FTC Team #4092 - The Nanites

March Update!

2014-03-12T15:03:00.000-07:00

Long time since a post on the blog!

(Heads up that most news and updates are posted on our Facebook page.)

Anyway, this season we decided to participate in the Washington FTC league, and were able to advance to the upcoming FTC West Super-Regional Championship through receiving the 2nd Place Inspire award. It was also great to participate in our own Oregon FTC league for the last time!

Besides the competitions, we've also been busy with helping better incorporate STEAM into our community. We've helped start new teams at our school, Lincoln High School, and we now have a total of 10 FTC teams this season! We've also helped to start and fund computer science and robotics classes at LHS, and have done demonstrations at public events. For more about the outreach we've done, click here.

We're looking forward to the tournament in Sacramento, and are excited to meet with the mix of teams that will be participating!

The Nanites (#4092) at the Washington State Championship!

August 10 TECH Talk

2013-07-30T14:27:00.002-07:00

On August 10th from 2-5 PM, the Nanites will be hosting a TECH Talk event at the Engineering Auditorium of Portland State’s Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science. Free and open to all, the event will be a student-driven technology conference: students will learn from professionals and present to each other. It will be an amazing opportunity for the young STEM community to see the amazing work their colleagues do, and to show of their own work to others.

TECH Talk
2 PM - 5 PM
Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science
Engineering Building Auditorium (EB120)
1930 SW Fourth Ave.

If you are interested in presenting, please RSVP here.

For more details, email nanites4092@gmail.com

TECH Talk - May!

2013-04-16T22:25:00.003-07:00

The Nanites are organizing their first TECH Talk, set to pilot on May 4th, at Intel (Hawthorne Farm Campus Auditorium) from 1-5pm.

Everyone is invited to this STEM extravaganza - come see both professionals and students present and have fun! RSVP and learn more at the TECH Talk website.

Hosting the 2/23 OMSI Qualifier!

2013-02-22T21:08:00.001-08:00

Live updates of match results and etc. can be found on Twitter @omsiQT!

Third week of four consecutive weeks of robotics tournaments.

Friday 2/22 - Finished set up of auditorium, pits, and practice table at OMSI. Excited to see everyone tomorrow!

Saturday 2/23 - Successful day of running the first OMSI qualifying tournament!

Giving out "Ring It Up" themed donuts to teams that pass inspection

Team meeting with our emcees and student tournament director!

Food always brings the smiles.

Exciting day finishes with finalist selections and rounds!

Hood River Valley Qualifying Tournament!

2013-02-16T10:45:00.001-08:00

Second week of four consecutive weeks of robotics tournaments...

(Updated live from HRV High School!)

9:00am - hardware, software, field... Check, check and check! Also, free doughnuts for being the first team to clear inspection!
11:30am - finished the formal technical judging!

Heading to the field to watch matches

1:30pm - Won first three rounds... but the fishing line on scissor lift snapped. Working to fix it... this seems to be an issue.

Fixing the fishing line

2:30pm - Undefeated first seated team! (Second tournament this year being undefeated in qualifying rounds! Which hasn't happened in our last two years...)

4092!

5:00pm - After many exciting rounds, and one round where we forgot to plug in wires to the NXT (oops), we become the winning alliance with team #5938 the Loose Screws! Besides this, we also receive the Think award!

One of the final matches

Think Award!

Winning Alliance!
(excuse old banner)

This was a fun & exciting tournament, next up: the OMSI Qualifying Tournament we are hosting on Saturday, February 23rd!

NEW CS CLASSES @ LINCOLN HS

2013-02-11T17:57:00.003-08:00

Working alongside professionals, administrators, and teachers, the Nanites have put two computer science classes on the Lincoln High School's Course Guide for the 2013-2014 school year!

Lincoln hasn't had a computer science related class in years, so this is exciting news!

