Vol 4 Issue 7.pub - The Fighting Pi

FIRST:
FIRST:
The The The sport sport where
where
anyone anyone can can can turn turn pro
pro
U P C O M I N G
E V E N T S
M M AA A A R R C C H H 1 1 8 8 - 1 1 9
9
W E S T M I C H I G A N
C O M P E T I T I O N
A A P P RR R R I I L L 1 1 - 2
T R O Y C O M P E T I T I O N
A A P P R R I I L L 7 7 - 9
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
SPECIAL POINTS
OF INTEREST
• Michael Scaglione won
the robot naming contest
with the name: Pi(π)-Thon
• Steven Scaglione won
the mini bot naming
contest with the name:
“Pi (π) in the Sky”
• Some of our Pi team will
attend the Kettering com-
petition, Mar 4-5, to get a
feel for the game
• Some of our Pi team will
attend the Waterford
competition, Mar 11-12,
to support Team 3539,
the Byting Bulldogs
T E A M 1 7 1 8
F E B R U A R Y 2 6 , 2 0 1 1
V O L U M E 4 , I S S U E 7
F I G H T I N G P I W E E K L Y
R O B O T S A R E “ I N T H E B A G ”
B Y : A L E X K E S E K
On Tuesday February 22, The Fighting
Pi and the Byting Bulldogs were
quickly making some last minute
adjustments on their robots. Most of
the major work on the robots is done
except for the mini bot deployment
mechanism. (That was being
prototyped in the next room.) The mini
bot deployment will be added in the 6
hours that we are allowed to un-bag the
robot. But, before we schedule that
surgery, we will modify our practice
bot so we don't mess anything up. The
competition robots are now in nice,
comfy, plastic bags. (Not in the same
bag as the title would imply). Some
hours before the robot went in the bag,
the robot mysteriously went missing as
the time clock in the build room
rapidly ticked off the waning minutes,
as it had done for the past 3 weeks, as
first days went by, then hours, then
minutes and fortunately we didn’t get
down to rapidly decreasing seconds
ticking off.
My partner in crime, Alissa
Gianferarra, and myself went looking
for the robot. We found the robot in the
auditorium down the hall in the
spotlight for a secret photo shoot.
Imagine, the 2011 Fighting Pi robot
already being such a star that it has its
own private photo shoot! Well, being
the diligent, intrepid, investigative
reporters that we are, we got hold of a
copy of the secret photos (don’t want
to give the competition any breaks).
Photos will be published at a later date.
So after six long, hard weeks of work
there was even enough time for a
secret photo shoot and The Fighting Pi
robot went in the bag around 10:00
p.m. with 2 hours to spare!
The Byting Bulldogs robot went in the
bag about 45 minutes later. What a
sight, just before bagging, to see the
three robots sitting in the build room,
the third being the prototype and
practice robot. Now it’s time to
finalize the mini bot design and
deployment mechanism and get the
Chairman’s and Business presentations
down pat. Then it’s on to
competitions.
And to quote an E-mail from mentor
Paul Gianferarra : “To the Students:
What you guys have done in the past
six weeks is an engineering marvel. As
some of us mentors alluded to before
kick-off, there is no engineering firm
that I know of that can budget, design,
quote, build, and troubleshoot a
project of this size in the time that you
are given. The ability for you guys to
pull together a strategy, design
direction, build structure, and
troubleshoot the product within your
time constraints is a testament to what
you guys can accomplish when you
pool your collective resources, passion
and skills together to create, in my
opinion, the best looking robot to ever
come out of Romeo Engine. It was an
honor to work with all of you as
always. Enjoy your week off. We have
two action packed, strenuous, and
incredibly fun months ahead of us.”

