Catlin Gabel Robotics Team 1540: The Flaming Chickens

We were proud to learn this morning that our own Tiffany Toh '21 was selected as one of ten worlds Dean's List winners for 2020. This is the highest individual honor ion FIRST...it's a big deal!

She has logged over 1,400 hours in her time on the Flaming Chickens rising this year to Mechanical co-manager, Outreach manager, Chairman’s presenter, and Drive Coach. It should come as no surprise she was selected as co-president next year. We’ve had three Dean’s list finalists in our team’s history Henry Gordon, Marina Dimitrov, and Jacob Bendicksen. Marina, world winner in 2012 and frequent BunnyBots emcee, also combined engineering with outreach leadership.

PNW FRC Teams,
With COVID-19 among us I wanted to update everyone on our current thinking regarding BunnyBots next year so that you’ll have time plan your team activities.

Unless there’s some miracle vaccine or injectable disinfectant (just kidding) it seems highly unlikely that large gatherings of people will be a good idea, or even allowed, next December. Cramming hundreds of people into Catlin Gabel’s gym and tennis court in December is a fantastic way to get a lot of people sick just in time for the holiday season!

I was originally planning on a game that could be played in person or via teleconference for this year’s BunnyBots. That game is designed and can be rolled out in fall if a miracle occurs. In polling the students, though, the idea of intentionally launching a game that we highly suspect is going to end up being played over teleconference was not appealing. They already built one robot for this year’s FRC game that didn’t get to play (much) and weren’t looking forward to doing it again. As a last resort, sure, but not as our expected plan.

With that in mind here’s what we’re thinking.

FALL BUNNYBOTS
In early October we’ll look at the state of the virus and social distancing. I expect what we’ll see is that big gatherings are not recommended, and BunnyBots in December will be canceled. If it looks like it CAN happen then we’ll launch the game. Note that this launch in October would be later than normal to give us maximal visibility on the trajectory of the virus.

SPRING BUNNYBOTS
If FRC isn’t going to happen due to large gathering guidance, we’ll look at having an Outdoor BunnyBots in late April. This game will look vastly different than traditional BunnyBots and could be a blast. It opens up the possibility of a larger field, different terrain, higher speed, use of GPS, etc.

This is all dependent on what FIRST does given social distancing requirements. There have been suggestions of FIRST canceling the season, going remote in some way, replaying Infinite Recharge, or launching a new game as usual and hoping for the best. FIRST isn’t saying at this point and we may not hear until fall. Once we know FIRST’s intentions, and we can guess about what things might look like this coming April/May, we’ll launch the outdoor game if it makes sense. We don’t want teams having to design two robots during build season so the outdoor BunnyBots won’t happen is FRC is taking place and most teams are taking part.

We really don’t want students to go a year without building a robot. There’s just so much tribal knowledge that will graduate out the door if that happens especially for teams like ours that are 100% student designed and built.

COMMUNITY ENGINEERING PROJECTS
Because we hope to have a lot of new members this coming fall but expect an unpredictable school schedule (school may start but then go remote again) the Flaming Chickens will be focusing on engineering projects that benefit the community in some way. You might want to too. We want to make sure these projects have a high design component so new students will learn the whole Design Thinking and engineering process. We also want them to have enough fabrication practice that they’ll learn to use all the tools. You can see some of the ones we’ve done in the past at https://www.team1540.org/projectoverview and also LEAP projects at https://www.team1540.org/leap

DEMOBOT
Other members might want to build the ultimate demo robot. This is a robot we’ll keep assembled and would be a hit at demos, festivals, school events, and fairs. If we have spring BunnyBots we’ll also have a place where team’s can show these off. Many teams have built T-shirt canon robots but there are SO many possibilities. Maybe one that assembles hotdogs? Makes some giveaway? Can be ridden on? Plays basketball?

BOTTOM LINE
Sorry for this long message but I wanted to make sure everyone knows what we’re thinking about. I know many of us have built our fall around BunnyBots and it will be disorienting if it can’t happen. Just because an in-person competition can’t happen, though, doesn’t mean we can’t have geeky, satisfying fun.

Community Engineering — Team 1540 | The Flaming Chickens

With one week left until our first event, we’re sharing about our last co-president! This is Dylan’s fourth year on the team. He is a co-president, application software co-manager, and competitive analysis co-president. When he’s not coding in the lab, Dylan can be found running cross country or playing Settlers of Catan. His future aspiration is to get more sleep than .burt_ ❤️

Today we’re highlighting Audrey! She is our robot’s co-pilot, as well as our Media and Marketing manager. When not in the lab, Audrey can be found in the theater stage managing musical and theatrical productions. Her future aspiration is to write a novel.

Today we’re talking about our robot driver, Jeffrey! This is Jeffrey’s second year on the team as a sophomore. He is the controls manager, and also does outreach. When not in the lab, Jeffery will be running cross country. His other passions are astronomy, flying airplanes, and astro photography. His future aspiration is to get adequate sleep.

Here’s our day 1/7 for the challenge! Our drive team celebrates a win at Girls Gen this year. thank you to and for nominating us!!

we would like to nominate and ❤️💛

This Friday we’re highlighting Tiffany! She is a junior and this is her third year on the team. Tiffany was human player last year, and this season she will be our drive captain. Tiffany is also a mechanical, design, and outreach manager. When she’s not CADing, she can be found dancing the cotton eyed joe or playing piano. Tiffany’s future aspiration is to work in medical robotics. 🔥❤️

Happy Friday! Each Friday before our first competition we will be sharing about a co-president or a member of our drive team. This week it’s Avery, one of our co-presidents! This is Avery’s fourth year on the team. When not leading us fiercely, they are designing and fabricating our robot. Avery’s future aspirations include studying engineering in college. They enjoy learning about history and making memes in their free time.

We can’t wait for bunnybots! We have two robots this year, and are hard at work getting them ready for December 21st. Hope to see a lot of you there! ☺️🔥

We had such a fun time today at Daimler’s Robotics Day! We got to tour the facilities, hear talks and meet professionals, show employees how to drive our robot, and demo matches with Mean Machine, The Pigmice, Gladstone Robotics, and The Generals. Thanks so much to Daimler Trucks NA for the opportunity! 🐔🔥❤️🚚🚚 @ Daimler Trucks North America

Excited for BunnyBots this year!

BunnyBots — Team 1540 | The Flaming Chickens The annual BunnyBots competition is a hallmark of the robotics off-season for FRC teams in the Pacific Northwest. BunnyBots provides a separate, low-stakes, three month build season in the fall, with an original game each year, making FIRST a year-round activity. Students experience the full brainst...