Gatorbotics PR / Finance

THINGS TO DO!

2009-02-07T09:24:00.000-08:00

A list of our current projects and where they are at and who is responsible for them:

- Pins [ORDER BY MONDAY] ... Ginna
- Shirts [ORDER BY MONDAY] ... Neli --> See shirt design!
- Website [FEB. 12] ... Ida
- Budget [ASAP] ... Ida
- Executive Summary [FEB. 19] ... Ida/Sherri
- Chairman's Essay [FEB. 19] ... Ida/Sherri
- Chairman's Video [FEB. 19] ... Arushi
- Business Plan [MARCH 12] ... Team effort

--> Fundraising: We need around $5,000. Contacts, anyone?

We're back!

2009-02-07T09:11:00.000-08:00

So, after a 2.5 year blogging-hiatus, the operations team is back and blogging again. Essentially, we did not disappear, but our blogging tendencies did, as operations was a one-man job last year. This season, however, we have a legit team of people, lots of things to do, changes to handle, and a recession to deal with... so we're going to need all the help we can get!

A few things we should probably explain right off the bat:

1. It's the Operations Team now, not Non-Technical. Basically, it's always been a bit embarrassing for the non-tech team to explain its name to judges and others at robotics competitions. It undermined our credibility and didn't exactly line up with FIRST's missions of promoting technology and engineering... Hence, this season we changed it to the less derogatory, more appropriately slick "operations".

2. In the 2.5 years since the last blog post, the constituency of our team has changed! Allison's off at Tufts, Hannah at Princeton - we've got a whole new set of people now. To meet us all, check out our webpage on Gatorbotics.com. The team has grown a bit larger than it was in previous seasons due to expanded responsibilities (See #4).

3. It's already week 5 of build season! Oh my. Yes, that's right, the bulk of the season's already transpired, but that's okay, because Operations does much of it's work over the off season anyways. We've done a lot, but we still have lots to do.

4. Our responsibilities have changed a little bit since we were "non-tech"... Operations is currently in charge of the website, pins, shirts, chairman's essay, the woodie flowers essay, the chairman's movie, the business plan, public relations, dealing with sponsors and fundraising; this is a bit of an expansion on what non-tech was responsible for in past seasons. More on that in the next blog post.

it's a new season...

2006-11-30T16:06:00.000-08:00

so i added allison and lauren to the admin status, so you guys should have editing capabilities now. feel free to change the look of the page/make a lot of posts. we should also get christina and meredith on here as we plan to use this a lotttt

can we figure out how to post a calendar on here or something? cool.

WELCOME BACK!!

2006-11-27T17:43:00.000-08:00

Hey PR/Fundraising!
Welcome back! Our first meeting is tomorrow afterschool at douce. Today Lauren and I met with Mr. B and went over the following:

LAST YEAR:

Thank You Notes-
handwritten notes on Casti stationary (we already got it from the admin) and a plaque with a picture (like a soccer team sponspor)

these need to be out within the next 2 weeks!

sponsors ($5000):
IDEO**
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (mr. berger)
Intuitive Surgical**
Evolve Machines**

supporters:
Mr. Schoendorff
Izzy's
Beppo's
Lulu's

*=thank them for their committed support to THIS year already

THIS YEAR:

Intuitive Surgical: get them the packet, arrange tour

Food: one Thurs a week? contact Chrissy or Kersten

Logos: from Google and Evolve to put on all our stuff

Contact info-

Google-
Emily Nishi
emilyn@google.com
650-253-7288
fax: 253-0001

Evolve-
Paul Rhodes
paul@rhodesholdings.net

Google Press Release: I already got it from Teebie Bunn in admin

Binder: we want to get a binder to organize stuff

to think about...The Chairman's Award Essay!!!

NEXT MEETING: TOMORROW!!!

-allison

Please do keep us posted with fundraising!

