Showing posts with label robotics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label robotics. Show all posts

Team Pronto robotics hosts 32 teams at major event Saturday and Sunday at Shorewood

Monday, March 23, 2015

Team Pronto stands by in the staging area waiting to move #3070 onto the competition arena.

For six weeks, more than 4,000 high school students from Oregon and Washington have been building robots that can complete trash pickup and recycling tasks for this year’s FIRST Robotics challenge theme – Recycle RushSM. Last weekend, 32 of the 152 teams across the PNW District met to put those robots to the test at Shorewood High School, March 21-22, 2015.

Wes Proudlove and Pronto team member

Shorewood's Teacher/Advisor is Wes Proudlove, whose Team Pronto was well represented by two groups in competition and a large group of students and teachers wearing Team Pronto colors. The group includes students from Shorecrest as well as Shorewood.

#3070 arrives at the gate.

FIRST Robotics, a sport of science, technology and teamwork, makes STEM “cool” for students. It provides the opportunity to work under the guidance of engineering and business mentors who volunteer their time and talents to teach valuable engineering, project management and entrepreneurship skills.

Team Pronto's Operator/Driver at controls.


Report and photos from Jerry Pickard

Shorewood High School hosted the 2014/2015 Robotics Competition Saturday and Sunday, March 21st and 22nd. The event was well attended and the competition was fierce. Robots were judged on their ability to stack plastic bins and garbage cans in a timed event. The Robots were engineered and built by students under the direction of their Teacher/Advisors.


Picking up tubs.

#3070 building a stack.

The Arena was divided into two sections, and three teams competed on each section for each match.  Here teams stage between rounds waiting to enter the Arena.

Team Pronto manned the Student Store selling hamburgers, chips and assorted drinks during the event.

A separate area for set up/debugging and repair was in the lunchroom.


The event was well set up and ran smoothly.  The attendance was high Saturday afternoon while I was in attendance probably exceeding 1000 people at any one time.

The event makes STEM "cool".


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Robotics events

Friday, March 20, 2015

The 2014/2015 PNW FIRST Robotics Shorewood District Event (Qualifying Event) will take place at Shorewood High School this weekend, March 21- 22. 17300 Fremont Ave N. Team events begin at 8am both days.

The final rounds are 11:45 to 3pm and the awards ceremonies are 3-4pm.

The public is invited.



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Cheer on Shorecrest / Shorewood's Robotics team Saturday and Sunday

Get set to ROCK THE HOUSE at Shorewood's Second Annual Robotics Event this weekend, the 21st and 22nd.

Shorewood/Shorecrest's own Team Pronto will be competing for honor and glory. Last year was a hard fought event with Team Pronto coming up one win short of the championship. This year we are ready to go one step further.    

The event is call Recycle Rush. Robots are to stack large plastic totes, 40 gallon garbage cans, and litter into high piles on the floor. This battle happens fast and furiously with stacks as high as 11 feet high being stacked by robots controlled by students. Sometimes those high stacks coming crashing down to the floor causing robot dreams to fade away.  

Team Pronto's 53 members will be on hand to greet community members to the largest event this town has ever seen. This is free to the public so come out and see what great things our students can do with their brains, bodies and souls. Team Pronto's own all girl drive team will be making an appearance again. 

Come and cheer on the team - you won’t be disappointed. 

--Wes Proudlove


The 2014/2015 PNW FIRST Robotics Shorewood District Event (Qualifying Event) will take place at Shorewood High School this weekend, March 21- 22. 17300 Fremont Ave N. Team events begin at 8am both days.

The final rounds are 11:45 to 3pm and the awards ceremonies are 3-4pm.

The public is invited.

Updated 3-20-2015 7:34am 



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Shorewood All Girl Robotics Team

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Oliva Anderson, Carly Krantz,  Kate Parkinson, and Anna Soper.
Shorewood All Girl Robotics Team


The Shorewood All Girl Robotics Competition Team went to an event in Mount Vernon this last weekend.

The members are: Oliva Anderson (field captain) Carly Krantz (on field computer programing and trouble shooter), Kate Parkinson (robot driver), Anna Soper (human player tote shoot and noodle thrower).

The 2014/2015 PNW FIRST Robotics Shorewood District Event (Qualifying Event) will take place at Shorewood High School this weekend, March 21- 22. 17300 Fremont Ave N. Team events begin at 8am both days.

The final rounds are 11:45 to 3pm and the awards ceremonies are 3-4pm.

