From August 4 to August 16, StuyPulse members will be traveling to Shanghai, China, where Team 694 has been invited to compete in the China Robotics Challenge as well as mentor a few teams. Because many Chinese teams are rookie teams, StuyPulse will be teaching them the basics and telling them all about being a FIRST team by hosting workshops. They will also be helping them with their robot directly and competing! Last year was a success and members had such a great time, and both returning members and new members cannot wait for what’s in store for them!
While others spent their spring break catching up on work and relaxing, StuyPulse competed in the 2016 FIRST championships at St. Louis. Every year we make it our goal to make it to Einstein, and this goal was finally fulfilled with our division winning robot, DEStiny. The competition started off very well during qualification matches, with our team ranking 8th out of all 75 individual teams in the Curie division. However, after qualifications, StuyPulse received heart-breaking news from the pit crew: the wheel hubcaps shattered which sheared the bolts holding together the center wheels on our drivetrain. Even after hearing this news, we remained unfazed. We continued to hold our heads high and on that night came up with the picklist that would determine this competition for us. On the final day of the championships, StuyPulse made an alliance with team 3339, team 379, and team 1511. With epoxy and hope holding together their drivetrain wheels, StuyPulse and its alliance members progressively made it through quarterfinals, semifinals, finals and became Curie division winners. Although StuyPulse did not get past quarterfinals on Einstein field, they did manage to come home with a win on the Curie field. With the conclusion of the competition season, we prepares for offseason events and the next year with a new resolve.
Over the few weeks, StuyPulse has competed in two regionals: New York City and South Florida. Not only did our team members have a ton of fun, but our endeavors also lead to success. In New York City Regional, StuyPulse was a part of the winning alliance and received the Engineering Inspiration Award for encouraging those around us to dive into the STEM field. At South Florida Regional, StuyPulse and our alliance made it to the quarterfinals and we received the Entrepreneurship Award for our team’s financial statement, strong partnership with sponsors, sustainability efforts, and outreach initiatives. We are ecstatic to be participating in at the championship at St. Louis and look forward to the great road ahead of us!
Here are our weekly newsletters from the six weeks of the 2016 build season! Read about what each of our divisions have been up to throughout build season.
Yesterday, members of our FRC and FTC teams had a demo at PS 110, an elementary school on the lower east side of Manhattan. We introduced them to FIRST by demoing a simple FLL robot made by one of our team members and two of our FTC robots. Two of our members helped the students add to the design of the FLL robot using legos. All the students were very engaged interacting with the robot. We hope to return to their school in future to continue inspiring future generations of engineers!
Build season started off great at Kickoff! Members, alumni and mentors all came together in the theater to watch the unveiling of this year’s game, Stronghold. After watching the game animation together, we went over the game manual so that everyone would have a concrete understanding of this year’s game. Our team, wanting to start right away, formed small groups and started strategizing, making plans for the design for the robot, and setting goals and plans for future meetings. Some members even attended after-session meetings to pitch in ideas and to get a full grasp of what we would be doing and accomplishing as a team into the build season. We can’t wait to see what this year’s build season has in store for us! Good luck to all other teams!
On Saturday December 12, we will be hosting our annual StuySplash event at Stuyvesant High School. Throughout the day, there will be lectures held by students and mentors from our team along with some special guests including a speaker from Microsoft. They will be speaking about a variety of topics in the fields of engineering, software development and marketing. Registration begins at 9:00am and lasts until 4:00pm.
On September 17, StuyPulse will be having an interest meeting in the cafeteria after 10th period at 3:35. Come see our past robots being demoed as we introduce our team. If you have any interest in engineering, programming, marketing/business, or robotics in general, you should think about about attending!
On August 10, StuyPulse, along with eight other international teams (Teams 118, 148, 359, 525, 987, 1538, 1595, 1772, 2468, 4613), flew to Shenzhen, China to attend the second CRC (China Robotics Challenge) event. Our first two days in Shenzhen consisted of helping the rookie Chinese teams finish building and programming their robots. After returning from a two day stay at Guilin, China, StuyPulse and the other international teams helped the Chinese teams with the final touches on their robot, preparing them for competition. Members and mentors of our team also mentored the Chinese teams throughout our time together, teaching them from the experience we have after years of being an FRC team. The scrimmage lasted from August 17 until August 19. After the first day of practice matches, our robot seemed to be performing as expected and did not suffer any damage from shipment. We placed sixth after qualifications, and as the fifth alliance captain, we competed alongside our alliance members, Team 525 and Team 9015. Our alliance made it to semifinals, nearly grasping a seat in the finals. After eliminations with the international teams, the Chinese teams had another elimination round excluding all international teams. Our trip to China was one we will never forget and we look forward to next year’s CRC event!
Hello, everyone! Saturday, April 25, is our biannual book sale. We’ll be selling books at the corner of Greenwich and Chambers. This coincides with the Tribeca Family Festival right around the corner, and we’ll be presenting on the stage at the festival and displaying our robots. Feel free to come and help support the team!