2006-03-31T13:50:00.000-08:00

Dearest PR and fundraising,

Please keep us on the robotics team posted with your fundraising efforts! For example, I was unaware that we were graciously sponsored by Intuitive Surgical until I ran into a former co-worker AT the Silicon Valley Regional competition.

Also, I have forwarded to jrock emails from Greg Hurst, Alecia's father, who is interested in working to get Altera (the company he works for) to help sponsor Gatorbotics. Here's the dilemma - Greg got in touch with the electronics and build team because he could make a better case for Altera sponsoring us if there's an Altera microprocessor or chip in the devices that we use.

I am looking forward to working more closely with fundraising and PR next year, because I believe we can help you bolster your case to your potential sponsors with our close knowledge of the technical stuff that we use!

All the best!

Em

How are we doing for Atlanta?

2006-03-23T22:07:00.000-08:00

Atlanta is an expensive trip: How are we doing with finances? Have we gone back to our sponsors? How much money do we expect to be able to raise?

Time for PR

2006-03-08T13:51:00.000-08:00

Now that we have completed the Portland regional, we need to get the work out!

Please coordinate getting some PR out about the team's performance in Portland and the upcoming Silicon Valley regional. In particular, we should:

1. Put together an article on the Portland regional. It is especially important to recognize our winning of the entrepreneurship award. Work with Ms. Alioto and Ms. Pringle to get it into both Casti publications and external publications.

2. Invite our sponsors and others that have supported the program to the Silicon Valley Regional. Make sure your provide them with all the specifics - date, time, directions, etc.

3. Promote the Silicon Valley regional to the Casti community. It would be great to get other students and teachers to come and see the team compete. (Could we show the animation as a way of promoting the team at US meeting?)

If you have any questions or would like me to review any of the material, please email me. I trust that Hannah or Meg will coordinate who does what.

Scrapbooking tomorrow

2006-02-24T19:21:00.000-08:00

Scrapbooking party tomorrow (Saturday) at my house from 3-6pm. Everyone is invited, but please leave a comment or drop an e-mail so I know who's comming.

Also, the Chairman's essay, short-answers and pictures were submitted yesterday without a hitch.

Chairmans Essay

2006-02-21T19:49:00.000-08:00

Hannah and I finished the essay last week and forwarded it to everyone PR. Can anyone fill me in as to what the next step is? I dont quite get how to submit it online... has someone done so already? xoxo Meg

PR/Fundraising Updates and Questions

2006-02-16T21:43:00.000-08:00

First, I want to thank all of you for working so consistently on the various PR and Fundraising needs. You have been more conscious of posting to the blog than I have. We have already learned alot this year. Timing is key in getting proposals and funding. We need to raise the flag much earlier if we don't have our funding. Line up food, etc well in advance - we can do all of this going forward.

Thank yous:

Allison and Lauren for helping to line up some food.
Brittany for taking care of the ACE hardware connection.
Meg and Hannah for working on several fundraising proposals.
Hannah for really getting ahead of the curve on the chairman's essay.
Allison and Lauren for doing the thankless job of copying the DVD.

TO DOs:

1) We have a presentation to a potential sponsor scheduled for Tuesday, 2/28. Hannah, Meg, Sophia and I will be attending. Hopefully, we will have some good news after this meeting. We will work Monday night, 2/27, to prepare for this presentation.

2) It looks like the Chairman's Award Essay is well underway. Are there any items outstanding for the Chairman's award submission?

3) Have we put together any PR information for Portland? We received an advance notice that we should designate a spokesperson and I would also suggest that we may want to have some prepared material about the team. Do we have a fact sheet for Portland like we used in Atlanta?

4) We need to prepare a proposal for Motorola Foundation. Can someone start working on that? I have an outline of the information they require. Cisco Foundation is out - they will not fund schools.

That's all for now.

Mr. B

FEBRUARY 6TH

2006-02-06T17:55:00.000-08:00

what we will do today:

discuss finance strategy
pick up beppo's
discuss chairman's award
discuss chairman's award essay

next meeting is the official chairman's award writing meeting
plan to have it done by friday, february 18th.

cool.

