Spring Break with Robotics

CSG's robotics team, Murphy's Outlaws, builds a robot every year to compete in a series of challenges.  This year the team traveled to a FIRST Robotics competition in Cleveland.  Below are posts from three of the robotics team members:

Madeleine

Whew.  It took months of preparation and six long weeks of build, but I am happy to tell you that FIRST Team 677 finally made it through our season!

At the end of March we were able to travel up to Cleveland to compete in the FIRST Buckeye Regional with 58 other teams from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and Canada. It was so cool to be able to see all of the designs and fabrications that teams had developed over the course of their season and compare their designs to the ones we had on our robot.

Our robot performed exceptionally well at competition. We were able to compete in all of our matches and score lots of points for our team. Not only were we able to shoot and score baskets with the basketballs but our driver, Tiffany, was also able to balance our robot on two of the balancing bridges in the center of the field. This task was really hard but it earned our team at least 10 points and helped us to win many of our matches! Because of our robot performance, we were picked to be part of an alliance team for the finals of the competition. Only 24 teams compete in the finals so it was an honor that we were chosen to compete. Unfortunately, we were eliminated in the last game of a best 2 out of 3 set in the first round of finals but our entire alliance put up a fantastic effort!

It was so exciting to be able to attend competition and have our robot perform so well. I am excited to see what lies in store for the team next year and in the years to come! 

Kalki

From March 23 – 25, the Upper School’s FIRST Robotics Team went to the Buckeye Regional in Cleveland, Ohio. This was my first year on Murphy’s Outlaws and therefore my first time going on the trip. I had so much fun. We competed against other teams from Canada, New York, Pennsylvania, and of course Ohio. The robots’ main functions were picking up balls, shooting them in baskets, and balancing on bridges and our robot did amazingly! This year was the first time we made an alliance in a while (which means we made it to the quarterfinals) and we were also the best at balancing our robot on a bridge.  In addition to watching our robot play basketball, I got to meet so many other students on FIRST Robotics and watch the amazing robots everyone else built. After working for six weeks on the robot, it was so exciting watching it compete. Unfortunately, we lost in the quarterfinals, but it was a fantastic season and I cannot wait until next year! 

                Last week was our first week back from spring break. Everyone was so excited to see each other after a relaxing two weeks and for me I was ready to get back in the swing of things. Early Monday morning I turned in my tentative thesis statement for my British Literature Class. We are currently writing our last research paper about well-known British authors. I have Katherine Mansfield, the famous short story writer. The next class, my teacher Dr. Leahy decided to read all of our thesis statements aloud so the class could provide us with feedback. At first, I was nervous because I did not want everyone to hear my thesis, but it turned out to be helpful! My classmates gave me good advice and the experience was not awkward at all. We actually had loads of fun going over things to fix. By fixing our theses, we all improved our research papers. 

Jessie

From Relaxing to Robotics, i.e. What I Did Over Spring Break

 “Where did you go for spring break?” “Oh, nowhere, I just stayed here in Columbus.” The two weeks I spent doing nothing but relaxing in the comfort of my own home were the best two weeks of the year. In summary, I spent the first week catching up on sleep, reading books, and enjoying the sunny weather. I think my biggest achievement for the first week was re-reading The Hunger Games in four hours (that was a very productive morning if I do say so myself).

 The second week was a little more productive. I spent the first half of the week preparing for the FIRST Robotics competition that weekend. Everything had to be sorted, packed, and double checked so as to ensure that we didn’t leave anything of importance behind. I think that final packing list ended up being about five pages long. Thursday of that week was an early morning, as that was when FIRST Robotics Team 677 left for our competitions in Cleveland. This was an exciting year for us, as our robot had a lot of potential and we were excited to see it become competitive this year. After over two days of practice and competition, we ended up in the quarter finals alongside Team 4269, from St. Charles Preparatory School (this was their rookie year, and we mentored them through their first season) and Team 379 from Girard, OH. This was a big deal because our team has not made it to the quarterfinals in at least 7 years, if not longer. Needless to say, the team was ecstatic. It was a great weekend, and I am so proud of our performance. Congrats Team 677!

Overall, I had a wonderful spring break relaxing and participating in my favorite activity, FIRST Robotics.