The public is invited.



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Team Pronto members get ready for another season of competition

Monday, February 16, 2015

2012 Team with Hank in competition
Photo by Veronica Cook

By Wesley Proudlove

Another Team Pronto build season has almost come to an end.  The members of Team Pronto have been working hard the past six weeks to build a robot to compete in the FIRST Robotics competitions. 

Each year 100,000 students from all over the world are given a challenge to design, build and program a robot all these tasks must be completed in only 6 weeks.

The robot showed up at a 2013
Shorewood open house
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

2015's robotics event involves the robots working with other robotics teams to build and stack totes that weigh 7.8 pounds with a capacity of 2.3 cubic feet each. The higher the stacks of totes the more points an alliance can score. By stacking the totes teams will be simulating what goes on in a recycling yard with the separation of recycled materials.  Hence the name of this years event is Recycle Rush.

Once the totes are stacked a 60 gallon garbage can will be added to the top of the stack for extra points. The stacks will only count for scoring if its happens on a section of the playing field that is slightly raised from the rest of the field.  This raised scoring section is covered in a very slippery material. This will be a challenge but not a challenge that Team Pronto will shy away from.

Chuck was the 2014 model

Just like last year Shorewood High School and the Shoreline School District will host an event right here at Shorewood March 21st and 22nd. Shorewood is only 1 of 10 events in WA, OR and ID to host an event and this gives Team Pronto a huge advantage competing in front of a home crowd. 30 teams from all over the region will compete for a chance to make enough points to make it to regionals at EWU. The top 16 teams at the EWU event will get an invite to the world championships in St Louis first week of April.      

A little history of Team Pronto

Team Pronto was founded at Shorewood High School seven years ago when four students talked an over-worked, over-tired Automotive Teacher into taking on the world of robotics with them. These original team members promised it would be just a few weeks a year.

What started with those four energetic students quickly grew to 12 students that first year. The tired automotive instructor got engineering mentor help for the students from UW Robotics Lab and Boeing Company. That first year's robot did indeed compete and compete well, ending the Seattle competition ranked 1st out of 64 teams. In the finals Team Pronto just missed a trip to the world championships.

2014 Team Pronto

Flash forward to 2015. Team Pronto has grown to not just involve Shorewood students but also Shorecrest students, home school students and any brave soul that would like to have fun. The ranks have swollen to 68 student team members and 9 mentors. The mentors come from companies and schools such as Boeing, Micorsoft, UW, SCC and Amazon along with one still very tired, over- worked automotive teacher.

Team Pronto Robotics is now a year-round club with many outreach events hosted and attended by Team Pronto members. Just a sampling of the past years events reveals that Team Pronto has brought its past robots to events at elementary schools, middle schools and Shoreline Community College. The robots have performed at outdoor movies for this past summer and brought attention to STEM events thoughout the district.


2013 competition involved a teeter board

Team Pronto members are busy building at the Shorewood Auto Shop/ Robotics Lab.  The last few hours before  packing up the robot is always filled with pressure, laughs and lots of snacks. The new yet unnamed robot must be packed up Tuesday by 9pm to await the first competition of the year at Mount Vernon High School March 14th and 15th.   

I look back at past students who have proudly worn the name Team Pronto on their shirts and I am filled with huge pride. Past members of Team Pronto have gone on to great success in engineering, bio-mechanical robotics, underwater robotics, windmill building, Tesla electric cars, computer sciences, hybrid automotive technicians, and so many more past members await their college graduations so they can also enter the world with all the skills they have gained at Team Pronto Robotics.


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Terrific Techbots, Robogators, and Blue Angels battle it out at SCC LegoLeague event

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Blue Angels prepare for battle
Text and photos from SCC

Middle- and elementary-age students from across Western Washington gathered at Shoreline Community College, Jan. 17-18, 2015 for the First Lego League Western Washington Semifinal Tournament.

First Lego League is a robotic competition and sponsored in Washington by Washington First Robotics, organized to engage young people in science and technology. The semifinal event at Shoreline was one of two in Western Washington with the other in Lacey, Wash. A team from The Evergreen School in Shoreline, The Electric Gladiators, participated in the event.

BattleBot

Shoreline is well-known for its science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs. The college hosts a number of STEM-focused events during the year, including the Shoreline STEM Festival, the Shoreline Math Olympiad, Project Biotech summer camp and others.

