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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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Gus Robotics Needs You!
July 11, 2009
Gus Robotics needs your help! We are having a can and bottle drive fundraiser on Saturday, July 11th from 9am - noon at Maloney High School and we would love any and all donations! Donations can be dropped off at Maloney's woodshop on said time and date.
Having parties this Saturday on the 4th of July? Save your redemable cans and bottles and donate them to our team! Please help our team and support us by helping out in our fundraiser! Thank you and we hope to see you next Saturday!
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Congratulations Team Members!
June 11, 2009
As the school year is winding down, school are having their award ceremonies and other honoring events. Congratulations to the following team members on their academic achievements:
Jordan Adams - French I Excellence Award, four terms of high honors, Team Spirit award for robotics, varsity letter for robotics, two year pin for robotics
SM Ahmed - University of Rochester Xerox Award - valued at up to $80K to UR, four terms of high honors, three year pin for robotics
Jon Boeglin - Rennsalaer Medal for Platt - valued at up to $60K to RPI, Tri-M Music Honor Society, four terms of high honors, Outstanding Achievement Certificate, Exemplary Academic Achievement, Outstanding Dedication award for robotics
Louise Carozza - Platt Highest Math Score for 9th Grade, Tri-M Music Honor Society, four terms of high honors
Tina Dutra - Carolyn Hitchcock Medal for Biology, four terms of high honors, varsity letter in tennis, Captain of robotics team, Outstanding Dedication Student award for robotics, varsity letter in robotics, two year pin for robotics
Rebecca Gibbs - The Tommy De Paola Art Excellence Award, Tri-M Music Honor Society
Kevin Mann - Rennsalaer Medal for Maloney - valued at up to $60K to RPI, four terms of high honors, three year pin for robotics, Co-Captain of robotics team
Carla Sauza - four terms of high honors, Team Spirit award for robotics, manager of girls swim team and girls tennis
Kate Mordarski - French II & US History/Civics Excellence Awards, four terms of high honors, varsity letter in tennis, one year pin for robotics, Team Spirit award for robotics
Dylan Cardona - Tri-M Music Honor Society, Super Scout award for robotics, one year pin for robotics
Josh Gibbs - Tri-M Music Honor Society, four year pin for robotics
Matt Clark - two year pin for robotics, varsity letter for robotics
Peter Ruffino - varsity letter in robotics, two year pin for robotics
Dan Tobin - varsity letter for robotics, two year pin for robotics
Ben Chuong - three year pin four robotics, Co-Captain of robotics
Bob Dutra - National Honors Society
In total, students on our team have won $200,000 in scholarships this year. Congratulations on being rewarded for your hard work!
Also congratulations to our seniors on making it into the following colleges:
-Paul Gallagher will be attending Eastern Connecticut State University majoring in Computer Science. He also earned his one year robotics pin.
-Shannon Stolting will be attending University of Minnesota majoring in mechanical engineering. She is also in the National Honor Society, Tri-M Music Honor Society, graduated with high honors, and received scholarships for being a scholar athlete and from the Center Congressional Church and the University of Minnesota.
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New Photo Gallery Feature
May 12, 2009Inspired by Facebook, a new feature has been added to the photo galleries on our website. When you are viewing a single photo in a photo gallery (such as this one), you can now use the Left and Right arrows on the keyboard to browse through the photos!
If you have any additional ideas for new features for our website, be sure to let us know on our contact page. We'd love to hear from you!
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Battlecry10 @ WPI
May 9, 2009
Some things get better in age and the Battlecry offseason FRC event held at WPI is no exception. Now in its 10th year of annual competition, it is by far one of the most fun offseason events our team attends. This two day event can rival even Atlanta in awesomeness factor between its team social night on Friday complete with an ice cream social, open bowling, and game show, to its epic matches all day on Saturday. Team 228 preformed very well in this competition and landed a spot in the 11th seat alliance for the elimination rounds. Our alliance, composed of teams 467, 228, and 173, did extremely well and made it past the first round of the eliminations beating several very good teams. Our alliance fought very hard in the next round of competition, but lost to the alliance that ended up coming in 2nd place overall. Congrats to teams 40, 121, and 172 for your amazing win in the finals!
Team 228 was also very honored this competition when one of our mentors won the Battlecry STAR award. The STAR award is WPI’s equivalent of FIRST’s Woodie Flowers award. Team captain, Tina Dutra, read a heartfelt essay about the winner, Gordon Morrison, at the award ceremony at the end of the competition. Gordon Morrison is one of team’s founders and is an asset to our team in many ways, offering his vast knowledge about 3-D animation, machining, and other fields of robotics. The award was particularly satisfying to Mr. Morrison because he is retiring from his role as head mentor at the end of this school year, and to have an honor such as this bestowed on him at last is like the cherry finish on a hot fudge sundae.
