Westside Boiler Invasion

Team 461 wins Championship Best Website Award

tangj — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 02:05:47 +0000

Team 461 is proud of its 2010 website which recently won the Best Website Award at the FIRST Robotics Championship in Atlanta, GA. The team’s website was judged in a field of approximately 40 competitors which represented each of the 44 regionals (there were several which had won multiple regional awards). With this win, the team has become (to the best of our knowledge), the first team to have won the Championship Best Website Award twice.

“Dodge Cancer” Benefit

Mark Krutulis — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:50:25 +0000

Last Sunday, Team 461 held a dodgeball tournament at West Lafayette High School to raise money for the Purdue Center for Cancer Research.

Several news reports were made of the event, including this one from WLFI.

The event was a huge success, and we raised 200 dollars to donate the the Purdue Center for Cancer Research, which the team agreed to match. Many thanks to Mr. Timothy Bobillo for teaching us about the Center for Cancer Research!

Building Process

Mark Krutulis — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:50:08 +0000

WBI went through several sessions of prototyping, during which a kit drivetrain was constructed.

Our continuous cooperation with Team 1747 Harrison Boiler Robotics and Team 1646 Boiler Precision Guessworks have endured through this season.

In this photo, Westside Boiler Invasion alumnus Daniel Bravo welds for his new team, 1747.

Design Process

Mark Krutulis — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:06:21 +0000

2010 Breakaway was especially fun to design for, especially with this year’s new technical coordinator Pat Hart of 234, Cyber Blue.

Always ready to tackle design problems, our technical team cooperated with other 461 subteams to come up with the best solutions to the various challenges this year’s FRC game has to offer.

Pat, inspired by the new Autodesk Excellence in Design Award, worked with Andrea Deranek to document this year’s brainstorming and design process in detail.

Welcome to Build Season

Mark Krutulis — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:20:51 +0000

As many of you know, the FIRST community gathered to receive a message from some of the greatest minds in the country on Saturday, January 9. That’s right, build season is here, folks, and boy is that feeling sweet. Prepare to devote more time than you ever have before to one singular goal: to inspire education and innovation in science and technology.

For those of you who don’t know, this year’s game is known as “Breakaway,” and it is based upon the game which is so well-enjoyed the world over, football (“soccer” to us Americans).

Also see a complete description of all game rules here.

Good luck teams and devoted fans! Have fun thinking and building!

The Invasion

Mark Krutulis — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:57:11 +0000

Many of you will note a conspicuous absence of frequent entries by yours truly, Monsieur Secretary-Treasurer, since my famous blogging poem. (Scroll down a bit to witness the awesome hypocrisy.) But now that we’ve reentered the off-season, the team has a few things to announce to the world.

Team 461, Westside Boiler Invasion, is back with a vengeance. We promise that you will see us invading our community, the FIRST community, and our number 1 target, planet Earth. We will not be invading with UFOs (although we wish we could…) or with hordes of aliens (although we imagine we are…). We are invading with the message of FIRST, the spread of science and technology.

Westside Boiler Invasion understands that to spread the message of FIRST, someone has to take initiative. This season, we will strive to make people understand how much science and technology have affected the world around them. We believe that, historically and currently, certain people like Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers have taken the initiative to become “engineering invaders.” These invaders are who we strive to emulate in our daily lives.

These “invaders of innovation” are the models of how people can be motivated to advance humankind. Stay tuned for more info on a 461 attempt to chronicle the exploits of these invaders.

Member application process complete

tangd — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:48:54 +0000

As of yesterday, all prospective members of team 461 should have already completed an application as well as an interview with the PFP advisors. Accepted members should be contacted sometime soon through one of the avenues provided on the application, and the first meeting is scheduled for this Wednesday, the 23 of September. Anyone who has not completed an application and an interview should contact Mr. Florence or Andrea Pluckebaum. More contact/schedule information can be found on the website

Fence Jumping Robot

tangd — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:22:26 +0000

Boston Dynamics, a company specializing in robotics, has been awarded a contract to develop a new-generation jumping robot. The robot, to be called the Precision Urban Hopper, will have four wheels and one leg, which allows it to jump over or onto obstacles up to 25 feet tall. To read more, click here, or see a video of a prototype in action, click here.

FRC Board of Directors Approves District Event Model etc.

tangj — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:48:02 +0000

According the the blog of FRC Director Bill Miller, the FIRST Board of Directors has approved the use of the District Event model piloted by Michigan in the 2009 competition season. Although approved, it is too late for the system to be implemented outside of Michigan for the 2010 competition season; therefore, for the 2010 competition season, the District Event model will be used only in Michigan, and the Regional Event system will be used everywhere else. Just as in the 2009 competition season, teams in Michigan are free to attend regional competitions if they so desire. At this point I am concerned that the implementation of the District Event model may take away from the community by limiting what competitions that teams can attend, although it is up to the community to decide which model to use.

In other news, the GDC has essentially decided on what the 2010 game will be, and are working out scoring.

Summer looking into Fall

AndiePluck — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:33:01 +0000

This summer the team will be meeting every Wednesday night as set by our ambitious goals at the end of the season. Of course there will be a multitude of other events to attend in addition to weekly meetings. At the beginning of July, we are going to invite the new members from our callout this spring to join us for summer meetings in anticipation of bringing them to IRI (Indiana Robotics Invitational an off-season competition).

I’m excited about the potential that the team offers for the upcoming year in both student and mentor capacities. I’m hoping that this year’s leaders step into their roles quickly so that I can focus less on daily operations and more on long term planning (Hopefully transitioning into working on items more directly related to improving Purdue First Programs).