RoboGator focuses on the program

Participants in First Lego League have three primary activities that culminate in a competition with other teams at a regional tournament:

    Build and program a small robot to accomplish challenges,
    Investigate a research topic then prepare a presentation
    Build a team

About 30 percent of the teams at the semifinal tournaments will advance to the Western Washington State FLL Championship tournament on Jan. 31, 2015 at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Wash.


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FIRST WA Lego League semi finals at SCC this weekend

Friday, January 16, 2015


The FIRST WA Lego League semi-finals competitions continue this weekend at Shoreline Community College. Nearly 6,000 Washington State students are participating in FLL this year in grades 4th-8th. 

60 teams, from cities all over Puget Sound, are registered for the event. Representing Shoreline is the Electric Gladiators team from The Evergreen School, a private school for the gifted on Meridian Ave N.
January 17 and 18, 2015 (Saturday and Sunday), Shoreline Community College gymnasium 16101 Greenwood Ave N (maps)

Schedule:
8:00 am Team Check-in 
9:00 am – 4:30 pm Visit the pits to talk to the teams about their robots and see what they can do!
9:00 am Judge Sessions Begin
12:30 pm  Opening Ceremonies
12:45 pm  Robot Competitions
4:30 pm Awards Ceremony
Concessions will be available for sale

NOTE: Schedule subject to change. Final schedules provided day of competition.

FIRST WA strives to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership. For details about the First WA Lego League, see the web page.


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Chuck the Robot fights valiantly but injuries bring him down

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

2014 Team Pronto with Chuck
By Wes Proudlove, Team Pronto

Team Pronto competes in Portland
Shorewood's own Team Pronto competed last week in Portland at the first PNW regionals for high school robotics. There were 155 teams that registered for the PNW and these teams have been competing for two months for a spot at the Portland event. Team Pronto did qualify to attend, ranking 25th, beating out some very highly sponsored and well funded teams from private and public schools as far south as northern California and as far east as Montana.  

Chuck started out a little worse for wear
Team Pronto's robot Chuck came into the Portland event a little worse for wear from the many previous matches he had played in at previous events. The students had six hours starting Wednesday night and ending Thursday morning to not only replace broken and damaged parts but to rewire Chuck's controls in hopes of stop the electrical demons that had cropped up during some matches at previous events. Testing late Thursday morning provided the team with hope the repairs had done the job and Chuck was ready to make his creators happy.  

Double teaming was destroying Chuck
Competition rounds started Thursday afternoon and continued for 11 hours Friday and another 4 hours Saturday. There were 63 teams at the Portland event and each round that a team plays they are randomly placed with two other alliance teams to play against three other teams in a separate alliance. With teams being randomly sorted to compete, sometimes you get partnered with complementary teams and other times robots don't align very well at all. With Chuck being a strong offensive robot, the best alignment would be either with other scoring robots or very defensive robots, but luck had it Chuck was usually the strongest robot on the field and this caused the other teams to double team him.

Chuck battled until the end
A change of strategy for Chuck
After a few rounds of competing it was evident something had to change. Team Pronto decided, through the great scouting of the team's scouts, that Chuck could give up scoring for a few matches and begin to become a defensive machine in hope of stopping the double teaming that was destroying Chuck's chances of moving on to the finals.

The new strategy worked for a while but Chuck took some huge hits
This defensive posture worked for a few rounds. Chuck collected some wins and brought down some alliances, but in the end it was to late. Chuck had sustained some huge hits that left his hardened frame bent and twisted and his drive train crippled by open circuits. The electrical demons had returned but this time they decided to cause the radio system to go down during a pivotal match. Team Pronto and Chuck were still ranked very high out of the 155 teams but had dropped below the cut off point to travel to the World Championships later this month.  

Nothing to be ashamed of
Team Pronto has nothing to be ashamed about. They built Chuck in six weeks, competed great, and even hosted an event at Shorewood. Team Pronto ranked far higher than teams with budgets 10 times greater than theirs. Team Pronto would like to thank its mentors, parents, sponsors, Shorewood High School, and the Shoreline School District.


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Team Pronto Robotics and the FIRST Robotics event at Shorewood

Monday, March 24, 2014

Over 2,000 people attended the 3 day event at Shorewood
Here, the teams gather in The Commons
Photo by Wesley Proudlove

By Wesley Proudlove

What a great time was had by all this past Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the Shorewood FIRST robotics event. 33 teams from all over the state arrived Thursday afternoon and right away they got started getting their robots through tech inspection along with building team pits in our auxiliary gym. Teams all worked until 10pm Thursday getting ready to compete first thing Friday morning. 

