FIRST Robotics Team STEMpunk #4531!
2017 STEAMworks Kickoff
Our local kickoff is at Valders High School in the Cafetorium at 9am this Saturday the 7th! Can't wait to see what FIRST has in store for us this year! We are geared up and ready for the 6-weeks we have to design, prototype and build a working industrial robot!
2nd Annual New-Year's Robo Faire is this Saturday!
Looking for something to keep the kids busy this holiday? Saturday December 31st 10am -2pm @ Two Rivers Community Center. Admission is Free! (though we are accepting donations). We are partnering with Star Splitters 4H and Nano Mech Bees to bring a hands-on fair for students in elementary through middle school. There will be lot's of interactive activities including Wrestling Robots, Balloon Powered Cars and building a Newspaper Bridge! Tons of fun for all ages!
Upcoming Events
Keep an eye on our calendar - lots of events and meetings coming up, not to mention the season kickoff at Valders High School on Saturday January 7th! Here's a quick rundown of the next couple weeks.
- Shop Safety Training - Monday December 26th 10am-2pm @ TRHS. If the front doors are locked, enter through Door# 3. Shop training is required for all team members. No-one can use power tools or work in the shop until they have completed this training. If you are able to, please try to make it to training December 26th or January 8th (see below).
- STEMpunk's New Year's Robot Faire - Saturday December 31st 10am -2pm @ Two Rivers Community Center. We are partnering with Star Splitters 4H and Nano Mech Bees to bring a hands-on fair for students in elementary through middle school. There will be lot's of interactive activities including Wrestling Robots, Balloon Powered Cars and building a Newspaper Bridge! Tons of fun for all ages!
- Season Kickoff January 7th, 9am-4pm @ Valders High School. This year's challenge will be unveiled via a live NASA webcast. We will work with the Valders team, Droid Rage, to break down the rules and brainstorm strategies for how we want to compete this year! Lunch is a potluck - please bring your own lunch or a dish to pass!
- Shop Safety Training - Sunday January 8th 1pm-5pm @ TRHS. If the front doors are locked, enter through Door# 3. Shop training is required for all team members. No-one can use power tools or work in the shop until they have completed this training. If you are able to, please try to make it to training December 26th or January 8th.
Information & Skill Building Night
December 7th & 14th
We had great turnout and a lot of new members at our Information and Skill Building Night! Last week they built a kitbot and mounted the electronics. This week we did a mock kickoff - everyone watched a game video from a previous challenge, read through the rules and brainstormed a strategy for the robot. This prepared everyone so they had an idea of the process and what to expect at Kickoff on January 7th!
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Lakeshore FIRST Lego League Tournament
Held at Lakeshore Technical College Saturday November 12th and Sunday November 13th from 8am to 4pm
Each day we are hosting over 25 Lego League teams from around the region to compete with their Lego robots as well as demonstrate their ideas and solutions to animal and humans working together to solve problems.
2017 FRC Game Teaser
FIRST has an EPIC game planned for the 25th year of competitions!
ROV Summercamp 2016 Highlights
Final ROV Summercamp of 2016
The future as an engineer is bright!
News article about FIRST and the Lakeshore FIRST Robotics presentation at EnergyBank in Manitowoc
Electronics Recycling Drive this Saturday!
5/21/16 Two Rivers Community Center from 9am to 1pm
STEMpunk is helping the Two Rivers High School Octagon Club with their annual electronics drive. We will be setup in the street in front of the Two Rivers Community Center, unloading your used, broken and unwanted electronics! We look forward to seeing you there!
Underwater ROV Summer Camp
STEMpunk is proud to be partnering with the Wisconsin Maritime Museum to provide this summer STEM opportunity to Middle School Students
STEMpunk #4531 First Robotics Competition Team and the Wisconsin Maritime Museum are partnering to provide a 2-day summer camp for middle school students where they will:
- Build a teathered underwater Remote Operated Vehicle.
- Operate the ROV in a pool, completing several games/challenges
- Apply math and science learned in school to the building and theory behind aquatic submersibles.
- Receive lessons and guidance from STEMpunk team members and mentors throughout the process.
- Weather permitting, the camp experience will include a trip out onto Lake Michigan to view shipwrecks in the proposed NOAA National Marine Sanctuary.
View/Download the camp flier and application here
NextEra Family Day
Thank you to everyone who came to the NextEra Energy Center for their Family Day event! We had a great time working with our sister team Droid Rage #3381 and showing off all levels of the program. There were over 300 people going through our Lego League, Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition robots, some even had a chance to drive! The FLL Team "Bottle Savers" was here showing potential recruits how to program the Lego robots, giving everyone hands on experience. A special thanks to the Fox 11 Good Morning Wisconsin show for their broadcast on Monday featuring our teams!
