OPHS Robotics | Metal Jackets

2007

Team 2068 the Metal Jackets had an interesting start. A student heard about the FIRST program, and started going through the process of registering her AP Physics teacher Mrs. Modugno into the FIRST program. So accepting the challenge presented, Mrs. Modugno recruited two other teachers into the program, Mr. Gillespie and Mr. Williams. Mrs. Modugno had the connections in Lockheed Martin, and BAE Systems and recruited a number of engineers to help with the program.

The Metal Jackets took off with a fast start in January. The team decided on a simple ramp design after much debate as to the best way to for the team to perform in Rack & Roll. The process went well, with many teams working on building and integrating the components. By the end of the build season we had a well built robot, strategies on how to play the game, a website, and really solid team members.

The Metal Jackets competed for the first time at the VCU Regional. The ramp design worked perfectly during all matches, and the team work with the alliance partners, allowed the Metal Jackets to pull off a 7-1-0 record, ending in the 2nd seed. This awarded 2068 the Highest Seeded Rookie Team Award. The Metal Jackets picked teams 343 and 612 to work as partners during the finals. The alliance won their quarter final matches, but lost 1-2 their semi final matches. The Metal Jackets were not done for awards though. Team 2068 won the Best Website Award and the highest award a rookie team can get: the Rookie All-Star Award.

Since team 2068 won the Rookie All-Star Award they were able to attend the National Championship in Atlanta. The Metal Jackets in the Newton Division performed admirably during the qualifiers, but didn’t make it to the top 8. They were picked, and made it to the semi finals with their alliance partners. Sadly 2068 didn’t win any awards at the Championship event, but they had an incredible time.

2008

Team 2068 the Metal Jackets started off the season on the wrong foot. One of our teachers had to drop from the program due outside forces, and so Mr. Williams a valued member was gone. Another teacher did step up to the plate, and Mr. Button joined the Metal Jackets team.

This was the first year the Metal Jackets got involved in the FTC program. We had a very successful team 183. Team 183 participated in the UVA Regional and took home the gold. Team 183 then participated in the Southern Maryland Regional, and took home the silver. After winning one regional and taking second in another the team was very pleased with their design, and went the National Championship in Atlanta. While they performed admirably in the event, they sadly didn’t make it to the finals.

The FRC sadly wasn’t as successful. This was a year of learning for team 2068. After hearing all the good about 8020, they tried their hands at using it. Also a new drive system was being tested, rack and pinion steering. After much difficulty using both, the team was able to build a robot that was able to pick up the track ball and launch it over the rack. During the ship of the robot, the crate was severely damaged, and the robot was damaged as well. This caused the team to spend the large majority of the time repairing the robot, and never got it working as well as it did during practice. Team 2068 had poor showing during all qualifiers and never was able to show the true capabilities of their design. Sadly team 2068 left the VCU regional empty handed.

For an out reach program Team 2068 has been involved in mentoring FTC teams at Benton Middle School. They also help to organize and volunteered to help run a scrimmage hosted by Benton Middle School.

2009

Team 2068 the Metal Jackets has a strong start for the 2009 season. The team has spent the off season building a prototype drive system, with the new control components. The team learned much during this time and was much better prepared for when Lunacy was released.

Team 2068 quickly decided on a design, and has been working hard on this design. They will be participating in the scrimmage in DC this coming weekend. Picture of the current design can be seen. Team 2068 will be taking part in the DC Regional and the VCU Regional.

Sadly the Metal Jackets are not participating in the FTC program this year. Our out reach program is still mentoring teams at Benton Middle School, and is in the process of growing to two more middle schools, and a few elementary schools.

Mentors

Students

Name:	James Gillespie
Role:	Teacher
Grade:	Masters in Education : George Mason University Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science : Bridgewater College
Years Involved:	3
Why you joined Robotics:	Enjoy being a teacher sponsoring a club, and it sounded interesting
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	During the finals at a regional, the opposing team used their time out to give our teammate more time to finish repairing their robot. That was a true show of gracious professionalism.

