About this project
$3,058
39
Support EAGLES ROBOTICS XPERIENCE as we bring STEM to aspiring engineers in the form of building robots!
Your financial support helps student members of Eagles Robotics Xperience, at Atlantic Community High School in Delray Beach Florida, design, build, program, and compete with a robot built by them, with guidance from mentors of the engineering community. This robot will compete in 2013 South Florida Regional Competition, which occurs at the end of March.
The goal of our endeavor is to compete and succeed at the regional, at any and all levels we can, but ultimately, in retrospect, it's for the students within our team to learn the core principles and foundations of mechanical, electrical, and software engineering, as well as the fun and enjoyment of engineering.
This is our second year as a FIRST Robotics Team. Last year we were sponsored by NASA and JCPenney for virtually our entire budget, and this year we are conducting an extensive get-out-the-word effort to get others involved in this extraordinary mission to introduce more and more students to Engineering.
Our approach is definitely working, last year we started with a team of 13 and this year we've already recruited 30 enthusiastic members.
Your generous donation goes toward:
- Purchase of tools to work on the robot (ranging from Miter Saws to Drill press's and hex keys)
- Purchase of materials to construct the robot, such as aluminum extrusion, various brackets, sheet metal, etc.
- Registration fees for the tournament, which run $5,000
- Purchase of motors, gears, and various items for our robot.
Students on our team, and in the FIRST Robotics Competition in general, tackle real life engineering challenges, such as:
- Software engineering, from programming a robot to interfacing with cameras, using Microsoft Kinect to control a robot, to working on websites.
- Critical thinking to approach a given problem or task.
- Electrical engineering, such as soldering wires, working on circuits, finding voltage and amperage insufficiences, etc.
- Mechanical engineering, such as fabricating parts, metals, using motors, gears, and servos in an effective way to produce a desired result
- Pneumatic design, where students learn how to use air-pressure pistons to achieve many different design focuses, and learning the true power of linear motion.
- Teamwork and collaboration to achieve a goal in a time crunch of just 6 weeks
- 3D modeling of the robot, parts, etc.
- Standard construction using wood, drills, etc to construct a demo and practice field.
We have many involved parents, teachers, and mentors. Our school teacher sponsor is Mr. Carlos Acosta, our main parental mentor is Vladimir Safin, and Scooter Willis is another influential mentor for our team!
Without any of them, this project would be impossible.
We all recognize the importance of education in the life of any young individual. But our Team's commitment to applying what students learn in school (Math, Physics and other Sciences, etc) to a hands-on engineering experience is vital for the growth of their interest in one of most important fields of the future - we need more engineers!
Risks and challenges
The risks of our project are obvious - engineering is a field of critical thought, where we must analyze a task, determine the best way to approach it, and work towards completion of the design.
Our students are constantly reminded that there's only 6 weeks to build this robot, and to "Fail Early, Fail Often" (that is to say, prototype and get things out of the way earlier instead of having the design fail late in the season).
The time crunch can produce a less-than-optimal robot, we could have software problems, an approach that isn't the best, materials not being shipped to us fast enough, among many other constantly shifting dynamics.
But despite all of the challenges that a Robotics season brings, one thing is always true: there are students learning things they never knew before, and embracing engineering like they never have before.
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Funding period
- (30 days)