Last Saturday our team hosted the First Annual Lego League Rumble. We had a tremendous turnout with 31 teams, and approximately 60 volunteers! Everything ran smoothly, and everyone was having a great time. Although not to scale, this competition gave many people a view of what competition will be like.

Cerner is hosting a competition October 31st through November 1st. The competition is the same as last year's and gives the 27 participating teams to get last season's robots out for another run. The atmosphere is similar to what you see at a regional competition, just on a smaller scale. Just as always, energy is running high as the competition heats up.

Team 1710 wishes GOOD LUCK TO ALL TEAMS here at Cerner!!

Our first FIRST meeting of the year was yesterday. It went well, we introduced the leadership team and got to know everyone on the team. We started with the "Frozen H2O Shatterer" (since we are far too nerdy to use a regular ice breaker). Afterwards we split off into our subgroups and got to know the people we are going to be working with the most. Then it was down to business, where we discussed our responsibilities and roles on the team. Overall the meeting went extremely well, and we are really looking forward to the rest of the season! It will be exciting!

The 2008-2009 Ravonics Revolution Team 1710 has been chosen! Here is the team:

Hayden Maples CEO
Mikael Ekstrom COO
Hans Walther PRO
Tim Collard CFO
Coryn Mickleson ACO
Corey Brown CIO
1. Austin Ahlgren
2. Lauren Bickford
3. Natnael Getahun
4. Tyler Howard
5. Jesse Van Winkle
6. Justin Zeiler

7. Aaron Brown
8. Casey Flowers
9. Jacob Hart-Lane
10. Taylor Lawson
11. Jake Mattern
12. Drew Otto
13. Ally Parfet
14. Yessica Prato
15. Daniel Ruzzin
16. Amanda Schoenewe
17. Chris Stone
18. Richard Zeiler

19. Amir Bachelani
20. Anthony Bragg
21. Jared Broddle
22. Stephani Chaffin
23. Dakota Henke
24. Nathan Mumford
25. Catherine Richardson
26. Davis Woodward

Our first meeting will be held on Monday September 29th in room 1717 at 6:30. We will see you all there!

Thank you to all that applied!

The senior project class has been busy modifying the applications for this year's team. We have been busy preparing a presentation for the prospective team members. The presentations will be held on Monday, September 8th in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th hour CAD classes. We are also exploring fundraising and community service ideas. If you have any suggestions contact Mr. Worcester in room 1717.

During our time in Denver a few of us visited the Denver International Auto Show. We also took some pictures and they are available for download. For those team members or non-members that would like to download these pictures please click the link below:

Car show pictures (525 MB)

The count is in and the Judges have made their final decision. Team 1710, the Ravonics Revolution, finished the competition on Saturday with a final placing of 3rd place and being eliminated in the semi-finals. We finished the qualification rounds in 3rd place, good enough for us to be able to pick our own alliance. That is the best that this team has ever done at any previous competition and we are very proud of that. But we had a disappointing loss in the semi-finals so we did not qualify to attend the championships in Atlanta this year. Although we did walk away winning the Chrysler Team Spirit Award and the Underwriters Laboratories Industrial Safety Award. Making the Spirit award our only award that we won both in Kansas City and Denver.

Now the team is going to focus on finishing the design of the Army robot. We have already started on the design but there are a few things that still need to be worked out. As well our next event is going to be the Robotics Banquet held at Olathe Northwest. Further details on this event will be posted at a later time.

Day two was the first day of qualification rounds and at the end of the day our record was 5-1-1. That is good enough to put us in 5th place and in the top eight. The whole is team is very excited as for the first time in our history we might finish the qualification rounds in the top eight which would give us the opportunity to pick our own alliance. The spirit of our team is just as pumped up as ever. Day two was also the day that our principal, Dr. Poss, came to denver to watch us compete. She was very proud of us and she hopes that we are able win here in denver.

After completing the eventful trip the rest of the way to Denver and a day full of fun filled activities throughout Denver we finally got to do what we came here to do...compete. Even though day one was just filled with practice matches we managed to have a great showing with our robot. We impressed many teams with our ability to score a lot of points. We also fired up the day with a plethora of spirited activities. We have high hopes to make it far in this competition and 'knock on wood' if we keep this up for the rest of the competition we will.

Today started out at 5:30 AM where we met at the school to pack up the bus. Turns out that our bus was late this morning along with one of our own team coaches. We ended up not even leaving Olathe until almost 7 AM. We did not stop again until we got to Salina for a morning break. After our short break we continued on to Colby for lunch. After lunch we continued on to Denver then after about an hour or so of driving we pulled over in a rest stop.

It turns our that we had the infamous 'Check Engine' light illuminate and we were instructed to stop driving in order to save the engine and prevent it from blowing. So we are sitting here 3 hours from Denver waiting for a new bus that is coming from Denver. Some of our members are even entertaining themselves by trying to get passing drivers to honk.

Tonight is our last meeting that we have before we leave for the Colorado Regional in Denver, Colorado. Our scheduled time of departure is 5:30 AM. We are hoping to improve from our disappointing outcome at Kansas City. We are not qualified for the Chairman's Award in Denver but we are hoping to be on the winning alliance. Over the past few weeks we have studied what went wrong and what went well in Kansas City so we are ready to be at the top of the pack in Denver.

We just got finished with the FIRST® Greater Kansas City Regional, and it was amazing! Although we only made it to the quarterfinals, we learned many things about this year's game and the weaknesses of our robot. We are currently working hard to make our robot and pit better for our next regional in Denver, which is only a couple of weeks away.

