Chicago Technologies Sponsors Supernova

Supernova is pleased to have Chicago Technologies as their new sponsor.

Thanks to the Toennies family for introducing us to them through Mr. Chris Fuller. We hope to be able to promote FLL even better with this new relationship.

Thanks for your support, Chicago Technologies.

Down to the Crunch

The team still has a lot to do, but they're spinning up for the final push.

They started the year driving hard on the project. Lots of research and they're hard at work putting together their presentation. Thanks to Mr. Allen for helping out teaching Michael how to do calculations for water flow rates and advising on the robot table.

With the great start on the project, robot work took a back seat. In the last few weeks, though, they've gone from no missions working to having solutions to all challenges. Reliability is still an issue and they're working on known best methods from previous years to reduce run time: software organization for the jockeys, robot alignment, use of sensors where necessary and implement attachment time.

The technical board is blocked out and they now have the robot designed far enough to start putting in real info in the place holders.

A lot of work to go, but Supernova can do it.

Argonne, Clean Car Show, Mr. Fieseler, Naperville Sun

A lot has been happening the last few weeks. Details will be posted on the teams own public website but highlights here.

Argonne National Lab-
We were very lucky to tour the Center for Transportation Research and see the hydrogen engine test lab, their test dyno, robotic driver and modular test platform, and a lot of other cool stuff. Our thanks to Thomas Wallner, Henning Lohse-Busch and Mike Kern for their time. In addition, we visited the advanced photon source.

Clean car show -
The event was not as heavily attended as planned but we were visited by a lot of interested families and kids. Another FLL team stopped by as well as Mayor Pradel. The kids (and I) liked all the cool cars - especially the Tesla. There were a lot of green vendors, including our friends from Litter Free Lunch.

Mr. Fieseler is a Naperville city Councilman and patent lawyer and is very interested and knowledgable in hydrogen's potential for a greener and cleaner future. He generously shared his time and talked to the group about hydrogen, bringing along fuel-cell car kit for them to build. A big thank you to him for the valuable insights that he shared.

Finally, we were in the Naperville Sun promoting FLL. The on-line link is below but the print version has a 2nd picture.
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/lifestyles/1838051,naperville-lego-building-esteem-na102209.article

Organization

The team is struggling with organization. Now that they are all in middle school, outside activities mean that not all members make it to all meetings. During the first meeting's post- mortem of last season, they realized that a means of collaborating outside our normal meeting times would help them prepare for tournaments. They're also growing in responsibility and want to take more of the meeting planning responsibilities.

So, the last couple weeks of meetings, besides working on project and robot ideas, have focused on how the team can collaborate outside the meetings and generating schedules. As a result, they can now post and track their progress on line and share ideas that all can see. They still have a way to go as they refine and settle into using the new process, but it looks promising.

Thank you Supernova

The team surprised the coaches on Tuesday with these tie-dye star plaques, designed built and signed by the team.

Thank you very much. We are proud to be your coaches.

Field Setup Kit Is Here!

I hope everyone has had a good summer vacation. I'm really looking forward to the new season.

Meeting Agenda, Monday, 8/10/2009, 10:30-12:00

• Spend first ½ hr discussing the new season and schedule ideas plus agenda for next meeting – so everyone will be prepared for post mortem and Brickworld and The Taste reports.
• How would they like to organize new season?
• Remember that Mrs. Naughton is mostly unavailable Thursdays, but Mrs. McCurdy will be able to help out as her schedule allows.
• Most project research work will be done outside the meetings.
• Thursdays may be partial meeting with ½ team every other week.
• Robot table work outside the meetings is encouraged and we will support as much as possible.
• Remaining time – build field setup

Meeting Agenda, Monday 8/17/2009, 10:30-12:00

• Nail down this season’s organization based on last meeting ideas.
• Reports back from Brickworld and The Taste.
• Discuss WF - small post mortem on what went well, what can be improved?
• What work we can do now to prepare for challenge announcement?

Taste of Chicago, Brickworld

Alex and his mom, and Trevor and his dad attended Brickworld, promoting FLL and checking out all the cool stuff. The robot had light trouble, just like world festival, but they were able to run a number of missions and give a good showing. They made a lot of good contacts, plus Alex and Trevor met the CEO of LEGO International and the main developer for the Mindstorms project, plus another LEGO executive from CT. It shows how sharing our talents with others ends up benefiting us as well. Thank you to Mrs. McCurdy and Mr. Allen for organizing the Supernova support of this event.
The picture shows Paul and Patrick at The Taste of Chicago, where Inscite had a FIRST booth. Michael and Andrew and their family plus Joey attended as well. Supernova was complimented on their presentation. They had a great time. Thanks to Mrs. Naughton and Mr. and Mrs. Toennies for organizing this event.