Food Schedule

2006-01-30T17:05:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the mixup, here is a schedule for further reference:

Monday: Bucca de Beppos
Tuesday: Lulu's

Dinner usually arrives around 630.

Sat: Bagels in the morning

We also have gift certificates for two large pizzas from Pizza My Heart which can be used whenever we need them.

All other evenings are open to bring in food.

TO DO LIST AS OF 1/30/06

2006-01-30T17:02:00.000-08:00

FOOD
-make coherent list of who is providing food when
-pick up Beppo's

MONEY
-wait for response from KPCB
-call Natl Semi on Wed.

CHAIRMAN's
-brainstorm
-outline
-talk further with Sophia

okay now we have potential

2006-01-26T19:34:00.000-08:00

After 3 lunch meetings (and one after school meeting) this week, with the help of Sophia, Mr. Rockman, and Mr. Barriger, Meg and I met with the head of school and got the go ahead to pursue one of the companies we were previously asked not to go to. THIS IS AMAZING because now we really have a HUGE chance to finally get this fundraising going, and hopefully we'll get the present this one in person, and therefore have a much more pursuasive proposal.

This next part of this post is especailly for myself, Lauren, and Allison (who will still be on the team next year, of course) that we either need to get a recurring primary sponsor (one to stay with us from year to year) or we need to start WAY early to get grant proposals in to a LOT of companies. We're talking August here or something. While I feel like it's my fault that we have come so close to our deadlines with very little of our budget raised, I also realize that this process is completely new to all of us, and in the early years of our team it's all a learning experience. Now we know that we have to work more in the offseason to make us more successful and less stressed when it comes down to the build period, so that we can do more PR and get the community more involved and focus less on just the dollars. I know that, with time, we'll be able to work out all the kinks and the Castilleja robotics program will just become even more amazing than it already is.

-Hannah

Honoring our commitments

2006-01-25T08:12:00.000-08:00

Dearest PR and fundraising team,

First things first - I think you have done an amazing job given all the difficulties and constraints you are working with in order to support this robotics team. Raising more than $10,000 is not an easy thing, and whatever happens, remember that your efforts are recognized!

With that, I think we learned a lot about fundraising this year - especially about timing. I think we've learnt that we need to get started a lot earlier, especially with the constraints that we face at Castilleja.

The reason why I am motivated to write today is mainly because my heart hurts to think that we seriously upsetted a dear parent of robotics last night. The food donations have been critical to this team, but this is definitely something we could have secured in the off season (something to keep in mind for the next year). This dear parent had taken time off to make cookies, salad and the works just for us, only to find out after she had done so that we had Lulu's providing dinner last night. This is a real shame, and it speaks to our need for coordination between all parties and our need to try to bump up the timeline a little bit.

Everything that happens that's not rosy is an opportunity to learn from! I hope that we can work together next year to make doubly sure that something like this doesn't happen again.

Best of luck with all your other efforts!

Emily

TO DO LIST as of 1/23/06

2006-01-23T17:15:00.000-08:00

TODAY
1) pick up Bucca di Beppos at 6:30
2) submit Genentech proposal
3) follow up on more food places (Amici's, Chicken Ranch, etc.)
4) brainstorm re: Chairmans Award essay
5) update finance status form
6) discuss meeting we are having on Thursday
7) follow up with Natl Semi

THIS WEEK
1) meet with devel. on Thursday at 12:40
2) make notes and outlines for essay
3) submit Genentech if we dont get it in today
4) make more DVD copies
5) follow up on Jen's companies and Shirin's companies
6) follow up with Meg's pops
7) potentially look into more companies depending on how meeting with devel. goes
8) follow up with Lauren's company yay

BUCA DI BEPPOS!!

2006-01-13T16:56:00.000-08:00

We got beppos for MONDAY nights.

I told the manager that we would pick up the food around 6:30. I can change that time if needed though.

Let me know what you think.

