Team 1629 is comprised of students from the only two high schools in our county.  Normally brutal enemies, Northern High School and Southern High School have come together in the spirit of FIRST and cooperation to gain a better understanding of science and technology while having some fun along the way.  GaCo, our team nickname, stands for Garrett Coalition.

Team 1629 loves what we do!  We glady share our FIRST experiences with anyone who is willing to listen.  These include customers at our fund raising events (gas pumping, shoe shines, lemonade sales, "Punkin Chunkin" and more).

We help other FIRST efforts.  We act as mentors for FLL and FTC teams.  We have helped form ten active FLL teams and two active FTC teams in our county.  These teams have gone on to compete in state, regional, and world championships!

 

We partner with GEARS (Garrett Engineering and Robotics Society) to host SuGo and SeaPerch programs.  SuGo is a combination of Sumo wrestling and LEGO robots.  SeaPerch is an underwater robot program.  Through these, we continue to spread enthusiasm for science and technology while looking for new team members.

Team 1629 recognizes that we need to give back to FIRST and our community.

 

For the community, we are active in local efforts, such as the Deep Creek Dunk (fundraising for Special Olympics), Blind Skier program, Relay For Life (fundraising for American Cancer Society), Garrett Fiber Network (supporting the Google fiber effort), Dove Center, Maryland Food Bank, and Hospice.

 

Off season, we work with local Fire Departments and are developing a fire hydrant robot called Sparky.  He will travel with firemen to school presentations to educate children about fire.

 

We hosted our first Annual "Punkin Chunkin" in October of 2010.  This event leverages trebuches and catapults to launch 10 lb pumpkins into the air.  We judge based upon accuracy.  Whomever comes closest to hitting the castle wins!  We had nearly 250 spectators!  This is an exciting way to demonstrate that science, technology, engineering and math can be fun!  Of course, it doesn't hurt to have an FRC robot hanging around as well.  Needless to say, the combination of pumpkins, trebuchets, catapults and robots keeps very dynamic conversations going around town for a while.  We are already working on getting the word our for the Second Annual "Punkin Chunkin" Contest in October of 2011.  Interested in participating?  The more the merrier...

 

For FIRST, we have done several things:

We have helped form and mentor ten active FLL teams in our county.  Many of these have won regional and state events, and placed at world events.

 

We have helped form and mentor two active FTC team in our county.  Both teams have already won several awards and G-Force has qualifed to go to World Championships every year it has existed (three years in a row).

 

We recognized a lack of adequate FLL regional qualifiers in Maryland.  As a result, we planned, implemented, and hosted the First (2009) and Second (2010) Garrett County Regional Qualifier for FIRST Maryland.  In 2009 we had 9 teams participating and this grew to 16 teams in 2010!  We hope to have 24 teams in 2011.

 

This year we developed a hard bound book called "The ABC's of FIRST".  We will provide copies to all local libraries.  Who knows, maybe it will be officially adopted by FIRST and used in marketing FIRST initiatives throughout the world...

Team 1629 is known for our willingness to help others.  In addtion to "Giving Back", here are some other things to note:

Team 1629 hosts a web site in the interest of Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition where we share everything about our robot.  This includes specification sheets, YouTube clips, challenges, and more.  We also share everything about our Chairman's Award submittals.

 

The same web site hosts 'Puzzlers' for students to solve and email answers to.  The hope is to generate interest in FIRST.

 

Team 1629 participated as a BETA in the 2009 role out of the new control system.  We worked with rookie teams and hosted several open-houses and presentations to share our experiences with the new system.

 

During our second year at the Chesapeake Regional, Team 1629 was the number one seed and captain of the winning alliance. 1629’s gracious professionalism was well noted during the final round of the elimination matches where our alliance extended our time-out on the behalf of the opposing alliance, allowing them time to finish necessary repairs on one of their robots.

 

We have formed a Gracious Professionalism sub-team.  Their sole responsibility is to seek out other teams that may need assistance of any kind and bring it to our attention.  We help out those teams to the best of our ability.

 

During the 2010 Buckeye Regional, Team 1629 developed a scouting spreadsheet that could be updated live via the Wolstein Center's wireless network.  Team 863 (RoboBees) and Team 1629 used iTouches to update the spreadsheet, which was diplayed real time in Team 1629's Pit for all teams to use and see during the Qualification Rounds.

 

During the 2010 Buckeye Regional, Team 1629 used the Wolstein Center's wireless network to tap into FIRST's team standings site.  This was on display in our pit for all teams to use.  This became the defacto team standings central since it was updated more often than the Regional's standings list!

 

During the 2010 Buckeye Regional, Team 1629's chief software developer was in high demand!  He ran from pit to pit helping other teams overcome autonomous mode issues, lab view issues, programming issues, and more.  Along the way, he demonstrated and taught the teams in ways to stabilize and improve their programs as needed.