Name:	Dave Button
Role:	Teacher
Grade:	Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics: Bridgewater College
Years Involved:	2
Why you joined Robotics:	The opportunity to sponsor and after school activity and help students learn basic engineering skills.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	At a regional competition our team suffered an equipment failure at the end of the qualification rounds and members of another team walked over to our pit and handed us a replacement to use during the elimination rounds.

Name:	Harry Lichter
Role:	Mechanical Engineering Mentor
Grade:	BS in ME from MIT
Years Involved:	1
Why you joined Robotics:	I enjoy building robots.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	Enjoy frequent opportunities to teaching students techniques to simplify fabrication while ensuring a reliable working solution.

Name:	Matthew Guindin
Role:	Programming Mentor
Grade:	B.S. Electrical & Computer Engineering
Years Involved:	4 (3 as a student on Team 375 [2001-2004], 1 as a mentor for 2068 [2008-])
Why you joined Robotics:	As a student: to learn about robots and engineering. As an adult: to instill the core values and principles of critical thinking and creativity in problem solving that is essential to engineering.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	Since FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology," an experience that exemplifies this was when I was a student we helped one of the UK teams get their electronics board finished (I believe they needed a large-gauge ground wire to be crimped). During the process we ended up befriending the English kids and joked around and talked about music. I feel this exemplifies FIRST in that we never viewed each other as "competitors," but as fellow students and engineers.

Name:	Alan Kundrock
Role:	Mentor
Grade:	BSEE, MSEE
Years Involved:	3
Why you joined Robotics:	It's fun to work with the students.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	Atlanta Superdome 2007 - seeing thousands of students cheering for the teams who were based on science, technology, and creativity.

Name:	Brandon Cash
Role:	Drive Team
Grade:	12
Years Involved:	2
Why you joined Robotics:	I find it interesting and hope to go into robotic engineering as a career
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	At a regional last year, our robot was damaged due to shipping difficulties. Many teams donated parts for us to use so that we could participate in the games.

Name:	Jake Stover
Role:	Build Team
Grade:	9
Years Involved:	1
Why you joined Robotics:	I like robotics and I was bored.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	Being part of the team that volunteered to build orbit balls, even though they took one hour each.

Name:	Brian Buccellato
Role:	Drive Team
Grade:	12
Years Involved:	2
Why you joined Robotics:	Because I was interested in building robotics and engineering.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	On my team, the engineers help and teach us how to build and solve problems that appears do to the building of our robot.

Name:	Lauren Allen
Role:	Electronics
Grade:	12
Years Involved:	2
Why you joined Robotics:	Because robots are super cool and I want to be an engineer.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	Working together with Peter Conklin on replicating the orbit balls so we could practice throwing without breaking the real balls. We had to use teamwork, determination, and ingenuity to replicate the difficult patterns found in the ball but we accomplished our goal.

Name:	Scott Duvall
Role:	Website
Grade:	11
Years Involved:	1
Why you joined Robotics:	Because it seemed like a cool thing to get into.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	Working with Jacob Wilson on the website. I learned a lot from him and other people who knew what we were doing, as well as worked on a team to get a common goal done.

Name:	Matthew Rheinstein
Role:	Build Team
Grade:	9
Years Involved:	1
Why you joined Robotics:	I like robotics and I was bored.I want to engineer robots when I am older.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	I helped make the orbit balls and I had to use teamwork, ingenuity, and persistence to get through the horrible task.

Name:	Ross Pallansch
Role:	Systems Management
Grade:	12
Years Involved:	2
Why you joined Robotics:	Interested in applications of technology
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	What I took away from Robotics and first is a sense of how to think through problems and to keep up the enthusiasm even in difficult circumstances.

