It's a week into build season and the Chickens are already working their tail feathers off. Prototyping is underway as well as design. This season's game is quite challenging so everyone is working at 110% to build a winning robot. The Chickens are planning to attend the Finger Lakes Regional in Rochester New York, Cass Tech. District, and the Troy District. Good luck to all teams this season, and please remember if you need anything please let us know, we are happy to help.
The team has just returned from another exciting go around with the teams at the Indiana Robotics Invitational. We were excited to see all the friends we had made from all over the country and have one last chance to show what we were made of. Congrats to all teams who came out and played. See you next season!
The Chickens are back in Michigan after an exciting competition in Atlanta Georgia. Taking second place over all the Chicken crew is extremely please on how this season has ended. We have worked very had to accomplish all that we have and it has paid off. Congrats to every team that has competed this 2009 season. It was a hard game and everyone has showed that they can step up to every challenge!
The ThunderChickens have done it again! Team 217 teamed up with team 67, H.O.T. and team 65, The Huskie Brigade, to take home the first ever Michigan State Championship trophy. We had such a great time will all the other teams! See everyone in Atlanta!
Our final district before states ended as a huge success. By elims, we were first seed, and our alliance defeated all opponents for another district win. Along with winning the event, we also managed to take the Chairman's Award. Congratulations to our PR department for their amazing job, and hopefully they will be able to succeed at states. Good luck to all the teams out there, and we'll see you at the State Competition.
Our first district competition was very successful. We qualified as the second seed with a record of 10 wins and 2 losses. We were picked to join the #1 alliance and ended up winning the event. The clever use of an Archimedes’s Screw in our robot won us the Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" Award. Our team’s loud cheers and off-season charity events helped us to win the Chrysler Team Spirit Award. In addition, congratulations to the rookie teams that we started who did not leave empty-handed: 2851 took home the Rookie All-Star Award, and 3095 received the Highest Rookie Seed Award. We’ll see you next at the Troy District Competition.
What a ride! The Thunderchickens have just returned home from a tiring, but rewarding, weekend at the Midwest Regional. Our stay at the Windy City was a prime example of how a FIRST event should be: fun, exciting beyond belief, and productive. We have gained from this competition the Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award, a semi-finalist finish, and a greater insight into how the game is played. Thanks to all of our partners, and see you at our next competition!
We don’t stop working after the six-week build season ends. Today, our team went to a local dentist’s office to participate in the “Give Kid’s a Smile” Event. Our members accompanied underprivileged youth as they received necessary dental care free of charge. We made the experience more comfortable for the patients, many of whom had never been to a dentist before.
We welcomed Team 3069 from Denby High School to start the construction of their robot today. They were in need of assistance, and we were more than willing to help them out. We are currently collaborating on ideas with them.
Our team finished the CAD design of the robot at FANUC Robotics in Auburn Hills. Sheet metal drawings were sent out for fabrication.
Finally, robot season is here again, and the Thunderchickens are ready to go. The new game this year, Lunacy, involves low friction floors and a new control system, but nothing makes us more excited than challenges. Good luck to all the teams out there, and have a good build season.
The Thunderchickens are involved in many events, but Thunderquest is definitely one of our most important. We are always glad to see an interest in robotics starting at such a young age, and what better way than with Lego League? This year Thunderquest was bigger than ever, with 48 different teams from elementary and middle schools in our area.
We hosted an exhibit at the Michigan State Fair. Our team showed off our championship robot and talked about FIRST to the fair's attendents.
Lightening really can strike twice! After a long build season and successful regional competitions, all of the hard work finally paid off. Our team was ecstatic when team #1114 Simbotics picked up to join the #1 alliance on Galileo Field. Again, we were so excited when team #148 The Robowranglers, the team with whom we won the 2008 St. Louis Regional, joined our alliance. We had some difficulties, once even playing a match with just two robots, but we persevered. We made it to the Einstein Field, and won the Championship. We could not have done it without 148 and 1114, Thanks so much. We hope to see all the teams again at the Championship next year.
