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And the season begins! 2014 Game: Aerial Assist

On January 4th, Team 303
traveled to Montgomery
High School along with
many other teams from the
surrounding area to listen
to the announcement of
the 2014 FRC game. The
team was not sure what
to expect after the Game
Design Committee threw
a curveball last year with
the decreased robot size
and climbing aspect of the
game. Once again, we all
got a very surprising game.
Aerial Assist places
emphasis on cooperative
scoring and high-level in-
game strategy, in addition
to, overall robot design and
performance. The objec-
tive is to score as many
balls in goals as possible
during a 2 minute and 30
second match. The more
Alliances score their ball in
their goals, and the more
they work together to do
it, the more points their
alliance receives.
The team wasted no time
getting down to business,
even after a delay due to
inclement weather, and by
Tuesday, 1/7, was ready to
start prototyping several
potential game mecha-
nisms at their workshop
graciously provided by
their sponsor, STS Tire &
Auto! The team will be
building both a competi-
tion robot and a practice
robot this year. Expect up-
dates on both in the com-
ing weeks, then come see
their competition robot
play Aerial Assist at the
Bridgewater-Raritan MAR
District event on March
29th and 30th!
Issue 1
Jan. 2014
s p o n s o r
ne ws l e t t e r
FRC Team 303:
The TEST Team
Bridgewater-Raritan High School
2014 FRC Team 303:
The TEST Team
In this Issue:
1. FRC Competition
Season - 2014!
2. FRC Pre-Season
2. FTC Cookie Carnage!
2. FLL State Qualifyer
3. Brunswick Eruption!
3. Girl Power
3. Freshman Arrive
4. Community Outreach
FTC Cookie Carnage!
On December 6th, Team
303s two FIRST Tech
Challenge Teams, FTC
Teams 756 and 757,
descended upon their frst
meet of the FTC season.
Their season had been in-
terrupted numerous times
by the FRC teams intense
pre-season but that didnt
stop the crew! Their robot
performance could have
been better but they were
recognized for their out-
reach to the community
with the Connect Award.
Both teams have two more
events to attend and only
the best of the two will
be counted towards their
state ranking. So theres
still a very real chance we
may see a Bridgewater FTC
team at the State Champi-
onships for the second year
in a row.
FLL State Qualifyer!
During the fnal week of
November, the team got
together to throw one fnal
event for the community.
They hosted 22 FLL teams
at the Bridgewater-Rar-
itan Middle School for a
FIRST LEGO League State
Qualifying event. They
worked until they were
forced out the night before
to make sure the event
was set-up perfectly. The
event ran smoothly and
everyone had a fantastic
time. Team 303 members
ran and oversaw every part
of the event from refer-
eeing, building the felds
and bringing the teams to
judging. In the end, it was
a huge improvement from
the qualifer they host-
ed last year at Milltown
Elementary School, with a
much more relaxed and fun
atmosphere.
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FRC Pre-Season
Starting in November,
Team 303 was back in
action wanting to do ev-
erything possible to repeat
and exceed their past
years successes. The team
took a detailed look at their
drive base from Ultimate
Ascent and thought of
ways to improve it. After
that analysis, Team 303 got
together on the build side
and used the new design
to train new members and
veterans alike. The design
was completed in about a
month, meeting two days a
week. It was quickly clear
that it was a signifcant im-
provement from last years
design as it was able to
take the abuse of drivers
testing for two days and
never missed a beat! After
the design was completed,
the Build Leadership got
together and discussed
even further improvements
to be made for when they
start their robot fabrica-
tion for the 2014 competi-
tion season.
The completed practice drive
base
The teams Connect Award
certifcate!
Getting ready for the arrival of
the 22 teams!
2014 FRC Team 303:
The TEST Team
Upcoming Events:
2/15/14
MAR Pre-bag
Scrimmage
2/28/14 - 3/2/14
MAR Week 1:
Hatboro -Horsham
3/2/14
NJ FTC State
Championship
3/28/14 - 3/30/14
MAR Week 5:
Bridgewater-Raritan
4/5/14
Middle School Technical
Design Challenge
Brunswick Eruption!
Brunswick Eruption was Team
303s last post-season event
and fnal performance for their
Ultimate Ascent robot. The
robot did show some signs of
wear, which is understandable,
seeing as it had competed in ex-
cess of 100 matches up to that
point. That didnt stop the team
from giving an amazing perfor-
mance, making it to eliminations
with Team 25, the host, and
their sister team, Team 103. In
addition to the successful robot
performance, Team 303 was
awarded the Gracious Profes-
sionalism Award for the help
they gave other teams through-
out the season and their overall
positive spirit on and off the
feld.
Girl Power!
Early in October, Team 303
competed in their frst post-sea-
son event of the school year
and this event had a twist! Only
female team members were
allowed to be members of the
drive team. The fnal team was
composed of Dominique Dahl
(driver), Cat Librio (co-pilot),
Alessandra Sanchez (coach) and
Brianna Leary (human-player).
This posed an interesting chal-
lenge for many teams. Luckily,
Team 303 was prepared since
more than half of their drive
team was female during their
stint at the world championship
where they won their division as
alliance captains and went on to
become World Semi-Finalists.
This put them in a fantastic posi-
tion. The TEST Team ended the
competition undefeated in qual-
ifcation matches and went on
to become a fnalist as captain of
the number one alliance. Thats
not all though. The judges at
the event awarded Team 303
the Judges Award for capturing
the spirit of girl power.
Freshman Arival!
Team 303 wanted to get a
jumpstart on their 2014 season.
Before school had even been in
session for three weeks, Team
303 held their frst interest
meeting in the large cafeteria
at the high school. Two months
later, every new team mem-
ber had gained experience in
the world of robotics through
either participation the FIRST
Tech Challenge or working on
a prototype FIRST Robotics
Competition drive-base. The
TEST Team fnally closed their
doors to new members at their
fnal team meeting of the 2013
post-season. They made sever-
al key announcements, such as,
their 2014 event schedule and
updates on team leadership.
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Drive team talking with a close friend
of the team from Franklins 613
The drive team was sporting the prop-
er attire for the event
The sea of freshman at the frst meet-
ing
2014 FRC Team 303:
The TEST Team
Community Outreach
Over the summer, TEST Team
303 was showing off their 2012
Rebound Rumble robot to
everyone who attended the
Somerset County 4-H Fair.
They shot soft foam basketballs
into the audience and helped
get people of all ages interested
in robotics and engineering. On
top of that, Team 303 ran multi-
ple programming workshops at
the 4-H center for anyone inter-
ested in learning how to pro-
gram an NXT robot. After both
those great outreach events,
Team 303 also led programming
workshops at the Jewish Com-
munity Center in Bridgewater
to help kids interested in getting
a head start in programming
and engineering!
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Team 303 teaching both kids and
adults all about LEGO NXT Program-
ming
2014 FRC Team 303:
The TEST Team
thank you for your continued support!