Ines Khouider is a Dean’s List Finalist!
Ines has been enthusiastic about FIRST for many years. She joined FTC 3491 FIX IT in 2017/18 and was on the St. Margaret’s FIRST LEGO League team for two years before that. Continue reading “Ines Khouider is a Dean’s List Finalist”
FIX IT competed in the Pasteur Interleague event in Washington State on Dec. 15, 2018.
We started the day by setting up our pit. We were excited and ready to go. We then had time to practice our interview a few times before getting queued for our judging interview. It was little scary, especially for our new team members but we did pretty well. Even though there were a few hiccups, everyone was confident and we made it though alive!
We had a lot of fun at Interleague! Some of the highlights were:
It was very exciting to be chosen for an alliance in the Elimination Rounds. Unfortunately, we lost out in the first round, but just being chosen added to the excitement of the day.
After a long and eventful Interleague, it was time for Closing Ceremonies. We won Motivate and 2nd Inspire and qualified for the Washington State Championships! You will see us there!!
When we finally got to MIT, we were given the final track. It was huge
and took up an entire ice rink!
The race course required all the skills we built throughout the summer, having many components needing open CV, and we decided to use ROS to connect and create nodes, notably our safety controller. The course had lots of challenges which testing our programming to the limits! Continue reading “Race Car Wrap up”
The FIX IT team is very excited to be participating in the Autonomous Race Car Competition in Cambridge, Massachusetts this summer. For students in the United States, they will be participating in the Beaverworks summer program. Our team has been working through the material online.
Continue reading “Race Car Update 1”
The FIX IT team is very excited to be participating in the Autonomous Race Car Competition in Cambridge, Massachusetts this summer. For students in the United States, they will be participating in the Beaverworks summer program. FIX IT will be the only team from Canada at the event!
Continue reading “FIX IT Autonomous Race Car”
Today we had a tour of StarFish Medical https://starfishmedical.com/
with Nathan Müller. At StarFish, they design and develop lots of
innovative medical devices.
Continue reading “StarFish Medical Tour”
FIX IT has done a lot of flying with robots over the years. One team member added it up and our robots have spent over 192 hours flying on planes!
As we get ready for the FTC West Super-Regional we want to pass on some tips and lessons learned. Continue reading “Traveling with FTC Robots”
Washington state was an amazing event! It was a huge competition held in the Showare Center in Kent, with a ton of great people, amazing robots and energy across the entire event. We saw so many teams in so many bright colours together in this huge stadium. Continue reading “Washington State FTC Championship”
FIX IT is publishing our FTC engineering notebook as it was submitted to the Judges when we were nominated for THINK and we won INSPIRE at the Houston FIRST Championship in April 2017.
We’ve created a Google Drive folder containing PDFs for each section of our engineering notebook.
We’ve added a Engineering Notebook Tips resources page to our web site. There are tips and a checklist teams can go through in order to improve your notebook.
‘Twas the night before Interleague, when all through the shop
Not a tool was stirring, all came to a stop;
The robots were set by the front door with care,
In hopes that the teams soon would be there;
The teammates were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of ciphers danced in their heads;
Programmers in their cave, and I in my chair,
Had just settled down for a coding nightmare,
When from down the hall there arose such a cry,
I sprang from my seat to see what was a wry.
Fleeing from the room, and threw open the door,
A pile of pieces, the bot was no more.
With eyes wide and fear on their faces
the teens were frozen, in their last place ,
Minutes passed by, in painstaking fear,
Then finally, with tools, the builders were here,
An urgent nature, not time for the past,
They needed a robot, and they neeeded it fast.
More rapid than eagles its parts they all came,
And it whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
“Now, MOTOR! now, SENSORS! now, SERVO and CORDS
On, SWITCHES! on POWER! on, CHANNEL, REV BOARDS!
To the top of the lifter! to the wheels on the base!
Now build, fast as you can, put it all into place!”
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the field the builders they flew,
With their arms full of tools, and metal parts too.
And then, in a miracle, I saw such a view
The bolting and fastening of each little screw.
As I drew back my chair, and was turning around,
Down the hallway, our robot, came with a bound.
It was covered in Sharpie, from its head to its wheel,
And the base all covered in bits of steel;
A bundle of wires they had flung on its board,
And it looked like a mess, just there in discord .
It’s lights, how they twinkled, it’s patterns, a delight!
To think that this happened in less than a night!
Its flicker was drawn up, stored in tow,
Until the jewels so near were set up in a row.
The grabber was sitting at the back of the bot
It wasn’t as easy to build as they thought
He had a broad frame and a little round tube
But when they tried it fit in the sizing cube.
Since September they dreamed of the perfect first cup;
The cipher all scored and the relic standing up
But twas not to be at least not right now,
But this lesson they learned, such was their vow
They spoke not a word, but went straight to tests,
And checked all the boxes; even threw in a jest,
And laying their finger atop the control,
The drivers content the bot was a-roll;
they sprang to their feet, the bot stored away,
the team mates were weary but excited for the day
But I heard them exclaim, as they drove out of sight,
HAPPY INTERLEAUGUE TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!
Thanks to Slater Kovac-Szabo for inspiring us to complete the poem!
Link to a PDF of the poem.
https://fixit3491.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Twas the night before interleauge.pdf