Pizza My Heart

2006-01-12T13:38:00.000-08:00

I just got an email back from Pizza My Heart and they want to donate a gift certificate for 2 large pizzas. I need to pick them up some time and should i bring them a thank you gift/picture?

Do you think each large pizza will work for one meeting or we'll need them both for one?

Chairman's Award Criteria for 2006

2006-01-11T19:34:00.000-08:00

9.2 THE CHAIRMAN’S AWARD 2006

The FIRST Robotics Competition is about much more than the mechanics of building a robot or winning a competitive event. It is about the impact FIRST has on those who participate in the program and the impact of FIRST on the community at large. The FIRST mission is to change the way America’s young people regard science and technology and to inspire an appreciation for the real-life rewards and career opportunities in these fields.

9.2.1 Overview

The Chairman’s Award was created to keep the central focus of the FIRST Robotics Competition as our ultimate goal for transforming the culture in ways that will inspire greater levels of respect and honor for science and technology, as well as encourage more of today’s youth to become scientists, engineers, and technologists.

The Chairman’s Award represents the spirit of FIRST. It honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and which embodies the goals and purpose of FIRST. It remains the most prestigious team award FIRST presents. FIRST will present a Regional Chairman’s Award at each regional competition. There are thirty-three (33) regional competitions scheduled for the 2006 season, therefore, there will be thirty-three Regional Chairman’s Award winners. Only the winners of the Regional Chairman’s Award will be eligible for consideration in the selection of The Chairman’s Award presented at The Championship.
Prior winners of the Chairman’s Award at the Championship are ineligible to submit for the Regional Chairman’s Award. All submissions by Championship Chairman’s Award-winning teams will be electronically routed to a folder judging as part of the Hall of Fame.

9.2.2 First-Year (Rookie) and NASA Grant Teams:

Because the Chairman’s Award recognizes sustained excellence and impact, not just a one-year team effort, it is not possible for a first-year (rookie) team to receive this honor. We encourage rookies, however, to develop a Chairman’s Award submission to use as a criterion to judge the Rookie All-Star Award. This submission will document where your team started its FIRST journey and will also provide background for documenting the results of your team’s efforts.
Rookie Teams: If you submit a Regional Chairman’s Award, print a copy to give the Judges when they visit you at your Pit Station. Teams receiving NASA Grants must provide a copy of this submission as part of the grant.

9.2.3 Submission Information

The criteria for the 2006 Chairman's Award are essentially identical to those in 2005, with the exception that the submission will need to be signed by the Team Captain/Student representative and a team mentor to certify that all the contained information is complete and accurate. The judges focus on teams’ activities over a sustained period, as distinguished from just the six-week design-and-build time frame. The FIRST Robotics Competition is not about machines; it is about the experience of people working together toward a shared goal. Documenting and preserving your team’s FIRST experience becomes an important
component of the over-all FIRST experience.

9.2.3.1 Submission Content

The Chairman’s Award is presented to the team judged to have created the best partnership effort among team participants and which best exemplified the true meaning of FIRST through measurable impact on its participants, school, and community at large. There is no single “best way” for a team to win the Chairman’s Award. Many factors come into play. The primary factors the judges will evaluate are:

1. How strongly does the submission document the impact FIRST has on the learning experience of the students, school curriculum, engineers, and/or community?

2. Has the team explained/demonstrated why/how it should be a role model for other FIRST teams to emulate?

3. How well has the team communicated its excitement and impact within the entire school,
community, and beyond (state/nation) through participation in FIRST?

4. Has the team documented an innovative way to spread the FIRST message?

5. How strong of a year-round team partnership effort is reflected? (You can define partnership in many ways, including: the partnership among the team’s students/corporate sponsor/engineers; school/university sponsor/engineers; students/adults; community/team)

6. As a whole, does the content of the documentation exemplify the true meaning of FIRST?
Your Chairman’s Award submission should include documentation for all the above factors.

9.2.3.2 Submission Format

Regional Chairman’s Award submissions will be submitted on line. The submission, excluding the Executive Summary, will be limited to 10,000 characters, including spaces and punctuation, and may include up to four (4) photographs totaling no more than 1.0Mb of memory.