On Saturday, we won the Team Spirit award in addition to the Website and Visualization awards we won on Friday. Our team was very enthusiastic when it came to cheering on the teams on the field. The announcer put it best: "You'd have to be deaf, dumb, blind, and 600 miles away not to know who won this award! I could barely eat my pancakes this morning!"

Videos of the competition in Kansas City have been archived online so that you can witness the excellent performances of all of the robots that competed there. Video archives of the Kansas City Regional can be acessed here.

Lastly, we would like to thank everyone who supported us in our endeavours. Our mentors, sponsors, coaches, and the other teams who cheered us on are vital to our success. Thank you!

Dean Kamen visiting the 1710 pit

On the second day of the Kansas City Regional our robot performed very well. Although we only won 2 of our matches our robot scored the majority of the points for our all of our alliances. In addition we walked away with two awards. The 2008 Best Website Award and the 2008 AutoDesk Visualization Award. To view our award winning animation please visit the AutoDesk Visualizations page and view the 2008 AutoDesk Visualization - Treelectricity. The website you are currently viewing is the 2008 winner.

In addition, one of our own team members, Stephani, won the safety Star of the Day award for day 2. Day 3 looks to be an exciting day and we are hoping to win the 2008 Chairman's Award for the Greater Kansas City Regional.

We experienced a day to learn from. We did not let the early morning hinder our team spirit. While waiting outside for the doors to open we were getting pumped up dancing to an array of techno and rock. Some of the judges and FIRST® officials got involved in the adrenaline filled activity.

Day 1 was filled up with practice matches and we used every match to learn as much as possible. We had a few minor setbacks in the practice rounds, but with a little tweaking we are ready to come back strong in the second half of the practice matches and into the qualifacation rounds. All throughout the day we demonstrated an enormous amount of support for our team. We were able to help other teams get their robots in working order but yet still maintain that competitive edge that will hopefully bring us to the top.

The team is very busy getting everything together as we approach the Kansas City Regional, which begins Thursday, March 6. Our robot is gone, but there is still a lot that needs to get done before we head off to competition.

Members of the team have been working on preparing spirit and safety materials which our team will hand out in the pits during competition. In addition, we have built a speaker box that is sure to keep our team psyched up during competition. We have also been working on our pit layout, which is very important both for promoting our team and working on the robot during competition. We are getting all of our spare parts, tools, and other materials ready to take with us to competition as well.

You can be assured that Team 1710 will be out in full force and in high spirits early on Thursday morning as we walk through the doors of Hale Arena.

One of our own students, Jon P., has been awarded the Embry Riddle FIRST® Robotics scholarship totaling $20,000 over four years. This has been our second year in a row for one of our team members to be awarded a FIRST® scholarship. Our whole team would like to congratulate Jon for all of his dedication to the FIRST® program.

Our robot showcase was a success. Our robot put on a wonderful show as we revealed it to the public for the first time. Many of the team member's parents were present congratulating all of the hard work that every team member has put in.

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We were also able to recognize all of our sponsors and mentors at this once-a-year event. The day started out with a pot-luck luncheon privided by our wonderful parents. Following lunch, each department of the team presented the work that they have accomplished during the build season. The day ended with the robot being revealed. It was a very exciting day for everyone and the whole team is very anxious for our first regional in Kansas City.

Our 2008 robot has been completed and is now in the final testing phase. We're fine tuning our programming and drive system to make sure that our robot is in top working condition. Our scheduled ship date is Monday, February 18, 2008 - right after the Robot Showcase on Saturday, February 16 at Olathe Northwest.

This year, our team chose to use Kevlar on our robot's gripping arm. We decided on Kevlar mainly because of weight restrictions, and it is also very durable. We fabricated the arm by molding the arm first with foam and then coating epoxied layers of Kevlar over the arm. It took four hours for applications plus drying time.

Before the build season our animators worked hard on animating this 30 second safety animation for the national FIRST® Safety Animation competition. The theme for the animation was 'Safety First: Lead by Example'. Our animation was based on a pop-up story book that explains safety. To view our animation just click on the picture.

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The Operations Team is well underway with our robot. Our chassis and drive system are designed and our final frame has already been assembled. Programming is working very hard to program our complicated swerve drive, which is a new asset that our robot will have this year. The electrical group has finished a working electrical board that we will use as we continue to build our robot. As in past years, the CAD team is working very hard at this time to model our designs and create virtual prototypes before we ever build anything. After Week 1, we are on schedule and our robot is progressing nicely.

When not working on the Operations Team, students remain productive working on other team tasks. We have cultivated several sponsorships, and we are still working very hard to raise funds for the year. We have also organized a food drive in our community with the assistance of our school's KAY club and the U.S. Army. Our creative team has completed a great safety animation for kick-off and is working on another animation about an invention that helps the environment and our community. In addition, our new website is almost complete, so make sure that you continue to visit our site in the future.

On behalf on the team, I would like to thank all of our coaches, mentors, and anyone else who has supported us in our endeavors. We are lucky enough to have a dozen business mentors assisting us in several capacities. There is no way that we would be able to do this without your continued support. We are once again on our way to a very successful season!

Jerad Bickford
Team 1710 CEO

In 2007 at the Midwest regional in Chicago, IL we won the Website design award. We have archived this site in its previous state with minimal updates. If you would like to view our award winning website please click here or on the logo.