Vote for us!

Everyone,


I just found out some great news: our robotics team was accepted by
Pepsi to be in the running for $50,000

Now all we need to do is have people vote for us!

You can vote for us by going to http://pep.si/csG7LB

Please spread the word and get as many people to vote for Team 1743 as
you can.

Everyone gets to vote once each day, so if we can get a lot of people
to vote for us every day, I think we can win.

Best weekend of my robotics career so far...

First off, the bad news...
We didn't get win the Regional, and we were only backed up teams.

Now it's time for the great news...
We were placed 13th out of 31! Also we won two awards (4 trophies) for Team Spirit and Excellence in Design. Congrats goes out to JJ and Trevor for working extremely hard on the award. Also THANK YOU to everyone who cheered and danced their butts off. Great thing was that the lighting people kept putting the spotlight on us and also showing us off to everyone in the Peterson.

Now it's time for off-season. Plans for this year is to see if we can all work and continue working towards the ideas of FIRST and design the small stuff so we don't have to rush it during the build season.

Finally a big thanks to all the teams that went to the Petersen this past weekend. Without you guys then there wouldn't be a competition there.

See ya till next post
-Josh

Competition Reflection

In little words, this past weekend was pretty awesome.

At first, I wasn't too excited about it, but as time went by, the spirit of being with the team kicked in, and I had a really fun time. Even though we didn't win, I still think we did a good job; I mean, we came in 13th place, which is still great considered the number of teams that were there!

I was really proud that we won the other two awards also. I mean, I didn't really know anything about the Excellence in Design one, but I was still proud of the good job that J.J. and Trevor did. With the Spirit award, I knew that we deserved it. Everyone cheered hard, and I think the fact that I still don't have a voice is good proof of that. I'm just so happy that all that cheering and dancing paid off.

It was also nice to see our team in the spot light so often. I was also proud of how close the team got, which was evident through everyone cheering together, and the quick chants that we individually gave each person who was down on the field.

Even though last year we won and went to Atlanta, I felt like this year was just as good as an experience. I really had a good time, even though I was down sometimes when we didn't win, or when we were out.

Well, good job team. I won't be here next year, so I wish you all the best of luck! Don't be hesitant to contact me for any assistance!

- Cherie

My Reflection

I had never been to a robotics competition until the one that just passed. I didn't know what to expect when I was there, but deep down inside, I really enjoyed being there. I loved cheering on the team, because I knew they worked really hard to compete. I loved how at the competition, there was so much interaction. I liked how we passed out buttons to other teams and other teams passed out buttons to us. It was exciting when we danced and went up to get awards.
Overall, the team did really well and I hope they win next year, since they didn't get a chance this year. I do believe everything happens for a reason, so maybe this year wasn't 1743's time. But don't worry, 1743 isn't giving up. We're going to grow and work harder.
GO 1743! =]

Competition Weekend

I hate the feeling that the competition is over already, but it was a good weekend. Very exciting and even louder than ever, it was the best year for me for robotics since starting City High... It was amazing!!!
I have never screamed so loud before, and it got louder once we got called back in...
I have no doubt in my mind that we will do 100x better next year
Team 1743 <3
Great weekend and team playing you guys
ily all <3

Regional Weekend

So the Pittsburgh Regional is over and it's time to wrap things up for this year, but all in all it was one of the best robotics years I've had since coming to City High two years ago. It was a tough build and marketing season for us, but in the end everything worked out and everyone seemed to enjoy there time.

The Pittsburgh Regional was the best because everyone came together as a team which is something that is always good. The entire team sang and danced and screamed our heads off because that's just how we support our team. It was nice to have fun and spend the day supporting something that you've worked so hard for and seeing the team do their best.

Shrot Circuits team as a whole was AWESOME this year, and despite the fact that we didn't win the Pittsburgh Regional we still worked together and did the best we could. Overall, it was a great two days with the team as well as all the other teams that were there.

We'll do even better next year!
1743 <3

Fun weekend

This past weekend we competed in the Pittsburgh Regional and we had a blast! While we did not win the competition, it was a great experience to see other team robots and be able to complete with robots from all over the world. Even though we did not make it to the semi-finals, it was great fun to watch the high energy matches and cheer on some of our friend teams as they tried to win. Best yet we got an award for Team Spirit Award, and were super excited about it.

Breakaway! at the PITT Petersen Event Center

Today, as we made finishing adjustments to the robot, a sudden rush came about me.

I suddenly realized that we were actually at the competition, about to compete against teams that had the same goals as us. After eight weeks of tweaking, sweating, marketing, and inventing (not necessarily in that order), we were finally ready to try our best at the Pittsburgh Regional.

Tonight, we put the last attachments to the roof: two foam guide lines that allowed the ball to roll off of the roof onto the area in front of our robot's kicker. Also, we worked on the protection of the hardware inside.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll see our robot do well in the competition.

Information on the Pittsburgh Regional can be found at: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/regionalevents.aspx?id=430

Website Fix

Found a simple yet important bug in the search feature of this website in terms of what search page it referenced. However, one link change and we're ready to go again.

More news concerning the build team to come...

And it is off!

We just bagged and tagged the robot, and are ready for some much needed rest before we start thinking about what we can do to improve the robot.

Late Night Build

Tonight the build team will spend the final hours of the build season working to get the robot ready for competition. While there is still a lot to do, we are confident that the robot will be ready by midnight when we have to bag and tag the robot. We've done what we've needed to do, and we set our goals high and our ready to compete. Team 1743 hopes to have a great regional at Pittsburgh, see you there.

New Website

The website has been given a complete makeover for the 2010 season!

We've tried to make the site as simple to navigate and look at as possible in order to ensure that your stay is a pleasant one.

Updates to the website and from the team will show up here, on the main page. Be sure to check out our "about" page for information on Team 1743 and on the FIRST organization. Also, you can use the search bar above to search this website as well as the FIRST website (www.usfirst.org). The search results are pulled directly from Google. This means that for the few first weeks, search results for Team1743.org may be incorrect due to its catalog of our older pages. Please be patient as these update.

We're still working to make sure that the website runs smooth so if you happen to find any issues please don't hesitate to contact us using the contact link in the navigation bar above.

Thanks for your time and Happy Browsing!

More Snow!

Another hindrance to the robotics team has been the cancellation of school for today and tomorrow. As of now, Team 1743 needs all the build time it can get and the Pittsburgh weather is not cooperating.

Stay warm...

Electrical/Programing Update

Team 1743 has decided to program our robot using Java this year.  We recently exchanged our broken Crio with a refurbished one, allowing for us to legally compete this year. There is also still hope that we will be able to find/use a camera on our robot, which we feel will give us an advantage in autonomous mode and the teleoperated period. We have also been trying to help some of the teams that are not as far along as us in terms of programing by staying active on the Steel City Robotics Alliance forums. On the down side, the team was not able to work today, since most of Pittsburgh has been snowed in.

Hope we can report back soon with good news.

The New Season!

Team 1743 is back at work for the 2010 FIRST Robotics season!

The Build Team is challenging themselves with constructing a robot that meets the requirement for this year's game, Breakaway!

The team is currently working on the shooting device that will allow the robot to actually score.

More updates as they develop!