Finale
It's finally the end of the 2007 FIRST robotics season, and what an exciting season this has been!
To get technical matters out of the way, this is just an update to say that, for now, Paypal links have been removed from the website. Donations are still appreciated, and for more information, please visit the sponsorship page. Currently, the website's being hit with spambots and spams daily. Over the summer, I will try to resolve this problem, and possibly work on a new layout skin.
Although the website didn't win the best of regional award, we were awarded website excellence, which meant that we scored 80 or above during the judging process.
Finally, I just want to wish all of the graduating seniors a really wonderful college experience. Please come and visit us and, if time and location allow, consider mentoring us next year! I'll really miss you guys a lot.
And to everyone considering membership, we'll be recruiting new members starting next month (or June, depending on scheduling). This is really an experience that should be a part of your high school career. It's wonderful and life-changing, and I wouldn't give it up for anything. Good luck in your applications!
Posted by Angie on April 28, 2007 || Comments: 0
San Diego Regionals!
Team 696 is off to Atlanta, but we need any help that we can get! Some of our parent volunteers, mentors, and advisors have calculated that the cost of going to Nationals is roughly $20,000, and it's in two weeks. We are currently in super fundraising mode, but any donations are greatly appreciated, so if possible, please contact the team at contact [@] team696.com.
Now that I have some time to post, San Diego was the most exciting regional I have ever attended. Thanks to our wonderful alliance of 330, 835, and 1216, the team was able to win its first regional event. (Thanks so much to 330 for choosing us to be a part of your alliance! You guys are the greatest!) Also, we just wanted to say that our final 3 matches with 368, 1717, and 294 were incredible.
Posted by Angie on March 27, 2007 || Comments: 0
Dominick's Fundraiser
Last Wednesday's Rubios fundraiser was an enormous success. Please continue to support the team by coming to Dominick's this Wednesday, March 14!
2948 Foothill Blvd
La Crescenta, CA 91214
Posted by Angie on March 12, 2007 || Comments: 0
Aftermath of LA Regionals
First off, I just have to say that the past weekend has been one of the most exciting and incredible weekends of my life! Thanks 980 and 580 for the wonderful matches at the competition. Even though we didn't win the finals, getting second place to the amazing teams of 330, 254, and 4 was just exhilarating. On Friday, we also won the Delphi Driving Tomorrow's Technology Award. Thanks to all the teams that participated in the 2007 Southern California Regional for making this event so special. Getting to meet new people and being given a chance to socialize with other teams at the science center really made the 6-week build season all the more worthwhile. Congrats to 399 for winning the Chairman's Award (talking was fun!), and Team 2178 for an incredible rookie year.
On Thursday, the team was able to practice with the robot for the first time since ship. We literally finished the robot the morning of the ship date, and had not really started on the actual final build until the weekend of. It was incredible how efficiently and well our robot worked. We were the first robot to lift during the practice matches, and one of 2 robots that attempted to lift with pneumatics pistons. Although our arm gave us some trouble (breaking when another robot was trying to defend against us), we were able to score 3-4 rings per match with our pneumatics powered grabber. We spent much of Thursday adding the final touches to the robot (things went a lot better than last year, as a whole), and we were able to finally set the potentiometer values for the arm.
Friday was ironic. We won our first match, but our drive train and compressor gave way during the second. A cheering crowd of teachers from Clark came to support the team. Unfortunately, they couldn't see us getting up to steam before they left. Although our drive train was out of commission for the next two matches, we managed to win another solely from the 60 points that came with lifting and tied in the 3rd game.
After final adjustments, we successfully won our last match of the day, and headed off to the science center. (By the way, the brownies at the dinner were delicious!) Rock climbing, Star Wars exhibits, and audio visual experiences were just some of the things we got to do there.
Saturday rocked! We won both of our preliminary matches and went into the finals ranked 9. Thanks to 980 for choosing us to be on their alliance! Competition was intense and we all watched in suspense in the 2nd match of the finals. We were literally half an inch from a 3rd match, but 330, 254, and 4's incredible play justified a well deserved victory. For images of the regional, visit the gallery. Otherwise, check out some videos of our matches from LA.
Edit: The Crescenta Valley Robotics Teams (589 and 696) were mentioned in the Saturday edition of the Glendale News Press. The article is found here.
Posted by Angie on March 12, 2007 || Comments: 0
LA Regionals Next Week!
Now that the first week of FIRST regionals is over, our team is very excited to be participating in both LA and San Diego. Many of us have been closely following the events through Chief Delphi and through the webcasts of the VCU and NJ regionals. Thanks to Josh, nearly 100 new pictures of the build season have been added to the gallery. Nick contributed the first 200+ photos. In addition, a more complete 2007 Build Season page is now up, so take a look and get to know our 2007 members, mentors, and robot (The Burd/Buhd).
Also, I just want to mention having a wonderful time at the Verdugo Woodlands Reading Night. Several team members were able to share their views about robotics, and encourage middle school students to become involved in the fields of science and technology. More information can be found here.
Posted by Angie on March 3, 2007 || Comments: 0
After Build Updates
Now that the 6-week build season is over, our team's hyped up about attending the LA and San Diego regionals, with our 2007 robot, officially entitled the "burd." To view images of the robot in progress, and, well, just how much fun we've had this build season, stop by our gallery. I've finally managed to transfer web servers, after running out of space on the previous one, and in that time period, have updated the seasons pages. Also updated is the sponsors page for the 2007 sponsors. We'd really like to thank NASA for the $6,000 grant this year, and all of our other sponsors. Our build seasons wouldn't be possible without them.
Posted by Angie on February 25, 2007 || Comments: 0
The Day Before Kick-Off
I'm really excited about the days that lie ahead. Even if build season takes time away from studying for SAT's, finals, and tests, as well as normal homework, it's an experience that I would never want to miss. Building friendships as well as robots and learning in the process with such wonderful mentors made my rookie '06 season wonderful, and I'm hoping for even more this year.
Posted by Angie on January 5, 2007 || Comments: 0
Version x.0 Alpha?
It seems like the site has regressed somewhat with time. Last year, it was run off the powerful blogging management script Wordpress, and now it's running off of an old version of Cutenews. Well, Cutenews is simpler for installation and layout integration (especially when you're short on time), and it's the script I have a tendency to use most often.
Currently, there is no content up (and if anyone is willing to contribute?) and none of the links besides the generic guestbook and forum links are working. The website, along with our host, was hacked over the summer. Unfortunately, there are virtually no backups of the previous layout and its contents. I guess this means the time is ripe for a fresh start a little more than a week before the 2007 season kick off.
Anyways, hi! I'm Angie. I'm not new to web design, although I've discovered countless new things to learn recently (yin and yang?), but hopefully you'll enjoy this layout (4th time's the charm for me). Please drop by again. (^o^)
Happy New Years from Team 696!
