the spacecookies robotics team blog: Season 2007-2008

Pixar presentation - Computer Graphics

Jan. 14 - Lecture 'Computer Graphics: From NASA, Hollywood, and Beyond,'
by Chris Ford, 7 p.m - 8:15 p.m., (6:30 p.m. check in), Bldg. N-943, Eagle Room
POC: Stephanie Langhoff at NASA

 The Commonwealth Club and NASA Ames are co-sponsoring an evening
lecture in the Eagle Room on Monday, Jan. 14, 2008. The speaker will be Chris
Ford, business director at Pixar Animation Studios. The title of his
talk will be 'Computer Graphics: From NASA, Hollywood, and Beyond.' Witness
the birth of the galaxy, navigate through Saturn's rings and take a trip on
the Mars rover. This will be a visually-rich multimedia exploration through the
universe as Ford describes how the evolution of computer graphic techniques has
allowed us to experience spectacular celestial settings with data-driven accuracy.
Ford has managed some of the most advanced computer graphic software that
have appeared in such Hollywood blockbusters like Finding Nemo and Star Wars
episodes I-III. Time: 6:30 p.m. - Check-In; 7 p.m. - 8:15 p.m. - Program. This event is free
to all NASA staff, but you MUST RESERVE a seat by sending an RSVP to Shannon
Burkey by Friday, Jan. 11 with the following information: In the e-mail subject line type: AMES RSVP - C. Ford event. In the e-mail itself, please include the name of Ames employee attending the event.

Tech Museum Summer Jobs

Want a challenge?

Feeling inspirational?

Share your knowledge and expertise!

Did you love summer camp as a kid? Renew that love!

Join us at the Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown San Jose and teach 2-9 weeks of a science, engineering, or technology class to aspiring scientists and engineers entering grades 4 through 8. Each summer, Galileo's The Tech Museum Summer Camps offer an amazing lineup of science, engineering, and technology classes - along with camp fun, teamwork, and behind-the-scenes Museum explorations. Classes typically use the Tech's "Design Challenge" methodology by encouraging kids to work together in small groups and develop innovative solutions to real-world engineering challenges.

As an educator, you will have the opportunity to impart your expertise to the young and the curious, impact kids in this unique environment, and help deepen their love, interest, and passion in science, technology, and the world around.

We are now hiring Lead Instructors for 8 of our 14 classes:

Animation Sensation: Use Macromedia Flash to bring an idea to the animated screen.

Claymation (new): You love Wallace and Gromit - make your own unique stop-motion movie with clay.

Computer Programming: Learn how to program using computer language and logic!

Digital Video Masters: Calling all Directors! Make your very own movie, film, or video.

Green Design: Solar Engineering (new): Harness the power of the sun and use solar panels to create.

Lego Robotics: Build and program a Lego Robot using the newest NXT technology!

Video Game Design: Create your own video game, then play it with friends.

Web Architects: Design your own website!

Dates: The Tech Museum Summer Camps run from June 16, 2008 to August 15, 2008. Specific dates and durations vary, depending on class.

Hours: approximately 8:30am to 5pm, Monday through Friday.

Pay: $700 to $800 per week of instruction as a Lead Instructor. An additional stipend is offered for curriculum development. Lead Instructors are encouraged to refine the existing class curriculum to make the class uniquely their own. With our new classes, Lead Instructors will help develop the entire class curriculum from scratch.

Typically, Lead Instructors have a Bachelor's degree and a strong background in a science or engineering field. There are also other potential possibilities for Instructors to teach another class or to work as an Assistant Instructor for other camp classes during our 9 weeks in session.

Our deadline for applications is January 31, 2008. Apply now! To learn more about these opportunities and others at our other programs, Camp Galileo and Galileo Summer Quest, please visit http://www.galileoed.com/jobs To apply, click on the application link and fill out our online application. We look forward to hearing from you!

Important Dates - Are you READY!

Hey there, Space Cookies!

With Christmas and New Year's approaching, THE robotics build-period is about to begin! We'll be given only 6 weeks to design and build an entire robot for competition, starting January 5th - the Kickoff.

Mark your Calendars! There are some incredibly important days for you to attend. Really, really important, if you want to take part in the robot. E-mail me about whether you can go. Those of you who can't better b

SHOP CERTIFICATION:
Dates: Weds, Jan 2nd and Thurs, Jan 3rd.
*You only need to go to one of the two days.
Time: 4pm to 7pm
Location: the NASA robotics lab
What's going on: You'll become certified to work in the shop after a lesson in procedures and safety. We cannot let you work on the machines otherwise.
Other important activities and announcements also take place during these days. You need to come!!!

