TEAM NEWS UPDATES

 

Great Lakes Regional Results!

April 1, 2008

Team 291 ended the Great Lakes Regional ranked 9th out of 63 teams. The regional was held in Ypsilanti, Michigan and is known to be one of the most competitive and difficult of all the FRC regionals. Six previous world champions competed along with three 2008 Regional Chairman's winners (ourselves included). Our team formed the 8th alliance with 573 and 862, completing the "Orange Alliance," since all our teams' colors are orange. Together we made it to the quarterfinal rounds before being defeated by what would be a finalist alliance. We didn't go home empty handed- our team was presented the Delphi's Driving Tomorrow's Technology award for being able to describe verbally and in written words one feature of our robot's design.

Our team webcasted the Great Lakes regional and it will soon be available on DVD.

Pittsburgh Regional Results!

March 16, 2008

At the Pittsburgh Regional, Team 291, Team 375 (The Robotic Plague) and Team 2544 (Harborcreek Robotics) made up the first-seed alliance; an alliance that would make it to the final rounds and lose by just six points due to a penalty. This was the second year that we have aligned ourselves with the Robotic Plague.

Pittsburgh was exceptionally good to us this year: for the first time, Team 291 won the regional Chairman's Award, earning us an invitation to the Championship in Atlanta later on in April, where we will compete for the national Chairman's Award.

We are also very proud of our mentor, Mike Hayes, who won the Woodie Flowers Award. This award celebrates extraordinary mentorship, and we wrote an essay about Mike Hayes' incredible spirit and involvement in FIRST, with both our own team and starting new FIRST Lego League teams. Our team's essay on will be judged at nationals in Atlanta, Georgia.

Also, congratulations to Team 2544 for winning the Rookie Inspiration Award! We are proud of Harborcreek's success in their first year as a team, and look forward to their many successes to come.

Additionally, our team ran a webcast of the Pittsburgh regional and it will soon be available on DVD.

Billboards Are Up and Running!

February 27, 2008

Thanks to LAMAR Advertising, we now have four animated billboard ads located around town that invite people to visit our website and to attend the Pittsburgh Regional with us. Below is a picture of our billboard.

CIA Meets Lieutenant Governor Knoll

February 11, 2008

Eight representative team members traveled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's state capitol, to meet with Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Catherine Baker Knoll. Throughout the day, the team members met with Erie Representative Pat Harkins who graciously spent most of the morning and afternoon with the team, introducing them to the lieutenant governor, fellow representative Flo Fabrizio, and to the House floor. Governor Knoll spent over an hour with team members discussing FIRST and its mission as well as the team's accomplishments. She was impressed with the work that both the organization and the team had done and looked to share these accomplishments with the House and Senate.

Team representatives: Adam Last, John Curtin, Tom Pomorski, Alex Pfadt, Erica Di Luzio, Chris Wehrer, Molly Homchenko, Emily Last, Peter Reed (mentor), and Mike Wehrer (parent)

Kickoff 2008

December 29, 2007

It’s that time of year again … FIRST Kickoff! Team 291 will be watching the broadcast from the G.E. Learning Center on January 5, 2008 at 10AM. Anyone interested in watching kickoff can watch the Live NASA Webcast on January 5th from any computer with Windows Media Player.
For updates on the team’s progress throughout build season, check back to team291.org. On our site we will also provide an overview of the game, in case you didn’t see the broadcast.

