Georgia Dome
One Georgia Dome Drive
Atlanta, Ga. 30313-1591

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It’s the last and final trip of the school year for the Waialua Robotics team.  Having won three regional’s and the Chairman’s award qualified our team to compete in the Atlanta Championships.  Leaving Hawaii on April 13, 2010, we had a six hour plane ride and stopped at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and transferred onto another plane that took us to Atlanta, Georgia.  In total, the Hawaiian Kids traveled for eight hours.  Landing in Atlanta, we head to the Days Inn hotel where we were accommodated with eight rooms.  Arriving early afternoon, we did our first activity.  In walking distance, we walked to the Coca Cola Factory, where we browsed the different facilities and tested nearly 64 different sodas.  Later in the day, a few of the students and our mentors headed to the Georgia World Congress Center Building C where the pit areas were open to all teams.  For many, teams unpacked their crates and set up the pit areas and robot, working on any changes that were needed before the practice rounds and first day of the competition.

Team 359 is up and about heading to the Georgia Dome at 7:00 a.m.  Because the competition is in walking distance, the team walked to the Championships as the mentors and Drivers team drove to the pit to get started on checking and testing out the robot to ensure that everything was up and running so that we were able to secure a spot on the practice field.  After making sure that everything worked, our robot was inspected.  Inspectors made sure that our robot met all the requirements in order for us to compete.   Each team member on our team had their own jobs to fulfill.  Scouters walked around the pit areas to various teams in the Archimedes division with whom we would partner up with or be against.  Their job was to ask different questions about the abilities that other teams’ robot could do.  For the Chairman’s Award team, they spoke with people who visited our pit to inform them how our program works while others explained the functions of our robot.  It was indeed a very long day.  Photographers took pictures of the activities going on in the pit area, the playing field, and stands while team members had their face painted, and the drive team and mentors worked on the robot frequently.  Team 359 was able to go on the practice field, where each team is allowed only two chances on the field.  Using our time wisely, we tested out our robot arm for the bonus period to make sure that we had no problems with it and tested out our kicker mechanism to ensure that all went well.

Heading to the Dome for practice matches and qualification matches, it took nearly 10 minutes to reach the fields with it being so far.  There are four fields:  Curie; Newton; Archimedes; and Galileo.  Qualification matches started after lunch, after teams were given an opportunity for practice matches.  For our first qualification match, we started out really well.  Poi Pounder X was scoring back to back as our partners fed us soccer balls and played defense in the opponent’s zone.  It was well deserved as the final scored came out to 10-3.   All together, we had a total of three qualification matches, ending the day with last minute check-ups on the robot and closing up our pit.  In the evening, the team rested for the next day’s competition while nine students and Mr. Lee attended Robot Prom hosted by Team 399, The Eagle Robotics.  The night was filled with dancing, socializing, and yummy refreshments that made our evening fun.

 

It’s April 16, day two of the FIRST Championship in Atlanta, Georgia.  Pit crew members headed straight to our pit area, changing the battery and checking the robot to bring out onto the field for the robot parade and also because we had the first match of the day.  The day is also started off with the opening ceremony with guest speakers Dean Kamen, Woody Flowers, and FIRST President Paul Gudonis.  Once again, Team 359 is ready to put on a show!  With faces painted with tribal designs and students passing out souvenirs, team members went out and about with their jobs.  Many teams visited our pit area to socialize and ask questions about our robot and program.  Mean while judges also visited, whereas wanting to know about program, our capability of our robot and its functions, and spoke with many of our students.  After meeting with each judge, they were given a bag filled with Macadamia nuts and some souvenirs.  There were a lot of activities going on in the pit areas.  For us, if members weren’t working on the robot, they were out on the field while pit crew members ensured that our pit area was clean and organized while assisting the many visitors.  If our robot was not competing in a match, students and mentors worked on the robot, securing that all parts were functioning properly while Mr. Lee, head of the Waialua Robotics Program, talked with our upcoming alliance partners, strategizing.  Out in the stands, the rest of the students scouted the performances of the different robots in our division and cheered while our team went up for battle.  Today, we had a total of five qualification matches.  For our first match of the day, having lost with 17 penalties, we and our alliance partners talked with field officials, hoping to over-turn the score due to having field technical difficulties.  Coming out unsuccessful, we and our alliance partners brushed it off our shoulders, and looked forward to the upcoming matches.  While the qualification matches were on play, the Chairman’s Award crew also had a very busy day.  Competing with many teams who are attempting to seize the judges’ vote for this year’s Chairman’s Award, Team 359 is working diligently.  Managing to study and get ready for their interview, they also had to talk with many other judges and visitors.  Being the last interview of the day, students were well prepared for their interview.  After cleaning up the pit areas at the end of the day, many teams visited the Aquarium, fascinated with all the various sea creatures. 

 

It’s the last and final day of the Championships.  The tension is in the air as the final matches are fought to a great extent for the final team standings.  Our team was awarded two trophies from other teams: The Sharpshooter trophy from Team 71 (Team Hammond); and Most Gracious Professionalism from Team 347 (Miss Daisy).  Today the Hawaiian Kids participated in a total of two matches, our first match being the second qualification match of the day in the Archimedes division.  Having nearly a two-hour break till our next match, Team 359 was able to exchange team shirts with other teams while Mr. Lee continued to talk with other teams in our division.  Coming to an end with our last and final qualification match, we got ready for the alliance selection by packing up the tools and materials needed for elimination rounds if we were to be chosen.  We were selected in the first round by Team 71 (Team Hammond) who was seated 7th in the Archimedes division.  Our other teammate that Team 71 chose was Team 3280 (The RhodeRebels).  For our first match in the quarter-finals, we challenged Team 201 (The FEDS), Team 148 (The Robowranglers), and Team 33 (The Killer Bees).  The first quarter-final match began with Team 359 scoring one point in autonomous.  When autonomous period was over, we scored a lot of points with the balls that our teammates fed us.  At one point, our robot had to go into the middle field to bring some soccer balls into our zone.  For the bonus period, one of our alliance partners hung, while we continued to score and our other teammate persisted to play defense.  Our team’s scoring and defense was not enough with the final score of 11-15.  In order to move on to semi-finals, the 7th seated team would have to win the next two matches.  In the second match of the elimination round, we played in a different position for the first time this season.  We played in the middle zone, hoping that our change in strategy will prolong our team to play another match.  We were not able to score in autonomous round.  When the match began, Team 359 hustled to put balls into our scoring zone that way our teammate could put the ball into the goal.  In the meantime, trying to stop the Killer Bees in the middle zone, Team 359 goes to attack them.  But all our hard work did not come through.  With the final score of 7-18, our opponents won the second match qualifying themselves for the semi-final matches.  After our last and final match of the Championships, we shook hands with the opposing team and headed back to our pit area to pack up all of our belongings into our crate.  It was a long and prestigious process as we packed, sadden by the lost but yet happy that we have gotten this far in the 2010 Robotics season.  Once everything was packed away in the crate, the Hawaiian Kids headed to the stands and waited till each winner of each division was determined and was moving on to the Einstein Field in battle of the 2010 FIRST Robotics title.  Having to sit through the award ceremony and matches in between, we were excited to watch the matches in which were well fought and applauded those who were awarded.  It was really a great season for the Hawaiian Kids, having accomplished winning three regionals and other awards.  After watching the 2010 champions win with a big upset, it was a really great experience for all.  Team 359 spent the rest of the day and our stay in Atlanta with a fun filled day at Six Flags, team dinner, shopping, and movies.  It is indeed a very memorable season for the Waialua Robotics Team.