Your Team Pronto had a rough start, losing their first two matches, then a tie in another match. This didn't affect our students as they have been behind before and knew they could easily rattle off some wins to catch up. By late afternoon Friday things started to come together. Pronto collected some wins and we started to climb the leader board. We ended Friday with a record of 4-4-1 -- not impressive but enough to get us into 16th place overall. 

The team came back energized on Saturday with a goal to make it into one of the top eight positions so we could create our own alliance and destiny in the finals later that day. Pronto started out hard with a win that was soon followed up with another, then another win. Chuck the Robot had really started to move, the drive team had worked out its concerns, and all was running smoothly. When the qualifying matches were done, Pronto had moved up into 6th place -- good enough to allow us to pick our own alliance teams for the final rounds. 

Team Pronto and Chuck the Robot
 
Pronto's head scout had a plan and she stuck to it to find teams that complemented our robot and drive team so we could score as many points as possible without being too defensive so as to save our robot from damage. All final matches are the best 2 out of 3. In the first quarter-final match, a freak jamming of the ball into Chuck's shooting mechanism left us without the ability to score. With this first loss behind them, Pronto started up on match 2 of the quarter-finals and outscored the opposing alliance. With a new vigor, the team took the field for the 3rd and final quarter-final match and the scoring didn't stop. Pronto scored 199 points, over-doubling the other alliance's point total. Pronto was on the way to the semi-finals.

Pronto knew the semi-finals were not going to be a push-over so their alliance came out firing from the first possession and never looked back. Pronto's alliance again way out-scored the opposing teams. This left just one win to make it to the finals. In the second match of the semis, Pronto's alliance didn't let up and continued to score at will, winning their semi-final games to lead them to the finals.

There is only 5 minutes between semi-final rounds and the finals so Pronto had to make some fast decisions as to what to do with a drivetrain problem that had come up with Chuck. Through quick thinking, the students found a broken wire to a wheel controller and replaced in on the way to the field. 

The scoring rampage that Team Pronto's alliance had been on was being well observed by the other teams that would compete against Pronto. The final matches soon became a game of pinning Chuck against the walls with two robots and not allowing him to break free and score. Through the double teaming, Chuck started to show some concerns as his drive motors overheated and slowed any movement to a crawl. Even at a crawl, the drivers and Chuck were scoring not in triple digits like before but into the 90s. Pronto ended up losing in the finals, but what a battle was fought to get them there.

Team Pronto was awarded the second place trophy at the closing ceremonies and to their surprise was also awarded a national engineering award for the vacuum suction arm used to pick up balls off the field of play. Both of these awards will add to Pronto's point total to make it to Portland for the regional event. 

Coming into the Shorewood event Pronto was ranked 43rd out of 150 teams in our region. After the event Pronto had climbed to 15th in the region almost assuring a trip to the event in Portland in April. The team members, mentors and families would like to send out a great big thanks to Shorewood administration for allowing us to have this event here. Thanks to the school board members who attended the event on Friday -- it means so much to the team to get recognition. Big thanks for the custodians for all the hard work making sure Shorewood looks so great for all our guests. Estimates over the competition days were that we had over 2000 people attending along with hundreds of middle school kids from other districts that were taking a field trip to the event on Friday.


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Start clearing your files - Shred-it event on March 29

Thursday, March 20, 2014


Help protect yourself from identity theft! 

A community paper shredding event will be held on Saturday, March 29 from 11am – 1pm at the upper Sears parking lot in Shoreline.

The cost is by donation with all proceeds benefiting the American Cancer Society through the Shoreline/N. Seattle Relay for Life. Shred-it will have a truck on-site just off the N 155th entrance near the bank and Central Market.


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Bring the family to the Robotics District Event Friday, Saturday

Wednesday, March 19, 2014


Pits open 8am, matches begin 11am on Friday at Shorewood High School, and 9:30am on Saturday.
See Shorewood's Team Pronto and King's CyberKnights.

Shorewood High School, 17300 Fremont Ave N, Shoreline 98133.

Free admission - open to the public.


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Shorewood to host qualifying events for two-state robotics program

Monday, March 17, 2014

Photo by Steven H. Robinson
Shorewood High School will host one of the qualifying events for FIRSTWA and FIRST®, the organizations who sponsor high school Robotics programs. 