THE KICKOFF:
Date: Sat, Jan 5th
Time: from 10am to whenever you wish to leave (we officially end at 4)
Location: the NASA conference room (subject to change)
What's going on: An essential day to launch the season! We'll be watching The Kickoff on NASA TV, showing THE animation of this year's challenge and a bunch of speeches by the incredibly engineers who created this competition. After seeing the animation for the first time, we'll start brainstorming our robot!!!
Food: Breakfast/lunch (or as some call it, brunch) will be provided (FREE FOOD!)

PROTOTYPE DASH&BASH:
Date: Sun, Jan 6th
Time: drop in anytime, leave anytime within 10am to 4pm
Location: NASA robotics lab
What's going on: Our designs will be put to the test - we'll be building speedy prototypes to test our ideas from brainstorming the day before. By the end, we'll have a giant face-off between the prototypes and chose the design for our final robot. You don't have to be there the entire time .
Food: again, will be provided!

After that, we have the 6-week build period. The lab will be open for work every weekday from 4pm to 8pm (later if necessary) and weekends from 12pm to 6 pm (also might end later if necessary). You can come in at any time to work during those hours. Team meetings are scheduled for every Wednesday. Dinners will be served to everyone attending on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Again, the three events listed above are incredibly important. E-mail me an RSVP by Tuesday, December 25th and tell me you can go. Those of you who cannot make it must give specific reasons.

Happy Holidays, everyone.
-Lilian

Logos, color and filming

Hello all,

On Dec 17, Fleur de Lis Films will be coming to film us. This means, you should be there! It will be at the lab, which means you will need a badge to get in. We will also, on this day, be finalizing the logo / T-shirt design and team colors. If you can't make it this day, but still want to give input for the logo/T-shirt design, please let me know. I will try my best to get more information to you. At the moment, it looks like we're at a toss up between purple and silver or blue and silver. I sent out a colorized version of the logo a few e-mails ago. The T-shirt design will likely be based on the logo, but not in color.

-- Katherine

Engineering Education Services Contest

"Green Engineering" is the theme for the Engineering Education Service
Center's 2008 Poster contest. This year's winning entry can be found in
a display of inspiration, excitement, wonder and curiosity. Posters
should be fun, motivational and inspire students to pursue a degree in
engineering, technology and/or science.

Engineering is humanitarian, caring and possibly the most effective,
hands-on approach to make the world a better place. The engineering
field can be very exciting. If you would like a career that allows you
to help others on a grand scale or if you ever wanted to make the world
a better place, then engineering has something for you!

Green Engineering is the design, commercialization and use of processes
and products that are feasible and economical while minimizing the
generation of pollution at the source and the risk to human health and
the environment. Green Engineers design for economic, environmental and
social benefits. Economic benefits include reduction in operating costs
(i.e., energy and water efficiency, waste management, repair and
improvement) and optimization of life- cycle economic performance.
Environmental benefits include conservation of natural resources,
increased use of renewable energy sources, improvements in air and water
quality and reduction of solid waste generation. Social benefits include
improved comfort and health, reduced impact on local resources and
infrastructure, and use of recycled/reused materials. For more
information, visit: www.epa.gov/oppt/greenengineering

Contest ends on February 15, 2008.

Grand Prize: $200.00 Cash, 2nd place: $100 Cash, 3rd place: $50 Cash,
Honorable mentions to be awarded at judges' discretion.  All winners
will also receive a certificate.

Contest Web site: http://engineeringedu.com/contest.htm

To download a printable flyer:
http://engineeringedu.com/EESCpostercontest2008.pdf

To see past winning posters, visit:
http://engineeringedu.com/store/#posters

Please try to come to the lab on Monday

Please try to come to the lab on Monday if at all possible.  The documentary folks will be there and we will be doing lots of machine and tool training plus working on the robots.  Remember to contact Krystine at her phone or email ASAP to get a badge.  If you have not registered for Girl Scout and turned in your annual permission slip and your health form, you must bring the forms on Monday.  Please give them to Krystine or Shoba.

 

Watch your e-mail for information about Jan 5th weekend, but count on spending lots of time on robotics both Saturday and Sunday.

 

So have a merry Christmas or whatever winter holiday you celebrate.  Spend some time with your families (before long you will be at college and you will wish you had spent more time with your folks now), have a good rest, and have some fun.  Happy New Year to you all!

 

Diane

 

FIRST Scholarships Dec2007/Jan2008

Seniors, this might be very important to you.  Juniors, this will be very important before you know it.  Freshman and Sophomores, be thinking about this -- your activities now could improve your chances for a significant scholarship in a very few years.

