Latest News
Do you need to know what's going on with our team? Then wonder no more, for our Latest News pages will keep you up to date on all of our major team events, competitions, fundraisers, and more! In addition, we'll often announce new updates to our website, as well as interesting new content here was well.
And keeping up with our Latest News has never been easier; now with RSS feeds available for our Latest News you can be sure you'll be the first to know!
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2008 Build Season Progess
February 3, 2008
The 2008 Build Season is now more than half over. The build team is working feverishly to complete two robots. For the first time in team history, we will be building a full practice robot. The two drive bases are now completed and running around at most build meetings. Hopefully, this will pay off during the competition season.
The team has also designed two viable mechanisms for handling the Trackball. Since we have two robots, we will build both designs and see which works best. Stay tuned to our 2008 Build Season media section to see which design prevails.
We are currently expanding our coverage of the early weeks of the Build Season. Thanks to team members and our newest mentor, Bryan Ragaini for supplying us with more incredible pictures. Bryan is a team alumnus, having been a student team member during our first few seasons. He is now a mechanical engineer, and is hoping to inspire our current team members to follow his lead.
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2008 FRC Game Released - FIRST Overdrive
January 5, 2008
Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines!
The 2008 FRC game has been released - FIRST Overdrive. This year's game has a racing theme. Not only will teams of three robots per alliance be racing around the playing field, but they'll be handling 40" balls, too. If pushing or carrying a ball larger than your robot wasn't tough enough, teams can score extra points by hurdling the balls over a bridge more than six feet high.
There's a new twist to the robot autonomous mode, now called hybrid mode. A human "Robot Coach" will be sending commands to the robot using a common TV remote. The IR sensor board sent to teams before Kickoff will receive the commands and modify the robot's autonomous mission.
In six short weeks the building will be over, then the gear grinding, tire scrubbing, and fender bumping will begin. You'd better build a robot that's fast, or you'll get bumped to pass.
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FRC Kickoff Night Pasta Dinner!
December 16, 2007
In celebration of our tenth anniversary season being involved in the FIRST Robotics Competition, Team 228 is holding a pasta dinner fundraiser on January 5, 2008 (the night of the 2008 FRC Kickoff Event) from 5-8pm. Tickets cost $7.00 at the event, which is being held at Maloney High School in Meriden, CT. Along with our tasty pasta, we will also have a raffle, videos from the Kickoff Event and about our team, and several of our robots set up for demonstration.
So bring your family, friends, and your appetite, because this is one event you will not want to miss!
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2008 FRC Game Hint Released
December 15, 2007
With every new season of the FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST releases a game hint about the upcoming competition. In previous years, it often involved cryptic riddles or puzzling photos, that in some way were related to the game.
But for the 2008 season, FIRST released Game Hint #1 in a new way: by shipping an IR sensor board that can be controlled by a television remote to every FRC team. What do you think this hint means for the 2008 game? Is this board going to be mounted on the robot, or be part of a field element? Or is it something entirely different?
Later, FIRST emailed teams Game Hint #2 for the 2007 season in an Email Blast. The only contents of the message part of the email were three numbers:
42.349905
-71.076072
342.242026
And then, just days before the 2008 FRC Kickoff, FIRST released Game Hint #3. This time, the hint was a short, four-word cryptic phrase reminiscent of game hints of yesteryear. Here's the contents of the latest game hint:
Vet hurdling FIRST tetra
Weigh in with your thoughts at the following Chief Delphi forums threads.
Related links:
›› Chief Delphi discussion about 2008 Game Hint #1
›› Chief Delphi discussion about 2008 Game Hint #2
›› Chief Delphi discussion about 2008 Game Hint #3
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Ten Years of Inspiration
September 1, 2007
To all of our new students, welcome! And to our returning members and mentors, welcome back to another exciting season. This year, our team will pass an important milestone in our history: our tenth anniversary of being involved in FIRST! We hope that this season will be our best yet, and our entire team has been working on many fronts to improve our team and promote FIRST.
Not yet a member of Team 228? What are you waiting for? From science to sports, and engineering to English, there is something for everyone on our team. Whether it’s building wicked sweet robots, shooting and editing video in Final Cut, or anything in between, becoming a member of our team has been - according to many of our team alumni - the highlight of their high school years.
We invite you to come to a few meetings, and find out more about our team, and take part in everything we do. (The dates for our upcoming meetings can be found in our events calendar.) We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting!
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It's Time for a Barbeque!
