FRC 449

NOVEMBER

NEWSLETTER

NOVEMBER 2022 THE BLAIR ROBOT PROJECT

TABLE OF

CONTENTS

Stem Fairs ————————————————————————————— 1

Outreach Bot ———————————————————————————— 2

Laser Cutters ———————————————————————————— 3

STL Interviews —————————————————————————— 4-5

Updates —————————————————————————————— 6

Spotlights ————————————————————————————— 7

December Calendar ——————————————————————— 8

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STEM FAIRING Our 2022 STEM Fairs opened with a bang on November 2nd! Originating last year in a small series of online STEM classes through Zoom, we were determined to move them to in-person activities this coming year. We devoted a week to each section: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. The Blair Robot Project has much to be grateful for, including the support of many parents and teachers. Every year, we strive to return the favor by educating local students and encouraging interest in STEM. Our goal is to support students intrigued by STEM but too nervous about learning more. We aim to help them find common interests in their peers and make new friends. For our Science week, we taught Germantown ES and Rockview ES to fold origami DNA and create salt dough fossils. Their enthusiasm was only paralleled by the mess they left afterward. Our second week on Technology involved stringing binary bracelets! A highlight from this week was us, teachers, realizing we do knot know how to tie a knot. We still have a few weeks left to go and need volunteers to teach! We're looking for around 2 - 4 people to teach each one. They take place after school on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 3:30/4:00 p.m. If anyone is interested, please fill out this form: https://tinyurl.com/stemfairs22. We hope to see you there!

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OUTREACH BOT Outreach is one of our top priorities, and one of the most best ways to participate in sharing STEM with the community is through STEM nights and fairs. During these events, we bring some of our competition robots to Elementary or Middle schools, running the machine and showcasing its features and various operations. However, our competition bots are hard to transport and aren't specifically suited for interacting with kids and the general public, often requiring additional safety precautions. That's why this year, we decided to build a bot specifically dedicated to outreach. We've been working hard on this project in conjunction with our Bunnybots robot, allowing more opportunities for rookies to glean experience during our preseason. Currently, its mechanisms are almost complete. Intake, drive, and the feeder are completely done, with final touches being made on the shooter. After these, we will begin assembling copper and the bumpers, and the bot will be in operation! This new outreach bot has many specific features targeted towards outreach. It's able to intake balls on its own and shoot the balls as well. It's also programmed to be slow-driving so that kids can maneuver and drive it safely. Hopefully, this new addition, name pending, will expand our community even further in the near future!

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LASER CUTTER Recently, Mr. Kaluta, Blair's resident Foundations of Tech teacher,

received a grant from our esteemed Magnet Foundation that landed him

a brand new laser cutter. Very kindly, he has been allowing us to use it and it's now housed in

The Cave! Many thanks to both Mr. Kaluta and the Magnet Foundation

for their generosity. After a brief stint of struggling to calibrate and

assemble it, our efforts paid off, and we now have a fully functional laser

cutter. This machine opens up a new world of possibilities. It makes

prototyping in wood easier and more convenient. We'll be able to test

designs and concepts faster and with more accuracy. But more than

that, it's just really fun!

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STL INTERVIEWS Lillian Zhao, 12th grade, Business

Goals for the team as a whole? Going to worlds! Also Chairman's.

How did you get into robo? My brother graduated from Blair, and he said that he regretted not doing robo, so I joined in freshman year. What's the subteam working on right now? We're working on the newsletter and STEM fairing. On the grants side, we have a MSBR presentation tomorrow. We've partnered with them in the past and they are lovely people and actually reply to our emails and updates! (Shoutout to Tracy!) Goals for business team? Getting and retaining more members which is going pretty well. Hopefully more outreach events, which we have initiated with STEM Faring and the newsletter! Also I'd like to encourage nonbusiness team members to volunteer at outreach events :)

Favorite part of being in Robo? Freedom to do what I think would be

good and fun for outreach. It's been

good for planning and public speaking

skills as well. Favorite memories with robo/favorite

thing you've worked on Districts, and scouting so much until

our eyes glazed over. I looked over and

saw my friend basically asleep but still

writing stuff down. It's also nice to

design stuff and share what we're doing

with alumni, especially when they email

back their thoughts. What you think the Bunnybot should

be named Cinnabun! Favorite UL Anyone but Maggie Zhang. (MZ: I'm

gonna kill her.)

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STL INTERVIEWS Eliza Cooke, 12th, Mechanics How did you get into robo? Programming STLs came to my class in freshman year and said robo was super cool. I showed up to interest meeting, followed a person to mechanics and ended up joining the bunny gun group in the cave learning how to use the CNC. It was really interesting and I ended up staying there for next 3 years. What's the subteam working on right now? I'm responsible for the arm part, which involves calculating important geometry and positioning components so the arm is long enough so intake clears the bumpers. Goals for mechanics team? It would be nice to achieve a balance between design and build time. It would also be good if rookies could participate in the design process too.

Goals for team as a whole? I want to go to Worlds! Second

semester will be pretty empty, so it'll

be fun. Favorite Part of being in Robo? Assembling robots is lots of fun! I love

seeing the robot go from concept to

realization, and it's so much fun just

getting to see robot work and do stuff. Favorite memories with

robo/favorite thing you've worked

on Late night scouting meetings during

D champs. The climbing mechanism

from 2022 competition robot was also

a favorite — we spent a lot of time on

it. It looked really cool, and worked

well for the most part! What you think the Bunnybot

should be named Hatsune Miku. Favorite UL Elizabeth Chu because she's nice and

takes notes during design meetings.

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UPDATES Bunnybots: Prototype Building Prototype Testing Bunnybot Repository

>>>Bunnybots December 10th!

Outreach Bot: Outreach Bot Repository Outreach Bot Intake Outreach Bot Shooter/Feeder

Grants: Canon grant draft BAE Systems application ~$4,000 from BAE

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our cut

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING! This year, the 449 team is thankful for ... "...my family."

"...an education." "...basic human needs being met with ease."

"...my friends and my family. I really appreciate their support and love."

"...my friends providing me with chips ."

"...foods like oranges."

"...math."

"...the internet."

"...my friends and food."

"...people not interviewing me in the hallway."

"...Isaac Newton."

"...myself."

"...video games."

"...an opportunity to operate heavy machinery."

"...the ancient people who invented math."

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"...school."

DECEMBER 2022 S

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EARLY RELEASE

10 BUNNYBOTS COMPETITION

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CHRISTMAS

KWANZAA STARTS

HANUKKAH STARTS

FRC MEETING

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