The event will be held Friday and Saturday, March 21 and 22 from 8am to 6pm, with competitions starting following the opening ceremonies at 11am Friday at the new Shorewood High School commons and gymnasium, 17300 Fremont Ave N in Shoreline.

Over 700 students, ages 14 to 18 from 33 teams across Washington and Oregon will gather to compete in this year’s FIRST Robotics Challenge where the action never stops, AERIAL ASSIST. This event is hosted by Shorewood’s own Team Pronto 3070, coached by teacher Wesley Proudlove. Both Shorecrest and Shorewood High Schools will be offering new courses in robotics beginning next fall.

AERIAL ASSIST is played by two competing Alliances of three robots each on a 25’ x 54’ field, straddled by a truss suspended just over five feet above the floor. Alliances try to score as many balls in goals as possible during a 2-1/2-minute 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.

Winning teams will advance to the Pacific Northwest Championship at Portland Oregon’s Memorial Coliseum on April 10. Regional winners move on to the national competition in St. Louis.

FIRST Robotics is a sport of science, technology and teamwork, combining the tremendous opportunity to develop STEM skills under the guidance of professional engineering and business mentors who volunteer their time and talents to teach the students valuable engineering, project management and entrepreneurship skills.  FIRST Robotics teams are challenged to design and build a robot in six weeks based on an annual themed challenge under strict rules, limited resources, and tight time constraints.

Students involved in FIRST are eligible for 900 individual scholarship opportunities with a total value of over $19 million.

Affiliated with U.S.FIRST, Washington FIRST Robotics designs accessible, innovative programs that motivate young people to pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, while building self-confidence, teamwork, and life skills.

For more information, visit the Team Pronto 3070 website, or FIRSTWA and FIRST®.


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2000 people expected at Robotics District qualifying event at Shorewood March 21-22

Sunday, February 2, 2014

2013 Robots
By Berta Niyazova, Shorewood Robotics Team

The 2014 PNW FIRST® Robotics Shorewood District Event (Qualifying Event) will be held on March 21-22, 2014 at Shorewood, organized by FIRSTWA with an expected attendance of 2,000 people.

Come support Team Pronto 3070- a FIRST® Robotics team made up of Shorewood students and a new team member from Shorecrest High School.

Come help Team Pronto win the Spirit Award, visit our pit area for free buttons and a free Team Pronto spirit item!

On January 4th at the FRC Kickoff, it was revealed that the competition event is Aerial Assist, a game of passing, throwing, catching and scoring. In addition, the teams have to construct robots to be able to pass balls throughout different zones to their alliance robots. We only have 6 weeks to design and build a robot.

At the event, there will be at least 32 other teams -- all tasked with the same objective, but there are always so many different kinds of robots.

The robots cannot weigh more than 120 pounds, or be more than 5 feet tall.

Come to the event to see what Team Pronto's robot can do!

Team Pronto meets every day after school until 8, and on Saturdays from 11-6.

If you want to come visit us, email to inform us of your arrival -- we want you to be safe here!
  
Please come and support us!

FIRSTWA is a member of the national organization USFIRST.



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King's High School robotics team places second at World Championships

Thursday, May 2, 2013

The King’s High School Robotics Team, CyberKnights,
took second place in the FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics World Championship 

CyberKnights Team Recognized for Innovation and Design

King’s High School is excited to announce that its robotics team, CyberKnights (team number 3717), placed second at the 2013 FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics World Championship, held in St. Louis from April 24 to 27, 2013. The team faced off against 128 of the top international high school robotics teams and finished first in its division to secure a spot in the championship round.

“Our students were simply amazing and I am extremely proud of their hard work and dedication,” said Mikel Thompson, robotics coach for King’s High School. “They shined as the best and the brightest during the competition and throughout the judging process, performing at the highest levels under extreme pressure.”

A panel of judges recognized the CyberKnights with the Rockwell Collins Innovation Award, given to the team with the most innovative and creative robot design. The CyberKnights team was also selected as runner-up for the Inspire Award, recognizing excellence in robot design and teamwork, and the PTC Design Award for teams that incorporate industrial design elements that are both functional and aesthetic.

Students showed off the team’s robot to the judging panel
at the FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics World Championship
in St. Louis April 24-27

King’s High School students ranging from 14 to 19 years old spent more than 5,000 hours planning, developing and building working robots to showcase in the international competition. The team secured a spot in the FTC World Championship with a first-place finish in the Washington state robotics championship in January, its fourth consecutive year as state champion.