9.2.3.3 Submission Process

The URL for the Chairman’s Award Submission is http://www.firstawards.org. Follow the directions shown on the site to submit your team’s entry. Teams may only submit at one regional event at which the team will compete. This site will be available beginning January 16, 2006 at noon EST. Submitters can easily enter information, save it, and return to the site to edit the Chairman’s Award submission until they are ready to submit it for final judging. All entries will be final on Thursday, February 23, 2006 at 11:59 p.m. EST. No entries will be accepted or altered after this date. Chairman’s Award submitters will go to the website and enter the required information.

• Team Number:
• Regional Selection:
• Executive Summary – Teams must complete the following fields in order to be considered for this award. The information included in the Executive Summary is not included in the total
character/word count for the Chairman’s Award Submission.
• Team Name / Corporate/University Sponsors
• Briefly describe the impact of the FIRST program on team participants (500 characters allowed, including spaces and punctuation)
• Examples of role model characteristics for other teams to emulate (500 characters allowed, including spaces and punctuation)
• Describe the impact of the FIRST program on your team and community (500 characters allowed, including spaces and punctuation)
• Team’s innovative methods to spread the FIRST message (500 characters allowed, including spaces and punctuation)
• Describe the strength of your partnership (500 characters allowed, including spaces and punctuation)
• Team’s communication methods and results (500 characters allowed, including spaces and
punctuation)
• Other matters of interest to the FIRST judges, if any (500 characters allowed, including spaces and punctuation)
• Upload pictures (maximum of 4 allowed, not to exceed 1.0Mb in total)
• Essay (10,000 characters allowed, including spaces and punctuation, or approximately 1500 words)
• Electronic signature of Team Captain/Student Representative certifying that the document is complete and accurate
• Electronic signature of adult team mentor certifying that the document is complete ad accurate
Once the Chairman’s Award submissions are completed, they are sorted and posted on a private, passwordprotected site where only the judges can read the entries. Each regional will have all the candidates listed and the judges will review the submissions. Teams should bring a hard copy of their submission to the event. In preparing this document, bear in mind that students, engineers, teachers, community, school, sponsors, families, and other supporters, as well as the machine itself are all integral parts of your team experience. Your submission does need to clearly convey the factors outlined above.

• Important Note: Chairman’s Award Judges look for and review the information entered in the
Yearbook Page as part of the Chairman’s Award submission. This information is entered as part of the Team Information Management System (TIMS) at http://www.my.usfirst.org. Refer to
Communications for more details about the Yearbook Page.

9.2.3.4 Submission Deadline

Chairman’s Award submissions are due no later than Thursday, February23, 2006. 11:59 p.m. EST.

9.2.4 Judging Process

The Regional Award Process: By 10 a.m. on Friday mornings of each Regional Competition a list of interview times for the submitting teams will be available at the Pit Administration station. Interviews will take place during the day on Friday. A panel of judges will review the Chairman’s Award entries at each Regional and will conduct on-site Chairman’s Award interviews with those teams who have entered a submission for that regional event. Judges will select one winner for the Regional Chairman’s Award at each regional competition.
Interviews are limited to ten (10) minutes with not more than three (3) student team members) to best represent them. The team selects these representatives. During the first five (5) minutes of the interview, the team members give a presentation to the judges, and the judges will use the second five (5) minutes for their interview.

NOTE 1: If the presentation requires special equipment, the team is responsible for bringing it to the interview.

NOTE 2: Teams are encouraged to bring copies of documentation, supporting their submission, to leave with the judges. This documentation may include, but is not limited to:
• Letters of reference
• Newspaper and magazine articles
• Program Books

As part of the Chairman’s Award judging process, FIRST judges will also review the Executive Summary page AND the yearbook page for each of the submitting teams. Your team’s submission will be a key factor in the selection process, along with the judges’ own observations of the team at the competitions.

