RAGE Robotics

The rain is headed our way and Foster Farms will be closed for the day.  That leaves Sunday 10/23 as the last day to come fling pumpkins this year!!!  Spread the word, bring some friends and come join us TOMORROW for our last launches of the season!

To entice anyone on the fence about this…

Just imagine the possibilities – how can 500 lbs of concrete  and steel along with some pumpkins not make for a great afternoon!?!?

Due to the rain, Foster Farms is closed for the day. We will be back launching pumpkins from 11-5 tomorrow!

Sunday 10/9 Pumpkin Chuckin’ will open at 1:00 PM today (instead of 11:00 am) due to weather. Check back for updates if the rain continues!

Tomorrow marks the start of RAGE’s annual fundraiser at Foster Farm located at 90 Foster Street in South Windsor. The farm owns a trebuchet (a type of catapult) that is designed to launch pumpkins 100 feet or more down a field. As representatives of RAGE, students from the team will be selling tickets ($5 per pumpkin), helping guests select the optimal pumpkin to launch (are the guests going for distance, height or pumpkin survival??), loading the trebuchet, pulling the safety and then handing off the launcher to the guests. After a countdown, the guests pull the rope and the trebuchet shoots the pumpkin!

The funds raised from the event go directly to the students to cover a portion of the travel expenses associated with our competitions coming up this spring.

Interested?  Come check us out from 11-5 on Saturday’s and Sunday’s starting tomorrow.

RAGE ready for Hartford!

Somehow we have designed, built and cheered our way through the last 3 months without a webpage update! I will take that to mean we were having too much fun! With the team growing from ±20 students last year to nearly 45 students this year we have really had to mix things up to get the best out of all of our students. Check out the build season weekly updates on the Multimedia page to see what was accomplished each week. Not too shabby!

We attended two competitions this year – WPI in Week 2 and Hartford in Week 5. The progression of the team from the first match in Week 2 to finishing off in the semifinals in Hartford was astounding. The mentors and parents could not have been more proud from every point of view – technically we improved the robot up until the very end, the team’s enthusiasm and energy was awesome and led to the team winning the Spirit Award in Hartford, the the maturity of the students is continuing to grow. It is great to see a team push to be as good as they can be and then see that not only are they learning about the robot and working together as a team but that they are great people too. It warms the heart.

With that said, we have several off-season events to look forward to (check out the calendar) to continue with FIRST Stronghold!

On Saturday 1/9/16, RAGE, along with more than 3,000 other teams across the world found out what the 2016 game is (Thanks to Team MAX 1071 and Wolcott High School for hosting the kickoff!). STRONGHOLD is a mix of old and new – medieval defenses, charging the castle and launching “boulders” at the enemy. The “new” is doing it with modern technology – a robot that can traverse over rough terrain and moats, open gates, pick up boulders and finally climb the tower. With changing defenses and audience participation, the competitions are sure to be exciting!

For all of the details, please go here!. At the FIRST website  you can find the game manual, the kickoff video and all sorts of useful information.

Build Week 1 Day 1 Strategizing

It didn’t take long before the team was together strategizing, deciphering the rules and figuring out which items to focus on.

Here we go…..

RAGE is ready for STRONGHOLD

There are two more days until the 2016 FIRST Robotics competition rules are released. Beginning at 10:30 am on Saturday, there will be a live broadcast of the new “game”. We’ve already gotten a sneak peek at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVLdJdoKK2E

Below are some additional links:

In case you aren’t joining us at the Wolcott kickoff event, the live feed can be viewed at:  http://corporate.comcast.com/news-information/news-feed/2016-first-robotics-competition-kickoff

The FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST STRONGHOLD landing page: http://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/welcome-to-first-stronghold

Keep checking for more details!

Below is an interesting article from the firstinspires.org website. It was written by a FIRST favorite – Dr. Woodie Flowers, Pappalardo Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering, MIT

In your lifetime, many things will change dramatically. If you accept what most schools offer as preparation for the future, you may be disappointed. Often, we adults are too confused and disorganized to give you a good future-oriented education. Instead, we many times offer years of training and testing. You must save yourself.

We have created a world that changes faster than most of us are willing to accept. It is no surprise that the education system is not keeping up. For one thing, we have conflated education and training so it is up to you to recognize the difference. Training is necessary but not sufficient. Learning calculus, for example, is training. Learning to think using calculus concepts is education. Mastering spelling and grammar is training, while learning to communicate effectively requires education. Many topics can be similarly divided.

Economics will drive humans away from conveying facts as surely as robots have replaced humans in automobile assembly. Therefore you should become accustomed to being trained by machines while relentlessly seeking education from other humans.

Machines will soon dominate training. Data-driven and artificial-intelligence augmented systems will offer future students personalized training, customized and infinitely patient. This codified content delivery system will not only lead students through their homework, but will give feedback a thousand times more accurate and relevant than a few red marks on paper received a week after completion.

True education is much more likely to involve doing things with expert mentors and peers. Education will be much harder to get than training. Aggressively pursue true education because it will change the way you see yourself. Through true education, you may learn, for example, that you can do something difficult, new, unique, complex, or beautiful. You will know those things from your own experience rather than because you made an “A.” True education will make you attractive as a partner and citizen. True education will help you insure that, mid- career or mid-life, you will still be able to do things machines cannot yet do. You will still be able to make uniquely human contributions.

If you are rewarded for being an effective passive learner, making good grades on codified tests — congratulations! However, do not let yourself be content with that behavior. No one will hire you or respect you for solving the problems at the end of the chapter. You must become an active participant in your own true education. If you do that, you have a much better shot at a meaningful life.

Programs like FIRST® can be a great “true education” experience. Use it as such. Squeeze out of these experiences insight about how you learn and how you think. Such programs can help you understand not only Mother Nature’s laws, but can help you understand yourself.

– See more at: http://www.firstinspires.org/community/inspire/advice-for-students-about-true-education#sthash.AZaQchmC.dpuf

Join RAGE for our open house on Thursday, September 24, starting at 7:00. This is a chance for students who may be interested in joining the team to come and find out what we’re all about. Hear about the details of the FRC program. See some of our past robots and where we build our new ones. Chat with returning team members and mentors to get all your questions answered.

We are located in room 79 at Tolland High School. Enter the school at the main entrance and follow the signs. We welcome all high school students from Tolland as well as from surrounding towns and those who are home schooled.