Team 228 would like to thank everyone who helped put on this amazing event and cannot wait until next year’s competition.
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It's BBQ Fundraiser Time Again!
April 25, 2009
It's that time of year again! Time for the annual Meriden Daffodil Festival. The festival this year is taking place Saturday, April 25 10:00 am to 9:00 pm and on Sunday, April 26 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm in Hubbard Park in Meriden, Connecticut. Team 228 and our robots will be appearing in the parade on Saturday, which will start at 10:00 am. Along with our parade appearance, team 228 will also be found in the food tent both days all day. This will be the team's third year in a row selling our yummy BBQ food. Along with our classics of pulled pork sandwiches, cheesy bacon fries, and beef brisket sandwiches, the team has also added a new item to our menu; BBQ ribs. If any of these food choices appeal to your taste buds, please come out, bring a friend or two, and support our team in our fundraiser! We hope to see you this weekend!
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The World Championships in Atlanta 09
April 18, 2009
If you were there, then you don’t need me to tell you that Atlanta was crazy amazing. But I’m going to say it anyway! ATLANTA WAS CRAZY AMAZING!!!
We started off our first day there by playing Frisbee at Centennial Park, across from our hotel, The Omni. We soaked up the southern sun and had lots of fun tossing around the Frisbee, trying not to hit innocent pedestrians as they walked by. Unfortunately, we did have a few close casualties, but there were no serious injuries inflicted. We wrapped up the day with dinner at the Hard Rock Café, where the staff serenaded team member Josh Gibbs for his birthday.
Day 2 was a bit more eventful. The practice matches commenced and our team did extremely well. Our star human player, Nick Mann (aka Little Mann) scored two super cells into opposing trailers, bringing our team to their feet to cheer loudly for him. During the day, our beloved English teacher Mrs. Kendzior, who was on vacation at the time, visited us. We enjoyed showing her our robot and all the reasons why we love robotics so much. Later, we had the last practice match of the day, and we rushed madly from the Georgia Dome to our hotel to get ready for that night’s RoboProm, hosted by Team 399. A majority of our team attended the event, the guys looking handsome and suave, the girls looking even more gorgeous than usual. At the dance, we broke out the glow sticks and danced till our feet hurt to tunes such as “Jump Around” by House of Pain or the ever-popular “Sandstorm” by Darude. The prom king and queen were crowned; the queen was a girl with a duct tape dress and the king was a mascot for the Liger Bots who had ice packs on the inside of his costume to keep him cool. A good time was had by all and when the night ended, we trudged reluctantly back to our hotel rooms to get ready for the next day.
Day 3 was when the real action started. Qualification matches began and we had a victory for our first match 90-36 after penalties, followed by a series of losses for all the matches following our first one. We ended the day with a record of 1-4-0. Despite our not-so-amazing record, and a few quarrels over what wasn’t going right with our team’s performance, we were happy to go eat dinner with our friends from Exploding Bacon in Centennial Park. A plethora of Chinese food and pizza awaited us, and we were eager to fill our plates. We spent the night playing Oink! Oink! BOOM! (Bacon’s version of the game Duck, Duck, Goose) and had a good laugh over the many spills that people took while trying to chase after others. Several mentors were BOOMed, even though they were sitting on the sidelines and we even had a few strangers wander over and join in on our revelry. We also celebrated Jamison Go’s birthday, who received an honorary GUS t-shirt as one of his presents. We were all sad when we had to leave our Bacon friends and go back to the hotel.
Day 4 began with a team cheer in the lobby to get everyone excited for our final competition day in Atlanta. We even broke out some dance moves as well. With our coffee and team spirit with us, we marched off in search of victory. As we filed into the pits with the rest of the awaiting teams, we made our presence known by cheering “2-2-8! Gus 2-2-8!” at the top of our lungs. We were pumped and ready to go. We lost our first match against team 86, team 364, and team 1625 with a final score of 58-60, but we didn’t let that discourage one bit. Our next match was against the undefeated team at the time, and we were determined to knock them off their pedestal. We, with the assistance of our alliance partners, team 1086 and team 364, beat the blue alliance with a final score of 74-56. We rejoiced all the way back to the pits, where we engaged in another enthusiastic team cheer. This time, Mr. Dutra shouted, “WHO BEATS THE UNDEFEATED?!” and we answered, “WE DO!!!!!!” In that moment, it seemed like everything was perfect. We had finally shown people our potential and that GUS is a force to be reckoned with. The alliance selections began, but sadly our team rep, Tina Dutra, never had the chance to say, “Team 228 graciously accepts.” Though disappointed and devastated, we comforted ourselves with the knowledge that we had tried our best and had had fun while doing it. We then cheered on our Bacon friends until the final matches and awards and closing ceremonies began.
