Article Three - The Fighting Pi

T E A M 1 7 1 8
U P C O M I N G E V E N T S
C A S S T E C H
C O M P E T I T I O N
M A R C H 1 2 - 1 3 , 2 0 1 0
W E S T M I C H I G A N
C O M P E T I T I O N
M A R C H 1 9 - 2 0 , 2 0 1 0
( M I C H I G A N S T A T E
C H A M P I O N S H I P )
A P R I L 1 - 3 , 2 0 1 0
S P E C I A L P O I N T S
O F I N T E R E S T :
• The Team 1718 Bowling
Fundraiser will be held
on February 26th,
2010.
J A N U A R Y 2 1 , 2 0 1 0
A W A R D S A N D P R E S E N T A T I O N S
W R I T T E N B Y : C H E L S E A A N T I L L A , J O S H L E W I S ,
A N D K R Y S T A L D I E L
In the past two weeks our awards
committee has been hard at work on
the team’s award submissions. So
far, the team has chosen our nominee
for the Woodie Flowers Award, and
has completed the rough draft of the
Chairman’s Award essay. Both of
these awards highlight the spirit of
FIRST and embody both the team as
a whole and a mentor.
The Chairman’s Award “honors the
team, that in the judge’s estimation,
best represents a model for other
teams to emulate”. “It embodies the
goals and mission of FIRST.” The
Chairman’s Award is FIRST’s most
prestigious award. In our submission,
our team hopes to be recognized for
our recent endeavors in spreading the
message of FIRST to the surrounding
communities. Since last season we
have done demonstrations at St.
The CAD (Computer Aided Design)
group has been working tirelessly on
designing the robot construction ideas
proposed by the team. The CAD team
is made up of Chris Graham, Eric
Kosek and Dan Kaltz as the leading
mentor. Currently they are waiting on
a definite design from the mechanical
V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 3
F I G H T I N G P I W E E K L Y
T E A M 1 7 1 8 C A D D E S I G N
W R I T T E N B Y : S T E P H E N K L I N E
Peter’s Lutheran school in Richmond,
the Richmond VFW hall as well as
the Ann-Arbor Hands-on Museum.
Contrary to Chairman’s, the Woodie
Flowers Award focuses on a specific
mentor that “leads, inspires, and
empowers” student members of the
team not only in robotics related
aspects, but also in everyday life. By
submitting these essays, we hope to
be competitive when we travel to this
year’s competitions.
Last season we won the Engineering
Inspiration award (E.I.) at the West
Michigan District event. This award
is second only to Chairman’s. This
year we hope to take the next step and
win the Chairman’s award, the most
prestigious award, which recognizes
the activities and efforts of the entire
team and is not related to the ranking
of the robot.
team. They have used their extra time
to teach newer team members the
skills needed to design using CAD.
By using the CAD program we are
able to easily make changes and plan
ahead without spending extra time or
money.

F I G H T I N G P I W E E K L Y
Vincent Ragap Melissa Mikolowski Eric Tobey
In a previous article we
introduced our two new
members from Memphis;
Jacob and Jessica Payne.
Now, as we begin to kick off
another exciting season, we
will introduce some more of
our impressive array of
rookies. The first is
sophomore Vince Ragap,
who attends New Haven
High School. Vince is an
avid hunter, and also enjoys
fishing, reading, and writing
stories. Vince joined the
team because it seemed like
something he’d like to do.
Vince likes the aspect of the
team, that the robot is
designed and built entirely by
students. As the only
member on the Fighting Pi
from New Haven High,
Vince promises to represent
his school in the way only he
can.
Also new to the team is a
freshmen from Armada,
Melissa Mikolowski. Melissa
is involved in the Armada
N E W M E M B E R S
W R I T T E N B Y : M I C H A E L G R A H A M
High Orchestra, in which she
plays the violin, and she
enjoys softball. She likes to
read books, but she hates
history class, finding it quite
boring. Melissa seems to
gravitate more toward the
math and science aspect of
school. This is displayed by
her attendance at the
Macomb Academy of Arts
and Sciences and by the fact
she joined the robotics team.
Melissa is excited now that
the build season has started.
Interested in the mechanical
aspect of the team, and
possibly electrical in future
years, she is sure to become a
valuable asset as the Fighting
Pi continues to improve,
grow larger, and educate
young students in the fields
of engineering, mechanical
design and business. One
thing Melissa knows she will
not be doing is driving the
robot, since, as she jokingly
puts it, “The chances of me
breaking something is more
likely than not.”
The last rookie to be
introduced is definitely no
stranger to the team. Many
reading this article will read
the last name and hear a little
bell go off in their head
because of his familiarity. He
is Eric Tobey, freshmen from
Armada. Eric is the younger
brother to team alumni Chris
Tobey and the son of team
mentors Craig and Judy
Tobey, so it could be said that
robotics runs in his blood. As
he said, “I joined the team
because it looked like some
fun and my family had been
involved with it for
4 years.” (It should be noted
that the team is now entering
its fifth year.) Eric is on the
Armada High School Varsity
Boys soccer team. With a
long history and strong
legacy of robotics behind
him, Eric is sure to quickly
become a key team member
in our growing team.