The FTC World Championship welcomes teams from around the world including Russia, Scandinavia, Australia, the Middle East, Central America and the Pacific Rim, fostering hands-on learning in the fields of math, science and engineering. Students have the opportunity to interact with leaders from major technology corporations and engineering universities during the event, and participants have the opportunity to qualify for more than $10.4 million in college scholarships.

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The joy of competition - Shorewood's Team Pronto in robotics event

Tuesday, April 2, 2013


Team Pronto's robot Wulfie climbs a
12 foot jungle gym
Photo by Kevin Crader
By Wesley Proudlove, Advisor

This last week Thursday, Friday and Saturday Shorelines School District Team Pronto Robotics competed at Century Link Field in Seattle. The event had 64 teams competing to create a robot over 6 weeks period.

At the competition the robots had to play a game of ultimate frisbee not only throwing a frisbee with human help but on their own. Points are either scored by throwing a frisbee into a goal and or then climbing a jungle gym set up in the center of the playing field all in under 3 minutes.

2013 Team Pronto - Shorewood Robotics Team

Six weeks to build and program a robot
Over a 6 week period in January and February Team Pronto designed, built and programed a robot. Team Pronto's robot was built to be a shot blocking-climbing robot. The robot was one of the smallest we have built in our 5 years as a team, at 60 inches tall and 79 pounds. Wulfie (name given to this year's robot) was created by the students with help from mentors from Boeing, Microsoft, F5, Shoreline School District, and student parents.

Inspection and practice
Thursday of the event is inspection and practice as the team gets to know the competition field on this day. The robot and students got off to a blazing start Friday. Wulfie blocked shots from other opponents robots and climbed the lower levels of the jungle gym in star fashion. Team Pronto was ranked 1st out of 64 at the end of the first of 9 rounds. As the competition wore on all teams started to adjust their play while forming alliances with competing teams to improve game play.

Safety Award
Also during the event all 64 teams are judged on safety not only during play but also in the pit area where all the repairs for robots are done. The pits are not just for team members but the thousands of visitors that come to these events.

Team Pronto has a new Safety Captain this year in sophomore Shane Baden. Team Pronto has an outstanding history over the past 5 years of always winning at least one safety award at each event they have entered. There are only 2 safety awards given out at each event every year. Safety Captains have to interview with national safety monitors from Underwriters Laboratories and FRC event judges. Shane was awarded the Friday Safety Award for not only keeping Team Pronto safe, but also for going to the other 63 teams and helping them operate safely. Shane now continues the streak of 8 for 8 safety awards.

Chief Advisor Wes Proudlove
before one of the rounds
Photo by Kevin Crader
Joy was undampened
Saturday afternoon teams are chosen to compete in the finals. Of the 64 teams competing only 8 teams are able to create alliances for the final rounds from the remaining 56 teams. This year Team Pronto was not chosen to play in the final rounds but that did not dampen the joy of team members or mentors.

This is Team Pronto's 5th year of competition. Each year is different and each challenge is greater then the last. The students involved in the First Robotics program has now exceeded 110,000 world wide. It will not be long until these students become the engineers, technicians, and problem solvers of all of our futures.

Can't wait for the next year
I can't wait to see what next year brings to Team Pronto but I am sure of a few things. High school students will have more energy then adult mentors. Next years challenge will be more complicated then previous years. Students will surprise us all with their knowledge, talent and overall ability to work with others while building a brighter future for us all. 


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Shorewood's Team Pronto ready for robotics regionals

Friday, March 29, 2013

Team Pronto robotics club from Shorewood
Photo courtesy Shoreline Schools


Team Pronto from Shorewood is competing in the Seattle Regional Robotics event at Century Link Events Center in Seattle Thursday to Saturday, March 28 to 30. 

Team Pronto robotics is a student-organized club that has in six weeks constructed a climbing and Frisbee-throwing robot. Team Pronto mentors are from Boeing, Microsoft, F5 Networks, UW Robotic Labs, Shoreline Schools and UW students.

The Seattle event is the world's largest robotic competition outside the world championships. There will be 64 teams competing for the chance to go to the world championships in April in St. Louis.

This year’s 35 Shorewood Team Pronto students put in more than 3,300 build hours in the shop and have a combined 3.75 GPA for the first semester.

The students’ task this robotic year was to design and build a robot that could throw a Frisbee into a goal and then climb a pyramid-shaped jungle gym.  Teams will compete as a three-team alliance. The alliances will be changed for each match.