The Championship Award Process: At The Championship, a panel of judges will review the winning thirty (30) Regional Chairman’s Award submissions and will select one ultimate Chairman’s Award winner. This winning team has the additional honor of choosing one of its junior or senior student members to be the recipient of the Allaire Medal.

WE ACCOMPLISHED OODLES OF THINGS TODAY.

2006-01-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

so this is what we did...

1. Finished the Genentech Proposal.
2. Wrote the follow-up letter to Mr. Fields.
3. Did a BUNCH of food stuff and arranged many meetings with restaurants for this week.
4. Found our old Chairman's Award Essay and found the criteria for this year's.
5. Wrote an e-mail to Synopsys introducing our team for a potential grant.
6. Printed out many copies of the cover letter/business plan to give to restaurants when we visit.

whew what a day.

SCHEDULE FOR RESTAURANTS

2006-01-09T18:40:00.000-08:00

As of Monday night 01/9

TOMORROW, TUESDAY 1/10
-call into TAXI'S, the manager will be in at 10 am
-call the manager of ROJO'S in the morning
-call into AMICI'S for Ricky anytime between 9:30 and 5
-call Amos at SUBWAY in the morning hours
-call ANDALE in the morning because they sounded hopeful
-call CHICKEN RANCH in the morning

-we should also call into PIZZA MY HEART, QUIZNO'S, and KIRK'S. Those are all restaurants that already have packets.

all these we should try to set up times to go in and talk to the manager and drop of the packets we have.

WEDNESDAY
-make calls again

THURSDAY
-make calls

FRIDAY
-I'm going in to BUCA DI BEPPOS to talk with the manager, Alan, at 4:30 if anyone else wishes to go.

MONDAY 01/16
-meg is calling WHOLE FOODS to talk with Ingrid before 4:00

Chairman's Award Essay

2006-01-09T18:38:00.000-08:00

This is our Chairman's Award Essay from last year. Remember, this was the essay that made us eligible to win the Rookie All-Star Award, which let us go to Nationals!

Chairman Award Essay

Two companies suggested that we, Castilleja, an all-girls school in Palo Alto California, form a FIRST team. Unfortunately, this suggestion was made in December, quite a late date to think about competing. However, many students were interested and we decided to compete this year. While we were excited, we had no jumpstart to prepare for this competition. Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers financially sponsored the team, with the expectation that we will create a business plan and do our own fundraising next year. IDEO offered to provide technical support and mentoring for our team.

The Beginning

Three Castilleja students went to the official kickoff of FIRST in San Jose, and brought the supplies back to school. That day Castilleja hosted our own kickoff, and we had an amazing turnout of students and adults (over 50 people) excited about the FIRST program. Most girls who were interested in this project joined the team without any prior knowledge about robotics or engineering at all. The teachers and mentors enthusiastically welcomed all girls into the project. Together, we began with a strategy session, discussing what parts of the competition we wanted to attack. The beginning process was extremely stimulating and the level of excitement and energy was over the top.

Next, IDEO hosted an in-depth brainstorming session for our team. With 10 IDEO mentors and about 30 girls, it was definitely a success as we formulated many ideas for a prototype of our robot in 2 hours. All students and mentors split into 4 different groups to come up with ideas for one target area of the robot each: the autonomous period, defense, the arm design, and the gripper for the tetras. Our mentors at IDEO reminded us that all ideas were worth considering and in the end we came up with 150+ ideas that we later voted on. We considered that it was better to keep our ideas simple and realistic for the time period and experience we had.

In order to actually build our robot, the team needed a shop in which to work. Previously, Castilleja had a primitive theater shop with only a radial arm saw. For the FIRST competition, the team cleaned up the shop and added three new key tools: a band saw, a drill press, and a belt sander. Before she could use the tools, each member was “checked out” in a safety workshop class, and finally we could begin building. The team also had some access to the shop at IDEO, but for insurance reasons the girls were not allowed to work with the power tools there, so most of the work had to be done at Castilleja. However, when work was beyond what we could do in our shop our IDEO mentors were more then willing to implement our designs using their machinery. By the end of the first day in the shop, we had managed to create tetras and the five-foot tetra goal.