F I G H T I N G P I W E E K L Y
Michael Scaglione
With the conclusion of build
season, we have come to the
final freshman article. These
two rookies may have been
written about last, but they are
definitely not least. They have
meshed with the team like the
gears of a recently greased,
correctly built transmission.
The first rookie we would like to
introduce is Michael Scaglione.
Michael is a freshman from
Armada Area High School.
Michael joined the team because
he thought it would be a
challenge. He had some
experience with FIRST because
he had been on the FLL team at
the middle school. Little did he
know…FRC was a completely
T E A M 1 7 1 8 R O O K I E S I N T R O D U C E D
B Y : K R Y S T A L D I E L
Collin Tobey
new experience. Michael has
become a whiz in using CAD
and he enjoys working on the
mechanical aspects of the robot.
His favorite aspect of the team is
that there is a lot to learn and
work on. Michael is interested
in tennis, drawing, video games,
and not doing his homework.
However, he will be doing his
homework under the guidance of
his mother for the next four
years once she reads this. When
asked if he had any last thoughts,
he paused and said, “I am not
prepared for this.”
After realizing that his answers
were still being recorded, he
decided that he was going “to
stop talking before [he] caused
S P A G H E T T I D I N N E R S U C C E S S
The Fighting Pi would like to thank all of our patrons, raffle
ticket buyers, vendor gift givers, business sponsors and
especially the Armada Knights of Columbus for donating
their hall for the dinner and following team all-night party.
Monies raised in this fundraising event came close to our
goal to help cover costs of competitions. Thank-you! More
details will follow in a later newsletter.
more damage and dug [himself]
a hole.” Michael is always the
politician.
Our second rookie, if you could
call him that, is Collin Tobey.
Collin is also a freshman from
Armada Area High School. His
last name might ring a bell for a
couple of reasons. His parents,
Mr. and Mrs. Tobey, are both
mentors on the team, his older
brother, Chris, graduated from
the team in 2009, and his other
brother, Eric, is a sophomore on
the team. Even though Collin is
only a freshman, he has
unofficially been part of the
team longer than some of the
most senior members that are on
the team. He joined the team
because of this long history of
his family being involved in
FIRST. After all, it’s practically
a tradition for his family.
Outside of robotics, Collin plays
soccer, snowboards, and plays
X-box. He helps out with the
mechanical aspects of the robot.
His favorite thing about the
team is all of the inside jokes;
he declines to mention any joke
in particular. Collin is
considering joining the Air
Force.

F I G H T I N G P I W E E K L Y
A N D N O W T H E R E S T O F T H E W O R K B E G I N S
B Y : M I C H A E L G R A H A M
“Get me the ⅝ th inch socket wrench!”
“Where’s the mini-bot supposed to go?”
“Is the electrical team done yet?”
“We need more cowbell!”
It is 10 pm on Tuesday, two hours before the
apocalypse of the build season. Mentors and students
alike scramble to finish constructing a robot they
have poured their lives into for the past two months.
They know that it is “crunch time” (as if it wasn’t the
day the build season started) and they must finish
before that dreaded moment when the robot is
bagged. As drills scream in protest at overuse and
Tom burns his finger with the hot-glue gun, the clock
on the wall slowly-yet all too quickly-ticks down the
seconds. Dinner sits untouched in the other room
and snow collects in heaps on cars perpetually sitting
in the parking lot as hunger is forgotten and any
thought of going home to sleep is abandoned. Then,
all of a sudden, the robot is bagged. And everyone
looks around at each other and says, “Now what?”
I can tell you what: Business. FIRST brings with it
connotations of programming and designing robots,
but there is a large, and vital, business aspect to it that
is often overlooked. This is perfectly understandable;
comparing robots to Chairman’s essays is like
expecting Bob Dole to be as funny as Robin
Williams. But business is no less important. It is
necessary for the survival of a robotics team, such as
The Fighting Pi, and for us to remain competent in
the world of FIRST. And much needs to be done
between now and our first competition.
For one thing, drivers’ tests must be developed and
then held. Much as a baseball player must try out to
become a team’s pitcher, students must audition to
achieve the honor of driving “The Pi-thon”. So far
there have only been three robot drivers in the team’s
history, but this figure does not include the co-pilot,
who controls the object- manipulator, and the human
player that has a different role every year. These
spots will be filled sometime in the next couple
weeks.
It is well known that people are often recognized
primarily by the clothing they wear. For example, if
Lady Gaga walked into a bar, how would you
recognize her? It would be the hat shaped like a fire
hydrant paired with the dress made of hotdogs, of
course. Similarly, The Fighting Pi are recognizable
by the shirts they wear to competitions, with the team
logo adorned on the front and our generous sponsors
listed on the back. These shirts need to be ordered
soon, before our first competition. This has been,
and will continue to be, a good exercise in logistics
management for members of the team.
Every two years in America, elections ramp up and
the campaign posters again flood the country as fleas
did Europe in the middle ages. These posters are
seen everywhere; on roadsides, car bumpers, fire
hydrants- even bathroom stalls. Take the exorbitant
amount of “I like Ike” and “Keep cool with
Coolidge” posters and multiply it by fifty, and you
will obtain a sense of the staggering numbers of
“safety posters” posted around FIRST competitions.
Safety posters are signs posted by various teams
reminding FIRST participants of various safety
techniques, such as wearing safety glasses and the
correct way to lift a robot. The Fighting Pi has
traditionally been a strong participant in this
tradition, coming up with memorable safety slogans
and last year covering every square inch of the
competitions we attend with these safety posters.
This year’s safety team will soon begin work on the
creation of these posters, coming up with design
proposals, making them in programs like Microsoft
Word, Publisher, or Adobe Photoshop, and printing
them (no small task).
FIRST has always been less about competition for
the sake of competition and more about competition
for the sake of learning. Teams are encouraged and
expected to compete, but there is a wide
understanding of cooperation and friendliness
between them. In accordance with those principles,
many teams make and give out their own awards to
others teams. These awards are not official FIRST
awards, but are considered an honor to receive. They
can range from a “Best Tube Hanger” Award to a
“Best Autonomous Mode” Award, and are a way
teams show their individual respect for fellow teams.
In the next few weeks we need to figure out what
awards we want to give and figure out creative ways
in which to give them.

