News Archive 2012

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Archive of News Articles from 2011:

Contents

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 3rd competition win of the season with Miss Daisy. We had the honor of participating in Miss Daisy's 100th 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

ACS hero.jpg
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 3rd 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 13th 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
250px-Sikorsky aircraft logo.gif
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.

Champions at Bridgewater-Raritan Battle Royale - 26-May-2012

Another competition with a driver training focus. As a result of limited turnout, Sab-BOT-age was able to register two robots (Prime & Deux) as 1640 and 1639, respectively. Three new drive teams were able to gain competition experience. A concerted pre-competition effort was required to bring Deux into working and fighting trim. This effort paid off.

Our 2nd robot, Deux, playing under the nom de guerre of 1639 (Tipsy Honeybadgers) and shared by two prospective drive teams, together with 1st alliance partners 869 (POWER CORD, alliance captain) and 25 (Raider Robotix), was a champion of this competition.

Monty Madness - 19-May-2012

Sab-BOT-age used this event primarily for drive-team training. We finished qualifying matches as 15th seed out of 39 teams.

We were the first selection of team 369 (High Voltage), captain of the 6th alliance. Team 484 (RoboForce) completed our alliance. Alas, we were defeated in the quarterfinals by the 3rd alliance (103, 2016 and 224).

Sugartown Elementary School's Lego Expo and Robotics Fair - 10-May-2012

All parts of DAR participate in the Sugartown Elementary Lego Expo: FLL, VEX & FRC. This year's DEWBOT shot foam basketballs at children. It just doesn't get any better than that!

FRC Championship, St. Louis MO - 25-28 April-2012

FRC Team 1640 participated for the 2nd consecutive year in the FRC Championship in St. Louis, completing the Newton Division qualification matches as 13th seed in a field of 100 teams. During the competition, Popular Mechanics interviewed our Pit Captain Molly and included DEWBOT VIII in their short-list (10) of All-Star robots.

WINNER at Mid-Atlantic Region Championship - Temple University, Philadelphia - 12-14 April-2012

MAR's 1st 3-robot balance
FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Team 1640 won the Mid-Atlantic Robotics FRC Region Championship at Temple University with alliance partners Teams 341 and 25. The Alliance Captain, Team 341, Miss Daisy, is from Ambler, PA and Team 25, Raider Robotix, is from North Brunswick, NJ. Together, the three teams went undefeated throughout the 3-stage elimination matches (quarter-finals, semi-finals & finals), thereby winning the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship. With this victory, FIRST Team 1640 qualifies to participate in the 2012 FRC Championship in St. Louis, Missouri from April 25 to 28.

The three-team alliance was unstoppable, playing amazing offense and defense. The pièce de résistance was the alliance's end-of-match 3-robot balance on the bridge, an achievement hitherto unrealized in any Mid-Atlantic Robotics event (and worth 40 points!). Not only did we achieve the elusive 3-robot balance, but we did so 5 times in 6 matches.

Lenape District Event - 24 & 25 March-2012

Team 1640 played well at the Lenape competition, placing 11th in qualifications out of 38 teams. We were selected by the 5th alliance, but were eliminated in the quarterfinals.

On the positive side, we were able to lower the bridge, balance alone or with a 2nd robot and pick up balls easily (all improvements over Hatboro-Horsham). Shooter tachometer and PID are working, but we have not yet calibrated them.

Victory at Hatboro-Horsham - 2 & 3 March-2012

Together with Alliance partners Teams 341 (Miss Daisy, Alliance Captain) and 1218 (Vulcan Robotics), Team 1640 won the Mid-Atlantic Robotics (MAR) qualifier at Hatboro-Horsham Senior High School. Great work by the whole team and a great start to the 2012 competition season!

Boeing Engineereing Week FIRST Robotics Demo - 23-Feb-2012

An opportunity for local Boeing-sponsored teams to show their stuff and give a little back to their generous sponsor.

Heather McKown begins semester at Nanyang Technological University

Team 1640 alumna Heather McKown begins a semester of exchange study at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Heather is a Junior Mechanical Engineering student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). RPI maintains an exchange program with NTU.

Heather was a 1640 team member from 2006 through 2009, serving as Co-Captain in 2009. She is a Downingtown East graduate (class of 2009).


Also see:
News
News Archive 2011
News Archive 2010
News Archive 2009