Our Robot Evolves

After much discussion about the design of the robot, the team decided that we wanted to make a robot that could stack tetras on top of the goals (instead of just under them). However, we had some trouble agreeing on one design to accomplish this. Finally, after tons of Chinese food one late Tuesday night, we came up with a design for a four-wheeled drive rectangular chassis and an arm assembly. Because a four-wheeled base has a tight turn radius, and is easy to control, we thought that it would be the best choice for the task. However, we were concerned that an arm with a tetra could make the robot unbalanced, and we needed to test that. Unfortunately, this was just one small bump in the long road of robot design.

Next the leaders took charge and chose a triangular design for the arm support. The idea was for the arm to swing down to grab tetras and swing back up to hold them and move them around. The team thought this was a simple but effective way to achieve our objective of placing the tetras on top of the goals. The real genius part of the design came from a collaboration between some Castilleja students and one of our IDEO mentors, a plastic “hand” that, once put inside a tetra, self adjusts so that the three slots in the plastic support the three sides of the tetra. It may sound complicated, but really it is simple and very efficient. However, before the team could go ahead and begin the real construction, we had to build a wooden prototype to make sure the idea was really viable.

Our wooden prototype was an excellent visual model. With it, we tried to lift tetras by hand and experiment with its abilities to test the strength of the design. After some testing, we felt the design was sound. At this stage, we began to build our next iteration out of angle iron, this time using the FIRST supplied chassis. In this model, we discovered alignment problems with the support structure for the arm shaft, which led us to change our arm support design in our next iteration from a triangle structure to all right angles, which were easy to construct without welding. Working with our mentors, we decided to use structural aluminum in place of the angle iron, which we found light and easy to work with.

Meeting almost every night for 3 hours or more, the team worked from the ground up, building the chassis, then the arm support, and then the arm. The team worked together smoothly to produce a functioning robot in a few weeks, and two weeks before the ship date we had our first run, successfully stacking tetras on the first try. This event was a giant victory and morale booster for our team.

To the End…

As crunch time approached, we decided to weigh our robot. Sadly, it was over the weight limit. With three days until our scrimmage the team scrambled together and took weight off everywhere we could. Our robot lay in pieces just nights before it would have to be up and running for its first practice experience. Overall, the last few days were very busy but fun as our weeks of hard work led up to this point.

The last full week of the build truly illustrated the hard work and devotion of that this team has shown. Our leader, Jessa Lee, was as calm as ever even though there was so much to do in such a short amount of time. The students and our IDEO mentors came together and worked towards our final products of the robot. In addition to the robot, members of our team had been working on web design and animation.

With some fairly experienced web designers, the website team got off to a fast start, acquiring the domain “www.gatorbotics.com” and designing a visually appealing, informative, and easy to use website. They even managed to get a mentor from Google who came a few times a week to help them with her vast web design experience.

The animation team had a tougher time, for not a single student or mentor had experience with any animation program, let alone 3DS Max. Thankfully, one of the IDEO mentors had a friend who taught 3DS Max for a living, and he agreed to come all the way from San Francisco to teach a brief overview of the program (in 3 hours). At what seemed lightning fast speed, 5 girls struggled to soak in as much knowledge about the program as possible, and over the next few weeks got by with what they had been taught, with a little improvising. They had a creative idea for a story, and each girl modeled a different component of the set until they merged them in order to work on the actual animation.

Overall, our team feels privileged to have had the opportunity to be a part of this competition. As an all girls school, we are especially proud of ourselves for participating and learning about a stereotypically masculine field. These last weeks have gone by so quickly and it is amazing what has been accomplished. We can’t wait until next year when we will have the knowledge we have gathered from this year and the time to plan for the next season. We are psyched and ready for the up coming competition in March!

