News

This is the current news items about Downingtown Robotics, all the teams:FIRST, VEX and FLL.

Remember to read about Current Events coming your way.

Congratulations to our Graduates

Congratulations to:

• Douglas M - Co-Captain & Driver - Downingtown West
• Michael M - Programming Lead - Downingtown East
• Kenneth A - Downingtown West Valedictorian - Class of 2013
• Jason M - PA Leadership Charter School

1640 Alumni Graduate RPI - 25-May-2013

1640 alumni Amber McKown (DEHS class of '08) and Heather McKown (DEHS '09) received their Bachelors of Science degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Computer Science & Biomechanical Engineering, and in Mechanical Engineering, respectively. Amber & Heather joined the team during the lead-up to the 2006 (DEWBOT II) build season, and brought some collateral along.

Monty Madness - 18-May-2013

Our first off-season and dedicated to training; especially driver training, but prospective coaches, operators and human players were able to try their hand as well. We finished qualification rounds 6^th seed out of 42 teams participating.

1640 led the 6^th alliance, joined by 303 (Test Team) and 3314 (Mechanical Mustangs). Alas, we lost in the quarterfinals to 2590 (Nemesis), 1676 (The Pascack Pi-Oneers) & 1626 (Falcon Robotics), a powerful alliance who went on to become finalists.

NEWTON CHAMPIONS - FRC Championship, St. Louis MO - 24-27 April 2013

Einstein semifinal 2-1

We won Newton Division at the FRC Championship in St.Louis. Our sincerest gratitude to alliance partners teams 303 (alliance captain Test Team) from Bridgewater, NJ and 3476 (Code Orange) from Dana Point, CA. What a tremendous alliance! As Newton's 3^rd alliance, we went through Newton eliminations without loss (6-0); racking up Newton Division's highest score (247 points; 440 points combined) during the 1^st finals match against the 1^st alliance (comprising teams 1538 (Holy Cows) from San Diego CA, 1986 (team Titanium) from Lee's Summit MO and 217 (ThunderChickens) from Sterling Heights MI - great teams all).

On to Einstein Field! 1640's first time. We started well against Galileo's champions (teams 1241 (Theory 6) from Mississauga ON Canada, 610 (Crescent Coyotes) from Toronto ON Canada, and 1477 (Texas Torque) from The Woodlands, TX), defeating them 199 to 176 in the first match. Alas, we lost the next two and Galileo went on to become FRC Champions for 2013. They were a great alliance and deserved the win.

This was an enormous performance by the team, bringing us to a competitive level which had hitherto been no more than a dream.

Sugartown Elementary School's Lego Expo and Robotics Fair - 19-April-2013

FRC and FLL participated from DAR in this annual event.

CHAMPIONS - Mid-Atlantic Region Championship - 11-13 April 2013

Together with alliance partners 2729 (Storm Robotics - alliance captain, from Lenape and Cherokee High Schools in Marlton & Medford, NJ) and 2590 (Nemesis, from Robbinsville High School, Robbinsville, NJ), we won the MAR Championship! We're going to St. Louis!

Springside-Chestnut Hill MAR District Event - 14-16 March 2013

Climb at SCH

1640's 2^nd MAR qualifier. We finished qualifications as 8^th seed and accepted 2539's gracious invitation to join the 1^st alliance. We made it to the semifinals again. The Team also received the Innovation in Control Award from Rockwell Automation for successful demonstration of our caterpillar drive.

We earned 47 MAR qualifying points at SCH, giving us a total of 80 towards Lehigh qualification.

Hatboro-Horsham MAR District Event - 1-3 March 2013

Our first competition of the 2013 season, and we performed quite well. We finished qualifications as 14^th seed in a field of 37 and as a member of the 6^th alliance we made it to semi-finals. The team received the Creativity Award sponsored by Xerox. We earned 33 MAR qualifying points.

Move to Oscar Way - 21-29 December 2012

After 16 months, we bid a fond farewell to 427 Creamery Way with many thanks to Waterloo Gardens for the use of this property.

We are moving to a building generously provided by Eagle Nursery.

Downingtown Area Robotics-Penn FLL Qualifying Event - 8-December-2012

Competitive Robotics & really cool hats!

Downingtown's first annual FIRST LEGO League Qualifying Event was held on 8 December, 2012 at Downingtown Middle School in Downingtown, PA. This competition was hosted by Downingtown Area Robotics to allow area FLL teams to compete and qualify for the Penn FLL Championship in this year's game, Senior Solutions!

FRC 1640 mentors support MOE at Fundraiser - 1-December-2012

Ben and Ellen Kellom, Clem & Faith McKown, Mike Rizzo and Siri Maley showed their support for FRC Team 365 at their annual wine tasting fundraiser.

DAR FLL Tune-up - 3-November-2012

The team hosted its first FIRST event, an FLL tune-up at Downingtown Middle School.