June 2, 2007
What does your team do at the end of each FIRST season? For Team 228, that answer usually involved planning for the next season, prototyping ideas, and the like. But the most exciting of these activities is our annual team party. Earlier today, the Gibb's graciously hosted our annual team party at their house for good ol' barbeque, filled with more pulled-pork sandwiches than one can shake a stick at.
With its relaxed atmosphere (well, except for the water balloon fight!), it was a great time for our team to sit back, relax, and talk about the 2007 season. And pull a few pranks... lol. Pictures from the event are available on the link below.
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Semifinalists at Beantown Blitz!
May 19, 2007
Despite a non-stop rain all day long, the contagious enthusiasm of Gus Robotics Team 228 was hardly dampened by the weather. After a rough start to the season at the UTC New England Regional, Team 228 finished as semi-finalists at the fourth annual Beantown Blitz competition. Hosted by Northeastern University in Boston, MA, this post-season competition is always a blast.
Throughout most of the qualification rounds, Team 228 performance on the playing field was much stronger than our previous competition, on average scoring several ringers per match. Also of noteworthy performance at the competition, was our new autonomous mode written by Matt and Art. This new autonomous, which aimed to score a keeper on the rack while driving past it, was a unique approach that no other team in the nation has yet to attempt.
Pictures from the event are already online; event description and videos will be coming soon.
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Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser!
March 1, 2007With Team 228's first and only regional event of the 2007 season, the Connecticut (UTC) Regional only weeks away, our team is preparing for the event by hosting a pancake breakfast on Saturday, March 3rd, 2007. Enjoy all you can eat fresh pancakes, hot sizzling sausage, videos from our team's 2007 season, see our team's older 2006 robots, and after it's all over you won't want to miss our raffle! Admission is only $5, and all proceeds help fund our team's activities to continue to inspire our students about science and technology. Here is some additional information:
What: Team 228's Pancake Breakfast and Raffle Fundraiser
When: Saturday, March 3rd, 2007, 7am to 11am
Where: Maloney High School cafeteria (121 Gravel Street, Meriden, CT)
So bring your friends and family, and help us make this a successful event!
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Happy Gus Day! (2/28)
February 28, 2007
February 28th, 2007 - As our team's "official holiday", Gus Day was celebrated in its usual manner of having everyone involved with the team wear their competition team shirts to school. To help celebrate the day, an entirely new video was uploaded to our website entitled True Colors - It's All Orange!. This video, which focuses on the people behind the team and their funnier moments is definitely on par with Vex Goes To the Mall, our 2006 comedy video.
Also, with the Connecticut (UTC) Regional only weeks away, our team is continuing to plan and strategize for the event. Veteran FIRSTers from the years of 2002-2004 may remember Team 228's official slogan of Contagious Enthusiasm! Without spoiling any surprises we have in store, our Contagious Enthusiasm is back for the 2007 season! You too can find out what all of this will mean in only a few short weeks...
Related links:
›› True Colors - It's All Orange! (Medium Quality WMV, 26.4 Mb)
›› True Colors - It's All Orange! (Low Quality, RM, 10.3 Mb)
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Are you ready to Rack N' Roll?!
January 6, 2007January 6th, 2007 - Earlier today, several members, mentors, and alumni from Team 228 headed up to the Manchester, New Hampshire Live Kickoff Event to witness the unveiling of the 2007 FRC game. After a series of speeches by Dean, Woodie, and Dave, the new game was unveiled to the public. Named Rack N' Roll, the game is compromised of two main objectives: score inner tubes onto a center structure known as the "rack" in rows as long as possible (similar to Tic-Tac-Toe or Connect Four), as well as elevate your alliance partner robots above the ground at the end of the match for bonus points.
Beginning today, Team 228 along with the other 1300 FRC teams from around the world will have six weeks to design, fabricate, program, and test a robot for this year's new game before the robot's have to ship off to the first regional competition. Beginning this season, Team 228 is now excited to now have R&D Precision of Wallingford, CT as a new official team sponsor, as their CNC Sheet Metal Fabrication services will be a major asset to our team!
Related links:
›› Official FIRST Kickoff Information
›› NASA Kickoff Webcast (Archived)
›› The Blue Alliance Kickoff Coverage
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Team 228 at a Glance
Location: Meriden, Connecticut, USA
Team Size: 25 Students, 10 Mentors
High Schools: Platt, Maloney, and Wilcox Tech High Schools
Rookie Year: 1999
Team Mantra: Contagious Enthusiasm!