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! We would liketo thank our great alliance partners 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.