After the six-week build the robot was locked up on Feb. 19 and team members did not see their robot again until this week’s competition.

The students' building was greatly aided by mentors from Boeing, Microsoft, F5 Networks, UW, and the UW Robotic Lab. Mentors have clocked well over 1,000 hours in the shop and raised money from their companies along with spending their own money so that Team Pronto could compete this year. 
"These mentors give of their personal time, energy and money to help our students succeed," said Wes Proudlove, Shorewood teacher and advisor to the robotics team.

Friday will be the first two qualifying rounds of the competition. Saturday Team Pronto will be competing for a place in the final eight of the event to make the finals. The championship rounds will begin at 1:30pm on Saturday.

More information on Seattle regional robotics event. Team Pronto’s website.


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North District Robotics Championship Tournament at King's Schools

Monday, December 17, 2012

The competitions were timed
How to tell volunteers from robots
    Sunday, December 16, 2012, 28 junior and high school robotics teams from 17 schools in western Washington and Vancouver B.C. tested their robotics prowess in the FIRST Tech Challenge North District championship tournament. 

The championship will qualify eight local teams for the state tournament in January 2013.

Held in the King's Garden Gym at King’s Schools, 19303 Fremont Avenue North, King's School hosted the event and fielded three teams in the competition.

Some of the members of Kings High School’s robotic teams.
From left: Elijah Elliott, Jon Fuller, Quinn Martin, Chad Abramson,
Noah Elliott, Steven Lee, Jon Rasmussen, and Alex Kim.
Photo by Wayne Pridemore

Robots went head-to-head in the center ring during the competitions. Randomly assigned to a two-team alliance, the robots must place plastic rings on a three by three peg grid. Points are earned for each ring placed on a peg and in a center goal, with additional points available for the placement of weighted rings. 

Kings’ 4095 team in competition.  Noah Elliott the programmer on the left,
driver Jon Fuller in the middle, and driver Steven Lee on the right.
Photo by Wayne Pridemore

At the end of each round, teams can also earn points by lifting the robot in their alliance off the ground.

Kings High School’s “ Driver Team”
puts their robot in the competition ring.
Photo by Wayne Pridemore

The King's robotics teams have been creating, programming and fine-tuning their robots throughout the school year in preparation for the competition. The school offers robotics as part of the curriculum for students as early as kindergarten.

Kings’ robotic 3717 Team
From left, Devin Caplow-Munro, Zoe Anderson, and Danny Helms.
Photo by Wayne Pridemore
Mikel Thompson is the King's robotics teacher and the one who organized the event





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Robots are coming to Outdoor Movie Night

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Hank, the Shorewood robot
Photo courtesy Wes Proudlove

Shorewood High School's Team Pronto likes a challenge and for the last four years, they've competed with thousands of other teams worldwide in a competition put on by an organization called FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).  

On Saturday, August 25, Team Pronto will show off two of their creations as part of the pre-movie entertainment at Ballinger-North City Neighborhoods' 4th annual Outdoor Movie Night.

Teams have 6 weeks to build a robot.  Team Pronto has built robots that can play soccer, tic-tac-toe, and this year, shoot hoops.  The team has about 40 members and includes freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  It is supervised by Mr. Wesley Proudlove, Shorewood's autoshop teacher.

Students work in the autoshop, brainstorming with teammates, building prototypes for parts of the robot, and learning how to use the tools in the shop.  Though they have some amazing mentors — engineers at Boeing and students at the UW — the entire robot is hand-built by the students.

2011 Team Pronto basketball competition
The hard work is not without rewards.  In 2011, the team made it into the quarterfinals in competitions in Seattle and Portland and won an award for innovation in design with their "voodoo arm" controller.  In 2012, they competed in Seattle at the end of March, and then in Spokane in the beginning of April.

So, come and see these creations in action and then find a seat on the grass and get ready for this year's movie, Puss in Boots.  Other pre-movie activities include games, face-painting, and crafts.  They'll be music. Concessions will be selling drinks, snack items, glowsticks, and extra raffle tickets to improve your odds at winning one of this year's fabulous prizes. 

Gates open at 7pm at Aldercrest Annex (NE 200th St in Shoreline).  Admission is free.  Saturday August 25.


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Underwater robot team competed at international student competition

Monday, August 6, 2012

Alex Miller, Nicholas Orndorff, and Clara Orndorff

Recently, a local group of students qualified to compete in an international competition for underwater robots - the the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center’s International ROV Competition. A Remotely Operated Vehicle, or ROV, is a tethered robot used to complete tasks in underwater environments.