View the entire course guide here. (Pg. 47 lists the CS classes)

St. Helens Qualifying Tournament

2013-02-09T20:47:00.001-08:00

Thus starts the first of four consecutive weeks of robotics tournaments...

At their first tournament of the season, the Nanites won all of the first five rounds of the competition and end up as captain of the second team of four in the semi-finals. Partnered in an alliance with the Tiger Team (4586) and the Dead Ringers (3535), the Nanites finish off the day by winning the game competition. Additionally, the Nanites also won the Inspire award and look forward to the qualifying tournament at Hood River next week!

Winning Alliance!

Our beautiful drivers & coach

Game on!

Inspire!

Feels good to see so much red.

Ready for competition!

2013-02-08T22:43:00.001-08:00

Our first tournament is tomorrow!
Some last minute fixes and we'll see everyone bright and early! Good luck!

One week to first tournament!

2013-02-03T10:09:00.003-08:00

The Nanites are going to their first qualifying tournament this weekend! The tournament will be on February 9th, and will be held at St. Helens High School. We're working on some final additions to the robot, and hopefully it will all be ready for the weekend. Looking forward to having a great time on Saturday!

Nanites to Host Qualifying Tournament

2012-11-14T17:27:00.003-08:00

We are excited to announce that our team will be hosting an ORTOP Qualifying Tournament this season! The event will be at OMSI on February 23rd, and we are looking forward to seeing and meeting the wonderful members of the Oregon FTC community. If you or anyone you know is interested in volunteering at this event, we welcome and encourage your help. Feel free to comment on this post with your contact information, or to email us at nanites4092@gmail.com

The Nanites can't wait for the tournament season to start!

Nanites present at PNSQC

2012-10-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

At the 30th Annual Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference, the Nanites were honored to conduct a paper presentation entitled "Engineering Quality in the Robotic World". The presentation at the World Trade Center was well-received by members of the professional software community; the Nanites discussed their experiences in FIRST robotics throughout FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Tech Challenge, the error and inaccuracies of the sensors initially used in FTC and the Nanites' solutions to the problems of unreliable orientation and position information.

The presenting team (from left to right: Ethan Takla, Jeffery Wang, Vicki Niu, Ida Chow, and MacLean Freed). Photo courtesy of Michael Larsen.

The Nanites answering questions from the software community after their presentation

One of the Nanites fielding queries during a poster session

The poster, PowerPoint presentation, and paper will be available online in a few months, and we will post them when they are!

New FREE Robotics Summer Camp! (@ the Forest Heights Robotics Center)

2012-08-16T15:52:00.001-07:00

After being set up months ago, looks like the Forest Heights Robotics Center is continuing to invite people to get involved in science and engineering. There have been a couple open houses, gathering many interested people, and now a summer camp is being started up.

If any of you live in the Forest Heights (NW Portland) area, you might be interested in a upcoming FREE robotics day camp, right in your local Forest Heights Village Center. Started by one of the local teams here in Forest Heights, this week long camp will introduce kids (ages 9-14) to the basics of robotics and the amazing FIRST LEGO League program.

For more information, as well as sign up, click below:
http://robotcamp.yolasite.com/

Limited spots, hurry to sign up!

National Robotics Week Comes to Forest Heights

2012-04-01T11:22:00.001-07:00

The Nanites helped write an article to help introduce robotics to their local community!

http://www.fhhoa.com/news/national-robotics-week-comes-to-forest-heights/

The actual article published in the newsletter can be found on pg. 16 here:

http://www.fhhoa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/April2012newsletter.pdf

2 week old robot lifts @ St. Helens

2012-02-18T13:01:00.001-08:00

The robot we finished last night sucessfully lifted a crate in the first round of the competition!

PTC Model: FTC Chain Sprocket (16 tooth)

2012-02-17T15:15:00.000-08:00

(edited Feb. 17th 2012)

Hi everyone!
I've created a CAD model for the FTC Chain Sprocket (to go with the outer and inner chain models we've made previously), for the software PTC/ProE. (:
Click the image preview below to download...