The ThunderChickens have done it again! At the Detroit Regional this past weekend the team managed to finish the qualifiers as the #3 seeded team. We were thrilled but became ecstatic when we were picked by none other then Team #469 Las Guerrillas! We rounded out the team quite nicely with Team #440 the Suspects whom we worked with throughout the entire build season. A more desired alliance was unimaginable. That proved to be true once we breezed into the finals with no losses. After a couple good matches we won the competition. The ThunderChickens also returned home with another General Motors Industrial Design award which we are very proud of. Thanks and congratulations to our amazing alliance partners and all of the other teams present! See you in Atlanta!
The 2008 competition season has begun and the ThunderChickens started off the season with a bang. The team returned to the St. Louis regional this year and ended up winning the competition along with the General Motors Industrial Design award! We would like to thank our great alliance partners 148 and 830 and congratulate all of the teams present. Good luck!
Well, the 2008 build season is here!! The ThunderChickens watched the 2008 Kickoff webcast at the IRC (with a few members going to the Novi Regional Kickoff, where they had a practice field set up). The new game, FIRST Overdrive, has really thrown many of us off with its unconventional rules and styles. Protoyping and strategy sessions are going strong, and the design team has begun working in SolidWorks to finalize our CAD designs. It's going to be a great season! Good luck to all teams participating in FRC this year!
The TFF Mid-Winter event is over and the ThunderChickens have returned extremely successful. The team ended up taking first place in the drag race, second in the sixty pound tractor pull, and once again first in the autonomous challenge. The ThunderChickens also won the Chairman's Award presentation. Good work to all at the competition. Now all that's left to do is get ready for kickoff!
Well, it's (unfortunately) officially time to say goodbye to LIZ. We participated in two more offseason events, Kettering Kickoff and the Autumn Robotics Competition. The team performed excellently during the qualifiers, going 7-1-1 at Kettering and 8-1 at ARC, and ending up 3rd and 2nd seed (respectively). They were great experiences to get the incoming sophomores excited for the team. While we are all sad that the 07 season is officially over, we're all looking forward to attacking 08 head-on.
As an eventful summer draws to a close, the ThunderChickens find themselves in the middle of many events. The IRI offseason event was an amazing Rack N' Roll experience, and we would like to congratulate teams 111, 1114, and 2056 on making it through the tough elims to victory. The ThunderChickens also participated in Sterlingfest, handing out balloons to children and informing people about FIRST. Internally, the new Student Board has begun taking over as the outgoing seniors bid their farewells, and it's looking to be a great upcoming season.
Congratulations to 190, 987, 177 and all of the teams who competed at Atlanta . We had so much fun meeting everyone. The ThunderChickens would also like to congratulate the Panteras on winning the Rookie All-Star Award. What an awesome end to a great season. We hope that your 2007 season was a thrilling as ours was, and we wish to see all the teams back again next year.
The Detroit regional was a blast as always. We want to congratulate the rookie teams that attended, and we hope to see you next year too! We are so honored to have won the regional Chairman's award. And we would like to congratulate the regional winners, finalists, and all who competed. Thanks!
The ThunderChickens, after a 12 hour bus ride, have returned home after coming in 2nd at the St. Louis Regional. St. Louis was full of awesome teams, along with some fun and Imo's pizza. A big thank you and good job goes out to teams 148 and 2133 for their awesome work in our number 1 seeded alliance. The ThunderChickens are currently looking forward to their Detroit competition which is just around the corner. The team would like to personally thank all of the sponsors for their support, there is no way we could of made it this far without you. We encourage all of our friends and sponsors alike to come root for us at the Detroit regional on March 15th - 17th.
Lately, we've been working long hours at the Ford Plant, having an awesome time as well. Meanwhile, the design team has also been putting in hours at FANUC Robotics; the prototyping is nearly finished. As a team, we also strengthen the team member relationships outside of the Ford Plant.
Ahh yes, it's that time of the year again. The time where fun begins, brains storm and the ThunderChickens lack sleep. The new Rack n' Roll game looks like it is going to be a lot of fun and will offer great challenge and competiton. The team is already working hard utilizing the six short weeks available to design, build, and ship its robot. Good luck to all teams, and remember to do Dean's homework!