Name:	Matthew Ocheltree
Role:	Mechanisms
Grade:	11
Years Involved:	2
Why you joined Robotics:	To further exemplify my need to strive for ingenuity, friendship and professionalism.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	no response given

Name:	Andrew Rufakhr
Role:	Programming
Grade:	11
Years Involved:	1
Why you joined Robotics:	To explore robotics and programming then in general.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	Having fun while working.

Name:	David Bryant
Role:	Programming
Grade:	11
Years Involved:	1
Why you joined Robotics:	Because I enjoy working with electronics
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	Everyone coming together in the end to create a functioning robot.

Name:	Daniel Silas
Role:	Strategy Sub-Team Captain
Grade:	11
Years Involved:	2
Why you joined Robotics:	I love problem solving and robotics gives us a fun challenge
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	Team 2068 was organized from the get-go. We organized into several sub-teams that all had specific and clear-cut agendas. The sub-teams were all under the eyes of overseers, so were able to get everything done and more no real problems and time to spare.

Name:	Jacob Wilson
Role:	Webmaster
Grade:	11
Years Involved:	1
Why you joined Robotics:	I have always been into robotics sense I was a little kid. So I joined the team and I heard they needed a webmaster. I love web and graphics design so I jumped at the opportunity.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	no response given

Name:	Peter Conklin
Role:	Pit and trailer construction Team Captain
Grade:	12
Years Involved:	1
Why you joined Robotics:	I love putting things together and taking them apart to see how they work.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	Working together with others and having fun while doing it.

Name:	Michael Lehner
Role:	Mechanisms
Grade:	12
Years Involved:	3
Why you joined Robotics:	A chance to work with engineers with hands on activities
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	Gracious professionalism—while every team is extremely competitive, teams are always friendly, play by the rules, and willingly share tools, ideas, and suggestions.

Name:	Jacob Ramey
Role:	Electronics
Grade:	11
Years Involved:	1
Why you joined Robotics:	I enjoy understanding how things work and I wanted a chance to work with engineers.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	First represents almost like a community working towards the common goal as one unit. The more interaction and contributions from each person the greater the outcome of our goal will be.

Name:	Jake Braun
Role:	Mechanisms
Grade:	11
Years Involved:	1
Why you joined Robotics:	To learn and build robots because I really enjoy engineering and working with tools
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	Everyone works together to complete some task given by the engineers and everyone knows what is expected. For example, in the conveyor system everyone put in an idea before coming to a final design.

Name:	Saadia Rais
Role:	Public Relations, Spirit and Leadership Team Leader
Grade:	12
Years Involved:	2
Why you joined Robotics:	Interest in physics, interest in trying something new
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	Gives the opportunity to work with tools and technology otherwise untouched, opens eyes to new interests and creativity

Name:	Kevin Jung
Role:	Mechanics and photograph
Grade:	12
Years Involved:	2
Why you joined Robotics:	because it seemed fun and it was actually interesting when I was really doing stuff for robotics.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	no response given

Name:	Bridgett Wolstencroft
Role:	Mechanisms
Grade:	9
Years Involved:	1
Why you joined Robotics:	no response given
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	no response given

Name:	Mark Leppert
Role:	Mechanisms
Grade:	12
Years Involved:	2
Why you joined Robotics:	To gain experience from and to learn from engineers
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	Everytime the mechanisms team worked we worked under the guidance of great mentors.

Name:	Christopher Dorick
Role:	Build Team
Grade:	10
Years Involved:	1
Why you joined Robotics:	I enjoy building, you make friendships that last, everybody on the time is a nice group of people, & one day i hope to be an engineer who works with robotics on a day to day basis.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	no response given

Name:	Austin Walrabenstein
Role:	Chassis design
Grade:	11
Years Involved:	1
Why you joined Robotics:	I joined robotics because I plan on being a Mechanical Engineer and this was a good opportunity to work with real engineers and to get my feet wet in working with others to solve problems and design solutions.
Describe one experience about robotics that exemplifies the values of First:	When i got the opportunity to teach one of my team mates how to use the drill press and we made a bracket together.