. . . we have to write a new one for this year, which we are working on.

status on resturants w/ Allison

2006-01-09T17:45:00.000-08:00

Allison and I have been calling around and here's the progress on the resturants we've called in/gone into.

Taxi's- We will be calling the manager tomorrow at 10 am

Olive Garden- we need to send in a letter for them to even consider us

Buca di Beppos- I am going in to meet with him at 4:30 on friday afternoon. They already have a packet of information.

Peninsula Creamery- we need to turn something in to Rob Fisher turn in something to him on a weekday morning

Rojoz- the manager comes in only in the mornings part time so we'll call in then and try to meet with him. I've already given them a packet of information.

AG Ferrari- probs not 6 weeks but maybe just 2. need to drop off stuff for Will in afternoons.

Amici's- Ricky 9:30-5 call in

Subway- Call Amos in the mornings.

Andale-couldn't understand on the phone. we give up. But they were hopeful. Call back tomorrow morning.

Whole Foods- Meg is going in next Monday to see Ingrid. Call before 4:00 to reach her.

Chicken Ranch- Call in the morning.

to do list for week of 1/9/06

2006-01-09T17:34:00.000-08:00

TODAY
1) finish genetech proposal
2) food checkin
3) follow up letter to steve fields
4) find chairmans award stuff on FIRST website

THIS WEEK
1) contact Shirin's dad's
2) call Taxi's at 10am Tuesday and ask for Jaime
3) Lauren's possible contact
4) Home Depot for supplies
5) Meg's dad's possible contact
6) check in w/ Mr. B re: development
7) contact Olive Garden with written stuff
8) Alison going to Buca di Beppo's on Friday at 430
9) Rojos, Rob Fishers, In n Out, etc etc etc

LATER
1) go to Whole Foods next monday morning
2) chairmans award essay

robotlove OUT.

ACE update

2006-01-09T17:33:00.000-08:00

hannah and i visited ace hardware palo alto and menlo park today.

at palo alto we were able to speak with the manager (who happens to be a mom of someone i went to elementary school with....major points for us!) unfortunately the owner won't be in town for another week, but she (the manager) seemed excited and somewhat confident that they would be able to give us "at cost prices" (which is the same deal they have with the PALY robotics team....)

at menlo park the manager seemed to have sparatic work hours, and the people working at the desk seemed completely unknowledgable as to when he would next be in the office. SO, we dropped by a letter and a business plans with hopes of hearing back from them soon.....we'll see.

so that's all for now, we have been informed that home depot could be a potential sponser so we'll have to look in to that.

femmebot OUT.

Small gifts for small sponsors?

2006-01-09T14:04:00.000-08:00

Is there anything we can give to our small sponsors ($25-$100) like the grocery store and the bagel people right off the bat? Like one of our buttons? Or a photograph of the team that they can stick to the wall? Perhaps we can take one of the kickoff photos and print it out in color with 'Proud sponsor of the Castilleja Robotics Team' on the top of it. That's a really easy token if immediate appreciation that we could give them for less than a buck each.

- Emily

Bagels and Shmear

2006-01-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

A bagel shop has agreed to provide us with two dozen bagels and some cream cheese each Saturday for the six week season. We can pick the food up at 8:30.

Large donation from Sophia's Dad's company

2006-01-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to mention and give kudos to Sophia and Sophia's dad for getting a wonderful sponsorship from Sophia's dad's company. As I understand it, it was enough to cover most of the registration fee for the year, if not all of it.

Cheers to the fundraising team!

Our First Food

2006-01-08T14:38:00.000-08:00

We are still working feverishly to find food sponsors. However, we did get our first (very small) food donation today: $25 at a local grocery store. It's not much, but it's better than nothing. I'll be going to more places today and tomorrow. Luckily, we have parent support covering the first week of meetings.

2006-01-08T09:43:00.000-08:00

This is where we'll be posting updates for PR and Finance. We shan't post anything too specific (such as exact companies), but we shall be updating people on things like "We now have food for these days a week." Have fun and start posting!