Agenda
Tonight is Scholarship night! Come join us to honor the scholarship recipients for the upcoming 2012-13 school year.
This is also our last meeting of the program year and officer elections will take place. View the officer nominations – we are looking for motivated candiates!
The DiscoBots will bring their robot and discuss how they developed. The DiscoBots are an organization that brings together students, mentors, and teachers who love technology and science. The club was formed in 2007 and there are over thirty students in the club who come from six different countries with ages varying from 13 to 19 years old. In 2009, all three of the VEX robots qualified for world championship. The DiscoBots actively compete at the FIRST Texas Lone Star Regional and have won several awards!
About the DiscoBots
The DiscoBots have always taken to heart both the FIRST mission of “inspiring young people to be science and technology leaders” and the FIRST mantra of “Gracious Professionalism.” From our humble beginnings in December of 2007 we have been devoted to the task of exposing young people to science, technology, engineering, and robotics. Many of our team members had no robotics experience until the 2007 build season. With less than $1000 dollars, garage tools, and a small space in the back of a physics classroom, we built a robot that took us to Semi-Finals at the 2008 Lone Star Regional. In 2009, as a second year team, we won the Lone Star Regional and have collected over 8 FIRST awards.
As an inner-city public school, Lamar High School has a very diverse student population. The composition of our team reflects this diversity as it is composed of students of varying races and socioeconomic backgrounds. The DiscoBots team spans four grade levels, with nearly three quarters of the class consisting of underclassmen. This diversity of ages illustrates the team’s school-wide outreach, and will also serve to sustain the team as members graduate each year. This year we have also benefited from our sustained involvement and increasing number of alumni. The DiscoBots have an outstanding alumni program that focuses on mentoring other teams. For example, dozens of students attending Rice University and University of Houston have come back to help mentor the team. In addition, a former DiscoBots alumni now at Louisiana State University started a rookie team this year called the TigerBytes, team 4209.
Many students who enter the DiscoBots program are not certain about pursing a STEM career. The DiscoBots program has inspired many students to pursue STEM fields. Of our 55 alumni, 48 (87%) are pursuing degrees in STEM fields. A number of these students also received FIRST scholarships.
Drivetrain
- 27x32 long axis chassis.
- 4 drive wheels, 4 raised bump climbing wheels.
Collection and Indexing System
- “Indexerator”, this poly cord stage is loaded by the mouth stage. Its purpose is to store and index balls. Holds 3 balls. It feeds the shooter.
- “Mouth”, this polycord stage raises the balls from the ground and feeds them to the Indexerator.
- “Whackolector”, Bridge-Whacker with built in collector roller spun by a RS550 with 20:1 P60 and ~7:1 external poly cord pulleys. The Whackolector is raised and lowered by a RS550 with a 256:1 P60 gearbox. It feeds the mouth.
Shooter
- Single wheel and adjustable hood shooter (30 to 60 degree range).
- The two AM 7.5 inch Pneumatic wheels are powered by 2 Fischer Price motors on a CIMSIM.
- Shoots 40 feet up and 30 feet forward at minimum hood angle (30 degrees).
- Arc and range are adjusted by changing the angle of the hood and speed of the wheels.
- Sounds like a Tron Light Bike when spinning down.
Map: The HESS Club, 5430 Westheimer Road, 77056. 713.627.2283
Click here for directions
