Event: Southern California Regional
Submitted: 02/23/2006
Your Team Number: 1622
Team Name, Corporate / University Sponsors: NASA/Northrop Grumman & Poway High School

Briefly describe the impact of the FIRST program on team participants. At Poway High, technology is generally disregarded and there is almost nowhere students can turn to satisfy their desire to learn. However, the recent addition of the Robotics Club has given these students solace. Students’ knowledge is finally being put to good use and developed further by the FIRST program. These students learn aspects of engineering, 3D animation, programming, fabrication, design, public relations, and most importantly - teamwork.
 
Examples of role model characteristics for other teams to emulate. Teamwork – The workload is split amongst different divisions of the team. Education – Everybody learns something from the experience. Skills – Everybody contributes his/her specialties to the team. Involvement – Everybody has a job to do; nobody is left out. Selflessness – Everybody is willing to help a teammate when they need it. Strategy – Our team developed a strategy the day of the kickoff, and stuck to it. Determination – Every team member is willing to make sacrifices to help the team.
 
Describe the impact of the FIRST program on your team and community. The FIRST program has brought technology to a very old-fashioned area. Our community is finally stepping into the 21st century, and Team 1622 is leading the march. The city council was so impressed, they gave us $1,500. Our district’s superintendent recognized our achievements in a letter, right under the perfect SAT scores. Students on the team are gaining confidence in themselves and learning to work with others – skills they will take with them anywhere they go in life.
 
Teams innovative methods to spread the FIRST message. Our team’s attitude and work ethic are best summed up by the quote, “We get the job done.” The number one concern of all teammates is meeting our deadlines. We spend all our time focused on working, but at the same time having fun. We aren’t going out there telling people what to do and how to do it; we prefer to teach by example. We hope that our display of character will inspire others to do the same.
 
Describe the strength of your partnership. Team 1622 is more than just a team – we’re a family. For 8 hours a week, we live together in room W-5. Two weeks before the ship date, our hours go from 8 a week to 20. We work, we eat, and we sleep in the classroom, or at team members’ homes. Every member is available at any time of the day and any day of the week, ready to answer the call. Our team members may come from rival schools, but we come together to fight under one name for one goal – VICTORY.
 
Teams communication methods and results. All of our teammates can be reached quickly if we need to have an emergency meeting or ask a question. On our team roster, there’s a list of home/cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses. This way, we can contact each other whenever necessary. We usually talk to each other at school, but during breaks, this roster is a lifesaver. We have been able to reach team members during crucial moments, and without this system, we might not have been able to finish our robot by the ship date.
 