STEMpunk member Erik handing out trees for Earth Day |
Participant posing with the FTC "Drift Bot" |
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Students were croweded around the FIRST Lego League table the entire afternoon |
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FLL Team "Bottle Savers" showing attendees how to program the Lego NXT robots |
The drifting bot was a popular item at the event! |
Upcoming Events
Our competition season may be over, but the team has many plans and events over the upcoming months. Keep your eyes on the calendar for team meetings. If you have any personal projects or homework you are welcome to bring them. We are also working on better photo galleries for the website, stay tuned!
- Students/parents, check your emails for an invite to the end of year potluck and awards lunch
- NextEra Family Day, Sunday April 24th. 11am-4pm @ Nextera Energy Center
- Electronics Recycling Drive (we are assisting the TRHS Octagon Club) May 21st 11am - 4pm in front of the Two Rivers Community House
- Planning for FLL and FTC summer camps
- Summerfest Demo- Dates TBD
- Robofest - Dates TBD
Wisconsin Regional Update 3
Everyone made it home safe and sound. Thank you to all of the parents and friends who travelled to Milwaukee to cheer us on! The team had a great time cheering, presenting and competing in the very tough field of veteran teams! We have a lot of exciting outreach and team building events planned, stay tuned!
Wisconsin Regional Update 2
STEMpunk was awarded the 2016 Wisconsin Regional Imagery Award. "In honor of Jack Kamen, Dean's father, for his dedication to art and illustration and his devotion to FIRST. This award celebrates attractiveness in engineering and outstanding visual aesthetic integration of machine and team appearance."
Congratulations to Arrow Guetschow (Droid Rage #3381 mentor and founding mentor of STEMpunk) on being awarded the 2016 Wisconsin Regional Woody Flowers Award. "This award is presented to an outstanding Mentor in the robotics competition who best leads, inspires, teaches, and empowers their team using excellent communication skills." Congrats Arrow!
Wisconsin Regional Update 1
Despite blizzard warnings, the team made it to Milwaukee safe and sound! After mounting our ball shooter mechanism we are looking forward to competing in 10 matches over the next 2 days. Watch the live video feed on Wisconsin Regional website and At The Control.com.
Match |
Time |
Team |
W/L |
5 |
9:42 |
Blue 2 |
Win 49-40 |
11 |
10:28 |
Blue 2 |
Win 73-65 |
20 |
11:34 |
Blue 2 |
|
35 |
2:10 |
Blue 2 |
|
44* |
3:16 |
Red 1 |
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50 |
4:01 |
Red 3 |
|
56 |
4:46 |
Blue 3 |
|
66 |
9:07 Sat |
Red 1 |
|
79 |
10:44 Sat |
Red 3 |
|
87 |
11:43 Sat |
Red 1 |
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Wisconsin Regional here we come!
The team spent the last couple weeks working on upgrades for the robot. In addition to our multiple autonomous modes (Cheval-de-freise, portcullis and low bar) and experienced drive team in teleop-mode, we will soon be able to shoot low goals! We are geared up and ready to compete in Milwaukee this weekend!
Lake Superior Regional - Duluth
Saturday Update
STEMpunk was graciously chosen to compete on the 6th seed alliance by Team #2538 The Plaid Pillagers and Team #2823 The Automatons. After defeating the 3rd seed alliance in the quarterfinals we went on to win our first match of the semifinal round versus the 2nd seed alliance. Unfortunately we didn't make it through to the finals match, but were excited none the less to be chosen to compete side by side with these 2 teams. Good luck in future competitions!
Keep an eye on the website for our Lake Superior Regional highlight video that is currently in the works!
Lake Superior Regional - Duluth
Friday Update
We are continuing to improve our strategy and gaining drive time and experience with the many game obstacles. We now have multiple different choices for our autonomous mode, either going under the lowbar, under the portcullis and driving up to an obstacle but not over it. We finished the day today dialing in the mode to traverse the cheval-de-freise which is exceptionally challenging. We have 2 matches tomorrow morning - check us out around 10:45am and 12:08pm on NASA.gov
Lake Superior Regional - Duluth
Thursday Update
We made it to Duluth safe and sound, were running for all of our practice matches and passed the robot inspection! We have a few minor upgrades to make to the robot for Qualification matches tomorrow. Watch our matches live-streamed at NASA.gov Our Match Schedule is:
| Match | Day | Time |
| Q9 | FRIDAY 3/4 | 9:59 am |
| Q14 | FRIDAY 3/4 | 10:34 am |
| Q28 | FRIDAY 3/4 | 1:18 pm |
| Q38 | FRIDAY 3/4 | 2:31 pm |
| Q47 | FRIDAY 3/4 | 3:34 pm |
| Q53 | FRDAY 3/4I | 4:19 pm |
| Q73 | SATURDAY 3/5 | 10:48 am |
| Q84 | SATURDAY 3/5 | 12:08 pm |
