FIRST Team 2219

Starting this month the Megahurts: Team #2219 from Carbondale, IL will be recruiting teams into the ranks of FIRST. The work began late in 2009 when the team hosted their first robotics workshop in the history of Brehm. Students from St. Mary’s, in Mt. Vernon, IL came to Brehm for an afternoon of robotics, featuring Vex and Lego projects. The afternoon was a success and we are currently working with students, teachers and administrators from St. Mary’s to start a FIRST Lego League (FLL) Team at the school.

Read this post to learn more about how the Megahurts can help your school start too.

Most people know, or are taught, at an early age, how to process information and develop an organized plan or strategy when confronted with a problem, whether that problem is social, academic, or job related. Others find such cognitive processes quite difficult. Learning disabilities have only recently been recognized as disabilities. This neurological disorder causes difficulty in…

With the close of the 2010 FRC Season, the Megahurts Programming Team would like to show off our LabView code we used for the Robot this year.  

You can find it at the brand new

In the latest Draft version of the National Education Technology Plan ( Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology ) found here strongly indicates an agenda of improving STEM education in schools. Anyone that is involved in education should see the immediate need to foster young minds as they are the next great problem solvers of our world….

FIRST Robotics (FRC) is revolutionizing STEM education for students with learning disabilities at Brehm Preparatory School. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is “the varsity sport for the mind,” FRC combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology. Under strict rules, limited resources, and time limits, teams of students are challenged to raise funds, design a team “brand,” hone teamwork skills, and build and program robots to perform prescribed tasks against a field of competitors.  It’s as close to “real-world engineering” as a student can get.

So to wrap things up, I am adding the final chapter into this series of articles on the FIRST Robotics Competition, St. Louis Regional for team #2219 Megahurts. This season, at least so far, was bittersweet. We came, we saw, we fell short.- But all is not lost! – We are going to the Minneapolis Competition as well.

Normally the term “Havoc in the Ranks,” is reserved for military situations. In my case, as well as many of my team member’s cases, it definitely applies to our robotics team. One might wonder how this could be applied though. Well, I’ll let you know.

This year we have a wonderful surprise presented to us by our lead mentor Joe Viscomi – an awesome, never before seen, innovative, and most intelligent, plug-and-play swerve drive wheel system….

In the fall of 2007, I first came to Brehm. This was a time of unawareness. I didn’t really pay attention to anything that I would find important now, such as graduating, college, socializing with my peers, being productive and staying focused, let alone joining the robotics team…

When you think of a mentor, what comes to mind? A leader? A teacher? A knowledge base to learn from? These are all something that members of the Brehm FIRST Robotics Team; #2219, a.k.a. “Megahurts” think of when they think “mentor.”

Our team was aligned with two other robots for the quarterfinals and the tournament, team 2775 (St. Louis: Rookie of the Year from Tennessee) and team 2041 from Chicago, Illinois. This group formed the 3rd seeded alliance. Our alliance dominated our quarterfinal rounds…..

This morning the competition was underway. No more time for practice, today was all about
qualifying. The team was pumped and ready to go. With Robin and Scott commanded the robot
today, supported by J.D. and Kole as ourpay load specialists a.k.a Human Players. Our
job today was a mix of defense, scoring and offensively trapping other robots for our alliance.
Our robot is truly an all-around team player. We started the morning with a strong win ……

The team left Brehm Preparatory School and Carbondale the afternoon of the 18th to travel
to St. Louis to compete in the 2009 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and
Technology) Robotics Competition: Lunacy. We got to our hotel, settled in and began the
hard job of planning the event of the next morning…….

There are twelve days left in the FIRST Lunacy build season. Around the world over 1000 teams are rushing to put the final touches on their robots so that they can compete in this year’s FIRST Robotics competition. Our team is no different. We had our doubts a few weeks ago, the robot was still a scattering of parts and ideas……

The year 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar mission. The landing is hailed as a great advancement in human engineering, and this year’s competition is a tribute to this historic event. In honor of that achievement all those involved with the Apollo program this years game is called Lunacy…….

The Brehm robotics team works with the new control system for the ‘09 season. The system
is a wireless router that is more high tech system than last years. This system is required
by the regional robotics competition. The team will be going to visit Aisin, a large manufacturing
corporation, which will be sponsoring Brehm Preparatory School in this spring season. ……

On October 25, the Megahurts joined together with robotics clubs from the College of Engineering t Southern Illinois University Carbondale for the Robotics Showcase at the annual Southern Illinois University Intelligent Systems Conference…….

Welcome back team for the 2008 – 2009 FIRST Robotics Year. We have a lot of big plans for the year, including this site. This year we have a full time media team and the largest team ever. 20% of our school is involved with the team this year…….

Going into the final week of the building phase, the team is hard at work putting the finishing touches on every last piece of equipment and software. Although there was some delay due to the illness of both team members and mentors, they seem to be very confident in their abilities to meet the deadline……

On Saturday, January 20th, the two week mark for the building period, the robot became mobile. The team took it out for its first test spin at 2:30 p.m. that day in the new Brehm gymnasium. After having worked on the project for five straight hours, the team was thrilled to see the project zooming around……

It is week two of the building phase and the team is hard at work, racing to completion. With only thirty-three days left, the team has already begun the process of programming and is on their way with construction…..

The first time I walked into the lab, I saw the team hard at work at unofficial stations setup around the room. The tables were furnished with tools and metal parts surrounding the project, expensive looking computers lay open with workers busily clicking and typing away…….