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The Weatherly Institute for Robotics and Engineering Welcome to the Official W.I.R.E. Website Young Minds! Real World Problems! Unique Solutions!
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Team Blog December 13, 2007 A new season is upon us and a new series of players will take the field for team 1634. Before we begin to look forward, I must, in all honesty look to the recent past. Of the eight seniors that finished the year with W.I.R.E. and graduated in June 2007, five have gone on to take engineering at their schools or colleges. In an age when people say our young people don't care about our future, I say look at these kids, they are the future, and I am proud to have worked with each and everyone of them. Our newly elected student organization President is Andrew Vack, a second year member of the program, he served as our team mascot last year. A team mascot is the one person we take from the eighth grade and bring them in, to see what the competition looks and feels like from a ground level. Although the mascots do not contribute significantly to the program they do hit the ground running as they enter the ninth grade. This is the case with Andrew and I look forward to having him work with me as the student liaison to W.I.R.E. for the next four years. I find that this continuity is extremely important and that mistakes made are made only once and are not repeated.
Stephen Kew-Goodale December 18, 2007 We met last night to discuss our design options. Tom Kew-Goodale who has been with us the past two years convinced us into looking at something other then a rectangular frame for this year's robot. Overcoming objections made by other members of the team, he convinced us to, at least create a mockup of his idea. As the kick-off has not occurred yet and since we have no idea of what's coming, I decided, as team mentor to let them have a crack at it. Tom will be in charge of creating the mathematical model necessary for the symmetry that I demand, and then we will build the mockup out of wood.
Stephen Kew-Goodale January 5, 2008 Well I have just seen two members of the high school team off to the Upper Darby High School "Kick Off" event. Once again, I am unable to attend due to a prior teaching engagement at Montgomery County Community College. I will try to see the webcast of the event in class. As I often do when faced with multiple commitments, I can't help but wonder if I am letting my team down. I know that I have to bring in the income to keep the Institute up and running, but it is a real conflict. Still, I have faith in my young people, and I hope for a solid FRC season ahead.
Stephen Kew-Goodale January 7, 2008 I had my robotics class watch the Live NASA feed in the lab as our team participated in Upper Darby. I am pleased by the change in tactics in this year's game. The lack of defensive play, allows our kids to concentrate more on the tasks at hand. Hopefully the new twist in technology will provide an incentive for them to develop a more complex robotics system. I am also encourage by the fact that one of my key team members who graduated in June of 2007, has decided to come back to the team to help mentor this year's event. So welcome back Thomas Russell!
Stephen Kew-Goodale January 21, 2008 We are now two weeks into the competition and our prototype is taking shape quite nicely. I told the team that I wanted something different this year and so far they have surprised me in their design and togetherness. It seems too smooth!
Stephen Kew-Goodale January 24, 2008 Our "Prototype" continues to evolve. We hope to be nearly finished by the end of this week. The electronics are being done by Thomas Russell and Tom Kew-Goodale. This is the scenario that I had envisioned when starting this program. Thomas Russell is a graduate of the program and now is an Engineering Student with Penn State. He is teaching a Sophomore the tricks that he learned over three years at FIRST. The ideal Mentorship scenario.
Stephen Kew-Goodale January 30, 2008 Things are still moving apace. The drive train is together, the electronics done, we have begun setting up the pneumatics and the physical arm is under construction. With two more days we should be finished with the prototype and started on the real "bot" for this year's competition.
Stephen Kew-Goodale February 3, 2008 The "Real Deal" is under construction. By having our template built we were able to snap off copies of the frame and put it together in one meeting! Programming on the prototype will begin at our next meeting. The drive train for the competition bot will be installed as well.
Stephen Kew-Goodale February 13, 2008 It's down to the wire, it looks like a robot and is behaving "like" a robot. To many bugs and not enough bug spray. Still it will ship out on the 19th all the same.
Stephen Kew-Goodale February 17, 2008 We are mobile! Our last bit of time will be spent on our arm. If we have to we will ship it in pieces to the event and finish it there. We have mounted the IR component and programmed it to use our Demo TV remote. Wish us luck everyone. We wish all the best for every team participating in this year's event in Philly. Go FIRST Teams!
Stephen Kew-Goodale |
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Contact: Stephen Kew-Goodale
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