"Robotnicks" Join FIRST Community

December 15, 2007

Team 291, CIA - Creativity In Action would like to welcome Team 2544 to the FIRST Robotics Competition family. Team 2544, who has tentatively dubbed itself “The Robotniks”, joins four other teams that Team 291 has been directly responsible for founding. This newest addition hails from Harborcreek, PA, just east of Erie, PA, where Team 291 makes its home. After several calls by CIA representatives to the Harborcreek School District, superintendent Dr. Rick Lansberry was convinced that a FIRST team was the perfect way to promote Science and Technology in Harborcreek. CIA mentor Mike Hayes then went to Harborcreek and walked them through the registration process, helped them to apply for grants which they were graciously awarded, and helped them to find mentors. When asked how he felt about the upcoming season, Robotniks coach Mark Capozziello said, “There just aren’t words that sufficiently convey how inspired and excited our dynamic team of students is to finally be part of this program.” Not only will Harborcreek’s new team benefit from the mentors we have recruited for them, it will also be seeing ambassadors from 291 throughout the build period who will ensure that their inaugural season is a winning one. Please join us in welcoming the Robotniks to FIRST.

 

Off-Season Draws to a Close

December 16, 2007

[Above Team 291, 48, 2010, 375 and 306 at Celebrate Erie]

With one month left to Kickoff 2008, Team 291 draws its summer and off-season activities to a close and prepares for the upcoming season. Over this off season Team 291 has participated in numerous events including coordination of the robotics tent at Celebrate Erie, Relay for Life, MDA Walk, Cystic Fibrosis Walk, GE Family Days, and our robot’s cameo appearance in the Collegiate Academy play “A Weird Romance”. We would like to extend our thanks to everyone who has supported our team over the off season. We look forward to gearing up for another successful build season.

New Posting System

October 9, 2007

If this area looks a bit bare to you, you’re completely right, Team291.org has recently switched to the WordPress posting system which will allow for more users to edit our News and Updates section.

 

 

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UPDATES

2008 FIRST Robotics Competion:

To see more about this year's competition, visit usfirst.org

 

Mini-Meeting Minutes

Click here to view the team's 2008 Animation Storyboard.

 

...3.06.08

...3.06.08

Today the team went to the Bayfront Convention Center where FIRST founder Dean Kamen was the keynote speaker. Team members had the opportunity to talk with Kamen and showed off two of our previous years' robots.

...2.27.08

Tonight the team will have students selected to present our work for the Chairman's Award. Final preparations are still being made for the Pittsburgh Regional.

...2.18.08

The robot is currently traveling to the Pittsburgh Regional for our first competition... and so ended another successful build season for 291. The team tonight has worked to pack up the toolbox and cart for the trailer.

...2.16.08

Final preparations are being made for ship day and the regionals. We're bringing back out all the rest of our orange gear for the regionals to show our pride in our team. It's now less than a month away until the Pittsburgh Regional!

...2.14.08

2008 Bot is complete! Driver try-outs have begun and we are proud to announce that our robot is up and running smoothly. Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to get us here!

...2.05.08

Unfortunately, due to many technical difficulties, the team website has not been updated in several weeks. We are happy to say that the mast and drive train for our robot are complete (and orange). Our machinists have worked endlessly to machine parts and our programmers are still tackling some challenges that need to be worked out. Since our animation is near completion, animators have turned their attention to pit design and safety videos.

This upcoming Monday team representatives will be meeting with Pennsylvania's Lieutenant Governor Catherine Baker Knoll.

...1.22.08

Today CIA was presented with the "Good Kids Award" and one of the local media stations (Channel 24) came to film the team working.

...1.16.08

Programmers continued to work on the directional commands and the autonomous program while animators worked to perfect a sketch of the robot as well as finish other mini-assignments for the animation. Machinists worked in the shop to complete pieces from recently-updated sketches and strategists continued to work on game strategy in order to help the programmers with autonomous mode.

Team members are reminded to sell chocolate bars for team Oxfords. If you need any information, see Kelly or Kailey.

Remember, safety FIRST!

...1.15.08

The team was reminded that accidents can happen and it is our utmost priority to make sure that all equipment is used properly and all saftey precautions are taken.

 

 

SPONSORS

Please visit our sponsor's page to see all of our sponsors who have supported us.

 

 

For information on our 2007 or any other previous season, check out our "Past Missions" section.