Never enough 7/16th Wrenches

The 2007 Team

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This year we reached many milestones in the development of our team, as well as more mundane but no less important activities such as cleaning and renovating the lab.

In 2007, the sheer influx of new team members presented Team 694 with the problem of training all these new recruits not only in engineering, programming, and other skills, but also how to work together as a team. Two of our older team members came up with an innovative method of doing this. Team 694 decided to hold their own mini FRC competition right here in the lab! This mock challenge consisted of a winding path and then a choice between a set of steep stairs or a bar that the robot had to pass under followed by a Lego Pit of Death. At the end of these two separate paths, there was a path of bumps and hills with a string at the end that had to be pushed so that a ramp would fall, ending the match. The small Edubots that would traverse this terrain were built with several compromises because of this choice, and so each team had to choose the right pieces and materials to solve the task they chose. If the team chose both challenges, they would have the build their robot accordingly. By mirroring the same strategy decisions the whole team must make during the real FRC competition, these "newbie" projects became good training for the even the greenest members of our team.

Even though the FRC competition is an intense and enjoyable activity, it only stays that way when everyone who participates maintains the cardinal rule of working in the lab: safety. This year, we made huge advances in keeping the season accident free by implementing more organization and guidelines to ensure that no one was injured. Early in the year, pegboards were installed in the lab to store tools, reducing clutter and possible accidents. We even had a cabinet we could bring with ourselves on trips that stored all the tools we needed to use on the road. Special precautions were also taken to file down the sharp corners of the robot, as well as instructing all the team members in the proper technique of picking up the heavy robot. However, these acts were minor in comparison to the precedent we started when several of our teammates underwent CPR and First Aid training to safeguard against disaster, were it ever to occur. We hope to always have this training on hand not only in the lab, but wherever we go.

Positions

• President of Engineering - Polina Danilyuk
• President of Marketing - Nathan Keyes
• VP of Engineering - Steven Lam
• VP of Marketing - Katie Banks
• Director of Engineering - Theodora Kunicki
• Director of Outreach - Yon Zloof
• Secretary - Manav Nanda
• Director of Strategy and Design - Sakif Noor
• Primary Machinest - Sami Yabroudi
• Director of Programming - Edward Kaplan
• Director of Safety - Samuel Crisanto
• Director of Field Construction - Andrew Mandelbaum
• Director of Procurement - Jesse Weiman
• FVC Liason - Nathan Bixler
• Director of Lego League - Jay Walker
• Webmaster - Daryl Vulis