Other matters of interest to the FIRST judges, if any. Team members have done a tremendous job balancing their schedules and still maintaining their dedication to the team. One of our members owns his own company, plays varsity basketball, is enrolled in AP classes, and still has time for the team. Many others work and take AP classes as well. Still, we take the task seriously and make it our number one priority to get the job done. We have pulled many all-nighters in preparation for competition, and cannot wait to see our hard work pay off.
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Team 1622 features students from rival schools, united to achieve a common goal. This unity is visible through each member’s attitude and actions. We understand that in order to have success in the competitions, and to have fun getting there, we cannot afford to think only of ourselves. Team 1622 will be competing in the Las Vegas and Los Angeles regional events, where we hope to see our planning, hard work, and absolute devotion carry us to heights we have only been able to dream of.
Poway is a small city that has isolated itself from the surrounding cities and towns. For the most part, we keep to ourselves and nobody bothers us. The stereotypical Powegian is said to be a “rich kid with everything handed to them”. While there are some, and perhaps a few too many of these people, many students at Poway High have worked hard for the things they have. People tend to believe that everything is easier for us just because we are from Poway, when in fact it is just as much of a struggle for us as anybody else. Due to perpetually increasing budget cuts, we have had to rely more and more on external funding. Without the help of NASA and Northrop Grumman, we would have been unable to compete in either regional event this year. It took a tremendous team effort to receive the grant from NASA, and it took us until the deadline to finish working on it. We worked hard to get where we are, and despite the common assumption that we are lazy and spoiled, we are in fact one of the most dedicated teams in the FIRST program. Students from Poway, Rancho Bernardo, and Abraxas High Schools have been able to come together to fight under one name. Anyone following our team this year would have seen that we have created a robotics group that can work together, even though students may be from rival schools and may have conflicting opinions on how to do things. It is uncommon to see this type of interaction amongst members of rival schools, but Team 1622 has been able to pull it off.
The twenty-four members of our team have also learned how to manage their limited time. Many of the students on our team are taking A.P. classes or are involved in other extra-curricular activities, clubs, and sports that take a large amount of time and effort, and at times can be difficult for anyone to manage. However, although many of us have other things going on in our lives, robotics always comes FIRST. Alex DiMarzo, a senior at Poway High, has been able to stay organized and prioritize reasonably – managing his time balancing A.P. classes, running his own business, playing varsity basketball, robotics, and his homework with barely any time left for leisure. Many of the students on our team spend ten to twenty hours each week, sometimes even more, depending on deadlines and other necessities.
None of the schools that our team represents has a very good program for technology. The FIRST program is a particular benefit to every student that we are all very thankful for. It allows us to develop our skills in mechanical engineering, technical areas, and many other areas of work that any potential engineer must know to be successful in the real world. For me especially, I am very passionate about robotics, because of the skills that it has enabled me and the other members of Team 1622 to develop. It also provides an opportunity to each of the team members to experience teamwork, realistic education, and the expansion of skills that will be useful to each student in the future. In addition, the FIRST program has taught team members very important leadership and social values that we can take with us in life. Parents are especially proud of the way their children are becoming more educated in the different aspects of engineering which are not offered by regular school programs.
Team 1622 is also part of an even larger group known as Team San Diego, where we conduct field tests and interact with other robotics teams from around San Diego. Recently we were involved in the Pre-Ship Robotics Expo at Madison High School, where teams around San Diego County were given the chance to practice with their robots on an actual field. This gave us an opportunity to meet with other groups and help each other with engineering problems as well as provide each other technical support.
All of the students in this program have come to be very positive in spreading the FIRST message as well. We have come to recognize how important the robotics program actually is because of the many great effects that it has had on members of the program. We think that rather than telling other people how to be like us, we should inspire teams to develop their own character. Wherever life (FIRST Robotics) takes Team 1622, we hope to show others that hard work, determination, and team unity are core essentials to being successful. However, we do not want to encroach on the personalities of the team that make it unique.
Another major aspect of the robotics program is getting money from outside businesses and organizations. We recently received two $6,000 grants: one from NASA and the other from Northrop Grumman. We also received a $1,500 grant from the City of Poway. We also receive relatively small amounts of money from private donors. It is difficult for organizations with this kind of money to choose the recipients, but the donations are well spent. We work diligently on both the physical features of the robot, as well as other parts, such as the code and computerized portions of the project. It is definitely a benefit to every member of robotics to have companies and organizations like these who will donate to programs such as this, so that students have a greater opportunity to succeed in areas that the average school does not explore.
The FIRST organization also provides students with these opportunities, because it provides students worldwide with the opportunity to not only compete, but also learn new and valuable skills that are difficult to receive, because it is such a rare experience. This experience can only be earned either in a job, in college, or in extra-curricular activities. The fact is that, right now, most students in high school do not know exactly what they plan to do for the rest of their life. Most students (and their parents) would rather they not test different degrees and professions in college as they go, because they can turn out to be extremely expensive. Any job out there usually requires that one has some type of degree pertaining to the job, or skills and experience that he/she already knows. So, this “trial and error” process doesn’t work well for students, because they [usually] do not have the time or funding to do it all. The FIRST program works well in helping curious students decide whether they truly would like to career in particular sciences that include engineering and other technical jobs, because they have hands-on experience that they otherwise would not have received. Colleges also applaud this type of action from students, which makes the robotics program a doubly significant opportunity for all students, especially those who seek a degree from particular colleges and/or universities.
Taken as a whole, Team 1622 has done an extensive amount of work on both the robot and other related issues in preparation for the FIRST Robotics competitions. We are a diverse group of students who have little free time in their schedules because of the many things to do in their lives, such as A.P./Honors classes and the homework given by them, jobs, sports, clubs, college issues, other extra-curricular activities, not to mention other work that needs to be done at home. All of these priorities in each student’s life keep him/her extremely busy, scarcely even receiving enough time to get sleep at certain times (A.P. tests, shipping of robot, etc.). For all of these reasons including the broad amount of work having been done through this program on our part, we believe that the chairman’s award rightfully belongs to us, Team 1622.

This entry was submitted towards fulfilling the Nasa Grant requirements.

Team Captain / Student Representative : Alex DiMarzo
Team Mentor : Rodger Dohm