F I G H T I N G P I W E E K L Y
M O R E W O R K B E G I N S ( C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 3 )
When the word “scouting” is heard, connotations of
stealthy commandoes in army fatigues, sneaking
behind enemy lines, and marking targets with
binoculars and maps arise. So when new,
inexperienced robotics rookies hear about “scouting”
at competitions, they are naturally excited to try it.
Little do they know that in FIRST, scouting consists
of sitting in the stands at a competition making notes
on a clipboard. I could try and sugarcoat this activity,
and get those who don’t know any better excited to
participate by telling them that scouting is more fun
than playing Xbox while eating ice cream in a moon
bounce. But the truth is, scouting is more like having
to take notes through a two-day long calculus lecture
with a professor who has a monotonous Russian
accent. Yes, to some that may be fun. And to some,
scouting really is fun (Mr. Wahl). But to the vast
majority of high school students, scouting is a most
boring and tedious activity to partake in when so
many other things are going on. Despite this, it is
still one of most necessary aspects of FIRST
competitions - as much so as having a working robot
and people able to drive that robot. There is an
enormous amount of preparation that goes into a
good scouting program. In the next few weeks we
need to figure out what kind of data we want to
record and how much weight to give to different
robot capabilities. Once this is decided we need to
make an organized, easy to reference scouting sheet
we can record robot information onto, and draw up a
schedule so everyone knows when they are supposed
to be scouting and when they can be relieved from
duty. Last year we even developed a system of
equations in Microsoft Excel to help us rank teams.
Last year our team business plan, a document
detailing the many aspects of The Fighting Pi and
providing a clear plan for the future, won us the
Entrepreneurship Award at a district competition and
then the state level. This was a great honor, and we
hope to secure a place in the running for it again this
year by making improvements to the plan. Since last
year we have been continually searching for ways we
can make the business plan more comprehensive and
have made notes of what updates we need to make to
account for events and changes to the team this year.
Now it is time to execute these improvements, and
actually write them into the business plan. A
significant number of sections need to be started from
scratch, and even more need to be brought back to the
drawing board for modifications. Once this is done,
they will be improved by our editing team, as almost
every document is before it sees publication. All this
will need to be accomplished by our first competition
so it can be ready for the judges.
The last bit of business, and perhaps most important,
that must be accomplished, is the development of a
Chairman’s Presentation. The Chairman’s Award is
FIRST’s most prestigious award, recognizing teams
that do the most to spread science, engineering, and
creativity; which other team’s should emulate. Last
year we competed for this award at the Western
Michigan District Competition at Grand Valley State
University, and won. It was, to date, our team’s
finest hour. We have entered at West Michigan again
for this award, so there is a great deal of work to do.
We need to create a detailed, yet concise presentation
demonstrating everything we have done the past year
spreading awareness of FIRST (and there certainly is
a lot). But that is only the beginning; our Chairman’s
group needs to practice this presentation until they
know it better than a teenage girl knows the music of
Justin Bieber.
This is a time, and sleep depriving, intensive
endeavor. Part of the Chairman’s Presentation is also
an essay and a video. The essay is the chance for us
to go as in depth as we want and impress the judges
with an abundance of content, while the video should
be eye-catching, creatively highlighting our main
points. With hard work, dedication, and a couple
Five Hour Energy drinks, we should be able to put
together a high-quality Chairman’s Presentation that
we can be proud of for years to come.
The fact that there is a ton of business work to be
done is incontrovertible, and illustrated by this very
long article about it. Indeed, there are even things
which must be done that were not even discussed
here. Such a great amount of work can seem
staggering at times, and there is sure to be no
shortage of stress as the time before our first
competition steadily decreases. But its nothing The
Fighting Pi can’t handle. After all, who really needs
sleep?

F I G H T I N G P I W E E K L Y
Richmond, Richmond, MI MI Rotary
Rotary
Armada Armada Armada Knights
Knights
of of Columbus Columbus #7561
#7561
Thank You To Our 2011 Sponsors...
Mr. & Mrs. LIGON
SPONSORSHIP LEVELS:
π Platinum: ($5,000 and above) 1/2/3/4 below
π Gold: ($2,500 to $5,000) 1/2/3 below
π Silver: ($1,000 to $2,500) 1/2 below
π Bronze: ($500 to $1,000) 1 below
1. Name on team shirts
2. Logo displayed on robot
3. Name/Logo on team banner
4. Company name announced at competitions
INTRATM
If you would like to be a team sponsor, contact Team 1718 Head Mentor,
Mr. Roys at: croys@armadaschools.org or work phone: 586-784-2173
A & M
Marketing