Champions at Duel on the Delaware - 13-October-2012

The first alliance teams 271 (Mechanical Marauders, Bayshore NY) and 341 (Miss Daisy, Wissahickon HS, Ambler PA) graciously invited us to join them and together we won Duel on the Delaware in six matches. Our 3^rd competition win of the season with Miss Daisy. We had the honor of participating in Miss Daisy's 100^th match win of the 2012 season.

Co-Captain Douglas a National Merit Scholarship Commended Student

FRC Team 1640 co-captain Douglas has been named a Commended Student in the 2012-2013 National Merit Scholarship Program. Douglas is a senior at Downingtown West High School.

Carly McKown earns Tau Beta Pi membership

FRC Team 1640 and Downingtown East alumna Carly McKown earned membership in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's chapter of Tau Beta Pi. Tau Beta Pi is the oldest, most prestigious and most exclusive engineering honor society in America, second only to Phi Beta Kappa in terms of all American collegiate honor societies. College juniors must be in the top-1/8th of their academic class as well as demonstrate outstanding leadership, advanced scholarship, and dedication to ethical service in order to earn a chance of election.

Carly was a student member of Team 1640 from 2008 - 2011, serving as Co-Captain for the last two years. She is a Downingtown East graduate from the class of 2011.

Team 1640 Volunteers at Battle O' Baltimore - 15-September-2012

Battle O' Baltimore volunteers

Molly, Kira, Lucy, Pat D, Ian, Andrew (field reset), Sasha, Nicole (queuing), Debbie Drago, John Weissman (safety glasses) and Siri Maley (referee) made up almost a quarter of the main volunteer crew for one of Maryland's premiere off-season events, Battle o' Baltimore. These rookie (other than Siri) FRC volunteers had a blast--plus some good food and a great court side view--for their first event. The Baltimore Area Alliance was ecstatic to have us, and we're all looking forward to next year!

Demo at DWHS Freshman Summer Picnic - 21-August-2012

Douglas, Jack, DJ, Kenneth, David Moyer, Ben Rajcan and Faith McKown show DEWBOT VIII off to incoming Downingtown West students. Sincerest thanks to Downingtown West High School Principal Thomas Mulvay for his gracious invitation.

Clem McKown receives the American Chemical Society's 2012 Hero of Chemistry Award

19-August-2012 - FIRST team 1640 Head Mentor Clem McKown was among eight members of Arkema's Certincoat^® team to be awarded the American Chemical Society's 2012 Hero of Chemistry award for scientific discovery, technical development, and commercial implementation of Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition technology for the production of high performance window glass.

Team Pool Party - 4-August-2012

A hot, steamy August afternoon. Can there be a better way to cool off than a team pool party? Even cooler if this serves as a formal break between 2012 and 2013 seasons. From this day on, we are working towards doing as well as we can in 2013.

There food, drink, diving contests, raft battles and a serious game of some hybrid between "pool bombardment" and "Calvinball".

Congratulations to 2013 season co-captains: Douglas & Molly!

Indiana Robotics Invitational - 20 & 21-July-2012

This is our 3^rd consecutive year of participation in the Indiana Robotics Invitational (IRI)! The most selective of all off-season competitions, IRI invites 76 (70 attended) of the absolute best 2012 team from around the world (from a practical standpoint, US & Canada). Our now-veteran drive team did a bang-up job and kept pace with even the best team at the even, thanks to our awesome scouting crew. Full accounts of the matches cover the details of who we played with and the results, while the photo gallery provides images. We spent a lot of time on the practice field, mostly working on autonomous until we discovered the code error and fixed it.

We finished qualifications as 13^th seed out of 70 teams; quite an improvement over past years. We were not, however, selected for an alliance.

Joshua Anders Receives Masters Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Congratulations to Josh, a Team 1640 alumnus from the 2006 & 2007 seasons (graduating Downingtown East in 2007). Joshua is employed by Boeing in St. Louis.

Boy Scout Troop 181 Demo - 26-June-2012

Sab-BOT-age demonstrated DEWBOT VIII to Boy Scout troop 181, Paoli, PA. The demo ended with a basketball shoot-off between DEWBOT and troop members.

UTC Sikorsky Coatesville Plant Tour - 23-June-2012

Team 1640 at Sikorsky Plant

Sponsor Sikorsky Global Helecopters graciously organized a tour for team Sab-BOT-age of their Coatesville PA plant. It is at this plant that the S-76D and S-92 helecopters are customized and completed prior to shipment to customers around the world.

The DASD Board of Education recognises FIRST Team 1640 & DAR - 13-June-2012

Team 1640 with School Board President Jackie Fenn and Superintendent Dr. Larry Mussoline

The Downingtown Area School District School Board recognised FIRST Team 1640's outstanding 2012 season performance at the June School Board Meeting. The presentation script and slides are provided.

---

Older news items can be found in:
News Archive 2012
News Archive 2011
News Archive 2010
News Archive 2009