The ThunderChickens have dedicated much of their time to the FIRST Lego League. Each team member was assigned to an elementary Lego team to mentor and guide. The team members shared ideas and helped students program, design, and build their robots. The ThunderChickens then hosted their own FIRST Lego League regional, ThunderQuest. Everything from scoring to decorations was in the hands of the students. Thirty-three teams attended, 14 of which moved on the state competition.
On November 2nd, a group representing the ThunderChickens went to the YES Expo. The Youth Engineering and Science Expo tries to stress science and its importance to the youth of America. Since FIRST robotics also has a similar goal, it only makes sense for teams to present their robots to the public. This is the ThunderChicken's third year participating in the YES Expo and the team along with the rest of the crowd seemed to have an awesome time.
The Team FORD FIRST Robotics Invitational took place at Macomb Community College. Our team was first to sponsor the event, but we soon got help from other sources. Twenty-seven teams attended the event. Team 469, Las Guerillas, Team 217, the ThunderChickens, and Team 815, Advanced Power, won the competition. It could be seen, however, that everyone had a really great time.
The ThunderChickens were at Kettering University on Saturday, September 23rd, to compete against 30 other teams at its annual "Kettering Kick-off" robotics competition on the campus in Flint, Michigan. They were able to win 3 of the 5 qualifying matches and advance to the elimination rounds after the #1 seeded team, Team 1286 (Royal Oak), chose us to be its partner along with Team 379 (Girard, OH). Our #1 alliance breezed through the quarter-final matches by winning twice. Advancing to the semi-finals, our alliance again won twice, thus making it to the finals. Once in the final round, we finished second due to some mechanical problems and some tough competition. Congratulations go out to Teams 226, 703, and 1188 for their victory at Kettering. Great job, everybody.
Yesterday, the ThunderChickens took part in a presentation of FIRST at the Detroit Science Center. Gloria shined like always as the centerpiece of the presentation. The team is looking forward to all of the upcomming off-season events, the first of which is IRI.
The ThunderChickens along with Team 296 and Team 522 have won the world championship. We had a great group of students and mentors this year, and such a victory definitely would not have been possible without them. Great job to everybody who was involved with the team this year, including the mentors, parents, students, and sponsors. Special thanks also go out to the men and women who volunteered at the events.
Nationals are quickly approaching, and there have been a lot of busy ThunderChickens hard at work in the coop. Everyone is very excited, and a bit anxious, for the trip to Atlanta. We can't wait to see everyone at nationals. Good Luck!
The Toronto regional was also a success. There was a lot of stiff competition, and the robots turned out looking awesome. The teams get the chance to meet to Woodie Flowers who stopped to talk at all the pits. What an extraordinary treat! Congratulations to the winning teams. We'll see you in Atlanta!
The ThunderChickens are EGGstatic about our experience at the Detroit regional. Congratulations to all the teams who attended; thanks for making this even so much fun. We were lucky enough to receive the Chairman's award and win the regional alongside teams 469 and 1506. Also, congratulations to our own Mr. Ronald Archeene on winning the Woodie Flowers award. Overall it was a great experience, and we hope to see everyone at the Detroit regional again next year.
Our 2006 robot has left the building, literally! There is still alot of work to do in preperation for the 2006 competitions whichs means that the team is hard at work! We are all looking forward to our first reginal, Detroit.
The parts have arrived, and building has started on the competition and practice robots. Ship date is right around the corner, but everything is coming together smoothly.
We finished our prototype robot, and it works just as we expected! We had the chance to test the complete robot out for the first time. Everything is working as intended, and we are on our way to complete our competition robot with hopes that we are equally successful. Yesterday the ThunderChickens volunteered with Give Kids a Smile; this program allows children, who might not otherwise see a denist, recieve the care they need.
The 2006 season has finally started! We watched the live broadcast of this season's game, "Aim High." We have a lot of work ahead of us, and are really exciting to get started.Our first strategy meeting was today and our team has come up with many ideas. We are very confident with our plans and are hoping for a successful season.