Visit our site's PTC CAD Models Page for other CAD models made by our team. (:

I'm going to change the world... (VIDEO)

2012-02-14T20:35:00.000-08:00

Here's our submission for the FTC Promote award, that follows this year's theme "I'm going to change the world"!

I'm going to change the world...

Find out more about FTC and what we do on our website:
http://nanites.zymichost.com
and also view our other videos on Youtube:
http://youtube.com/nanitesvideo

PTC Model: FTC Inner Chain

2012-02-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

(edited Feb. 13th 2012)

Hi everyone!
I've now also created a CAD model for the FTC TETRIX Inner Chain to accompany the outer chain, for the software PTC/ProE. (:
Click the image preview below to download...

Visit our site's PTC CAD Models Page for other CAD models made by our team. (:

PTC Model: FTC Outer Chain

2012-02-13T21:11:00.000-08:00

(edited Feb. 13th 2012)

Hi everyone!
I've created a CAD model for the FTC TETRIX Outer Chain (inner chain coming soon!), for the software PTC/ProE. (:
Click the image preview below to download...

Visit our site's PTC CAD Models Page for other CAD models made by our team. (:

Farewell Robot!

2012-02-08T21:26:00.000-08:00

After deciding that our qualifying tournament robot wasn't quite up to part, we've now decided to start fresh. 3 weeks left on the clock... hopefully we can pull this off. :)

Other updates, we've raised over $600 from the Pizzicato and Pastini fundraisers! Thanks to all who came and supported Lincoln's robotics programs!

And finally, for those teams also going to the state competition, good luck, and see you there!

Reminder: Pizzicato Fundraiser for LINCOLN

2012-01-22T18:44:00.000-08:00

Do you live in the Portland area?

If so, please come by to PSU (Portland State University) campus' Pizzicato, as a percentage of their profits for that day will go towards Lincoln High School! (This includes all our robotics programs - FTC, FRC, and MATE)

Save the date, it's coming soon!
This Tuesday, January 24th, 2012, ALL DAY!

- The Nanites Robotics Team

FLL STATE TOURNAMENT 2012

2012-01-15T11:42:00.001-08:00

The Nanites currently at the Liberty High FLL state tournament, for the sideline FTC scrimmage. Good luck to all teams!

Pizzicato DOUGH FOR DOLLARS Fundraiser

2011-12-30T10:22:00.000-08:00

We have a new website: http://nanites.zymichost.com !

JANUARY 24th, 2011: Pizzicato and Lincoln High School are holding the Dough For Dollars event where 20% of net proceeds that day will go towards Lincoln.
Eat at the PSU Pizzicato location and help raise money for Lincoln's clubs (including our FTC team!).

PASTINI PASTA-THON

2011-12-18T09:35:00.000-08:00

Fundraiser for Lincoln Robotics! (FRC and FTC Teams)
Mention us as you order and we get some of the money! :)

Today and tomorrow at Pastini Pastaria, @ 23rd and Quimby.

Please come!

- Ida

Tour at Vernier!

2011-06-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

Recently the Nanites, along with a few more people from the community, were invited to take a tour of the Vernier building. It was a cool experience, being able to see how the company works and what careers are available at a company like Vernier.

Thanks so much to Vernier for letting us experience this!

Summer Camp Application Opens Tomorrow!

2011-03-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

This summer, we are hosting a summer camp for kids 9-14 to learn and experience more about robotics! The site can be found here, or by clicking the banner below.

The camp, is a very minimal fee, and is open to everyone, but requires an application, which can be found here. For more information, view the actual summer camp post here.

Application opens tomorrow (Wednesday, March 30th), and closes on Wednesday, June 1st!

Feel free to email all questions, comments, and concerns to nanites4092@gmail.com.

-- The Nanites Summer Camp Team