The team members are Alex Miller, Nicholas Orndorff, and Clara Orndorff. They live in north Seattle but ran their tests in Shoreline. 

"We live near Shoreline and James McCrackin of Shoreline Pool was gracious enough to let us test our ROV in their pool two or three times a week for about three months."

AMNO and CO was the second place winner in the Pacific Northwest Regional competition, which was held on May12th of this year. AMNO and CO accomplished this using an ROV they designed and built over the past year.

Their ROV was called "The Rust Bucket"
Here it navigates the Shoreline Pool

At the International ROV Competition, held June 21-23 in Orlando, Florida, AMNO and CO competed against over thirty of the top teams from MATE’s 21 regional competitions around the world, including teams from the US, the UK, China, Macao, Egypt, Canada, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

"In addition to building our ROV, we made a poster about our ROV, we wrote a technical report, and we prepared an engineering presentation to give to a panel of judges. 
"At the international competition in Orlando, Florida, we placed 19th out of 32 teams. We were the smallest team there and one of the youngest as well, so we were really happy with how we did. We've already begun planning for next year's project."
  
Each year, the MATE ROV competition encourages students to learn and apply science, technology, engineering, and math skills to the competition tasks that simulate real world problems from the ocean workplace. This year, the competition missions focused on the role that ROVs play in assessing World War II shipwrecks and the hazardous fuel oil that they may still contain.

Nicholas launches the Rust Bucket during the
international competition in Florida
During World War II, oil was one of the most important resources, allowing ships and soldiers to travel across the world’s oceans. Because of this, oil tankers were key targets. Many tankers now lie at the bottom of the world’s oceans. It has been almost seventy years for most of sunken ships and as a result, many have decayed. The oil that they may still contain could at any point in time be released to create an enormous environmental disaster. Of over 8,500 oil-bearing shipwrecks, more than 6,300 are from the World War II era. The wrecks of tankers can be found in the world’s oceans, seas, and even the world’s lakes.

Teams will participate in mission tasks, piloting their ROV to assess the condition of a simulated shipwreck and determine if oil is still on board. The teams will then attempt to remove this oil from the wreck to prevent environmental disasters. In addition, they must prepare a technical report describing their ROV, make a presentation to a panel of judges, and create a poster display.

This is the third year that AMNO and CO has participated in the Pacific Northwest Regional ROV Contest, and the first year they attended the MATE International ROV Competition. 

The AMNO and CO ROV team is supported by local sponsors including West Marine, Global Diving, and Harris Electric. The team practiced at the Shoreline Pool and fundraised over the summer near Alki Beach in Seattle. Their fundraising covered a large portion of the cost of their ROV.

For more information about the AMNO and CO ROV team, contact themMore information about the MATE ROV competition.


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King's robotics teams earn top rankings at world championship in St. Louis

Saturday, May 5, 2012


King's robotics team competing in world championship
Photo courtesy King's schools

King’s Schools announces a top four overall finish for the CyberKnights, team 3717, and the CyberDaze, team 4590, at the FTC Robotics World Championship. The competition took place April 27-29 at the Edwards Jones Dome in St. Louis, Mo.

In the two day long qualifier rounds, each team competed in different divisions  —the CyberKnights in the Edison Division and CyberDaze in the Franklin Division. The CyberKnights (3717) finished 1st, and the CyberDaze finished 9th in their respective divisions, earning each the right to compete in the final rounds. 

Moving forward in the competition to the final rounds, the CyberKnights and CyberDaze both faced difficulty when teams within their alliances were forced to drop out due to electric and technical performance issues. While this caused the CyberKnights and CyberDaze to fall short of a 1st and 2nd place finish, the strong performance of these two King’s teams proved enough to solidify the 3rd and 4th place spot.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar measures
the vertical extension
Photo courtesy King's
Further leaving their mark, King’s Robotics wowed the audience, judges and competition with an unprecedented performance in the height competition. Their vertical extension of 14.5 feet from an 18 inches platform more than doubled what competition designers had anticipated possible. Basketball legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was on hand to measure the lift (see photo).

King’s Robotics arrived back on the evening of Sunday, April 29 excited by their success, and yet eager to get back to work. Coach Mikel Thompson summarizes, “Competition at this level is full of dynamics and variables—we did as well as we could and almost pulled it off.  Next year…”

For more information on King’s Schools, contact Sally Ralston 206-546-7218, 


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