Diane

 

-----Original Message-----
From: FRC Teams [mailto:frcteams@usfirst.org]
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 9:07 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: **FIRST EMAIL**/FIRST Scholarship Alert - Correction

Please note corrected URL for the Scholarship page.

*** Please be sure to pass this information on to students, parents, and to high school guidance counselors! ***

Greetings Teams,

We hope you have taken a look at the FIRST Scholarship web page (www.usfirst.org/scholarships) and used the new search capability to find FIRST scholarships for which you are interested in applying.  Please note that since we first announced the 2008 FIRST Scholarship offerings, there have been a number of changes:

New Scholarship Offerings that have been added:

• Bradley University (IL)  
• DePaul University (NY)  
• Digipen Institute of Technology (WA)  
• Fabricators & Manufacturers Association Foundation (college of your   choice)  
• Molloy College (NY)  
• Montclair State University (NJ)  
• University of Hawaii at Manoa/BAE Systems (HI)  
• University of Washington (WA)  
• William Paterson University (NJ)

Changes to Scholarships:

• Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – has extended their application   deadline to February 1st.  Note that their scholarships can be used at   their Prescott, AZ campus or at their Daytona Beach, FL campus.  
• University of Rochester –has extended their application deadline to   January 1, 2008 and is now offering an unlimited number of FIRST   scholarships.

** Keep checking the website for new and updated information. 
Hint: you can sort the scholarship list by clicking on the Date Posted column header and look at any new or updated listings since the date you last visited the site.

Seniors: These scholarships have application deadlines in January:

• Adelphi University - 1/1/08  
• University of Rochester - 1/1/08  
• Bradley University - 1/15/08  
• Clarkson University - 1/15/08  
• Fairleigh Dickinson University - 1/15/08  
• Florida Institute of Technology - 1/15/08  
• Hampshire College - 1/15/08  
• University of Central Florida - 1/30/08  
• Grand Valley State University - 1/31/08  
• University of Missouri-Kansas City - 1/31/08  
• Washington State University - 1/31/08

Go Teams!

-- 
FIRST Robotics Competition

Dec 7th - Welcome to the Team!

Greetings, fellow Space Cookies!
I'm so glad to have you all on the team.
To prepare for the upcoming robotics season, we've got to learn our material, such as how to machine parts, engineer mechanics well, and design and draw for production. Thus, we have a certain schedule for all the different workshops and work sessions. There's some real, hands-on learning thats going to happen these upcoming days! (woohoo!) Tell me which ones you're going to and/or if you cannot make it, by this Saturday, Dec 8th. The more you learn, the better :)
It's really important that you come and learn the material, so here are the workshops, dates, times, and locations:

Machining:
Mondays (Dec 10 & 17) at the robotics lab, from 4 to 7. Basically regular lab time/dates.
An instructor will teach you how to use the tools and machines at the robotics lab so we can all machine parts accurately and safely. We can't build a robot unless we can create its components.

Mechanics:
Wednesdays (Dec 12 & 19) at the NASA conference room, from 4 to 7. Basically regular lab time/dates.
You'll learn some great material for engineering - materials, stress, failure, and structure (as in mechanical stress, failure, etc. Not emotional - no worries). This will be invaluable for properly designing the robot in our upcoming challenge.

Computer Aided Drawing:
Thursdays (Dec 13 & 20) at Santa Clara University, room EC306, from 5 to 6:30 (note: not our regular lab time/dates)
Come and learn how to create digital drawings of parts using the program SolidWorks! Knowledge in this field will be priceless to the team because we really people who can draw parts of our robot. Without it, no one would know where a piece of material should be cut, let alone what to cut or how to put it all together. The more people who know this, the faster we can start building our robot. Time is essential during the build period.

Additional info for the Computer Aided Drawing workshop:
Going to Santa Clara University would be best by carpool, so tell me whether or not you're coming, and if your parents can provide rides (better yet, if you've figured out a carpool). I can try to match people up for carpools. Otherwise, parking on the university's campus costs money ($6). If you really need to park, I suggest you use a side street where there's hour marked parking on Franklin, Alviso (see the map link).

Here are maps and addresses for finding your way to Santa Clara University:
(Map and address to Santa Clara U.):
Santa Clara State University, room EC306
500 El Camino Real , Santa Clara, CA 95053
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=500+El+Camino+Real,+Santa+Clara,+CA+95050,+USA&sa=X&oi=map&ct=image
(Map to Engineering building):
http://www.scu.edu/map/index.cfm?oi=11

Again, please respond to me with which workshops you're attending and/or reasons you cannot go, by this coming Saturday.

Thanks, and see you all there!
-Lilian de Greef