After the championships were officially over, we made our way over to Centennial Park for the wrap party. We were dismayed when it started to sprinkle rain on our party, but thankfully the storm clouds passed promptly. We had fun going on the carnival rides, watching people attempt to sing at karaoke, and conversing with people from other teams. At the end of the night, the thunderous boom of the fireworks served as a final farewell to the awesomeness that was Atlanta. The shimmering fireworks waved goodbye to us as we walked back to our hotel to pack and get ready to depart early the next morning.
Though we didn’t win the championships, we knew that the cliché “everyone is a winner” couldn’t be truer. Aside from having the time of our lives in the sunny south, we became closer as a team. Whether we learned that it is okay to “just dance” or we discovered that a little team spirit takes us a long way, we endured everything the competition had to throw at us as one team, united. We are GUS, Team 228, and we are proud of all that we accomplished in Atlanta ’09.
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Pre-Championship Excitement
April 12, 2009With only mere days and hours separating us form the world championship in Atlanta, Georgia, team Gus is all abuzz with excitement. We are finishing packing up the tools into totes and adding the last touches to our angel wings. The team is also getting in some last minute driver practice and working on strategies. With being a 7th seed alliance pick at the Connecticut Regional and winning a Motorola Quality Award under our belts, Gus is planning on bringing our A-game to Atlanta. We wish the best of luck to all teams attending the championship event and we invite everyone to feel free to stop by our pit in the Newton division.
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Connecticut VEX Tournament
April 5, 2009On a pleasant Sunday, in the wonderful state of Connecticut, a VEX tournament was taking place at Central Connecticut State University. Thirty VEX teams from around the area took part in this event. Team Gus sponsored one team, which preformed very well. We were selected into the 7th seed alliance and made it into the quarter finals. Gus also was the recipient of the Amaze Award, awarded to us for an excellently and robustly designed robot. Team Gus had a fun time taking part in this event and would like to thank all the volunteers who made it possible.
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Connecticut Regional 2009
March 28, 2009
Early Thursday morning, team Gus met at our workshop and got ready to leave to go to Hartford for the Connecticut Regional. After almost three months of designing, building, and preparing, it was finally time to test our hard work. Armed with safety glasses, spare parts, and batteries, we were ready to face the challenging, yet fun days ahead. Over the course of the next few days, Gus performed very well in the qualifying matches. Gus can also proudly announce that our robot didn’t break once during the course of the competition! Team Gus also had a fun time welcoming Exploding Bacon (Team 1902) to the regional. Thank you for your cheering and scouting support throughout the competition. Oink, oink, BOOM!
One of the highlights of our competition was on Saturday when we were selected into the 7th seed alliance by the Gael Hawks, team 230. Along with the Techno Ticks, team 236, our alliance faced the second seeded alliance in the quarter finals. After two close matches, our alliance was knocked out of the running for winners of the regional. Thank you to our alliance partners for putting up a good fight. Team 228 would like to congratulate teams 1902, 1155, and 126 on your Regional win! Good Luck in Atlanta!
Finally, all the blood, sweat, and tears that we put into our robot this season was made worthwhile when our team was awarded the Motorola Quality Award. The judges liked our use of brushes on the wheels to keep them free of dust that accumulates during matches, as well as other design features. Gus is now looking forward to competing in Atlanta and wishes all teams attending the best of luck!
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The Build Season In Recap
February 17, 2009
This build season just flew by; one minute we were watching the live kickoff event, the next we were building prototypes, and next thing we know the Fedex truck is parked outside the shop to pick up the robot. Overall, this was one of our best build seasons so far for the team. We built two fully functioning robots, the competition and practice robots, all within the 6 week period. We also went to the Suffield Shakedown and made it into the semifinals. Finally, Gus 11 was shipped out on time and completed.
The team also did some problem solving this season by making “Gus Balls”. A Gus Ball is our team’s version of an Orbit Ball. We realized that there was a lack of this year’s playing field piece, so we decided to make our own versions of the moon rocks. Two of our team’s mentors wrote a white paper and made a video about how to make them so we could share this with other teams. We recognized that there was a problem so we found a solution that could help all teams, not just us.
Team Gus is now looking forward to the Hartford regional which is coming up at the end of March. In the next few weeks, we’re going to be strategizing and doing driver practice with our practice robot. In the meantime, good luck to all teams participating in all the regional competitions!
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Learn about our history!
From our rookie year of 1999 until the present, Team 228 has continued to grow, expand, and introduce and inspire an ever increasing number of students and mentors to FIRST through the FIRST Robotics Competition, the FIRST Vex Challenge, and the FIRST LEGO League. Read more...