Our machine shop has power and needs some clean up and oiling and we will be able to cut almost any shape out of metal.
• A welder is in the works being donated by Lively
• The 3D printer is 80% complete and is awaiting a bearing to finish assembly.
• The local makerspace is close to finding a home and will provide lots of expertise and new tools.
• The local Arduino group has met twice and is defining some project
• Staying Connected
• Please join our Facebook to keep up with the inner workings and keep an eye on the web page for announcements.  I will try to be consistent with e-mailing this list also with relevant events.  Let me know if you would like to be removed or put in the Bcc line to avoid spamming. 

2011 - 2012 Summary

Go to our gallery page to check out a slideshow of our 2011 - 2012 season summary. Have a great summer!

Capital City Villager Article

We are the featured story in the latest Capital City Villager newspaper!!! Here's a link to the online version of the newspaper.
http://issuu.com/capitalcityvillager/docs/villager_apr112012_tab_mixedcolor_web?mode=window&backgroundColor=%23222222