Triple Helix Robotics

It’s nearing the end of Week 1 of this year’s build season and the team is off to a great start.  We’ve spent some time absorbing the new game challenge, chosen a gameplay strategy, and 

This year’s game looks great, with several new types of interactive game elements, some tricky strategic tradeoffs, and a nailbiting endgame.  It should be a fun game to watch and play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmiYWTmFRVE

Errata from December newsletter
Triple Helix aims to compete at the FIRST Chesapeake District Championship sponsored by Newport News Shipbuilding on April 3-5 at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA.

Triple Helix sweatshirts now available in our web store
For a limited time, we are gathering orders for this season’s Triple Helix hoodies to be delivered prior to the competitions!  Orders must be in by the January 20th deadline.https://store.iifound.org/product/sweatshirt/

Field construction at the Peninsula STEM Gym is underway
At our shared robotics practice facility, we have built full-scale wooden mockups of the Power Port (the goal) and the Trench (a robot tunnel that also holds a colored spinning Control Panel wheel).  We can still use additional help constructing these mockup game elements; this requires only basic woodworking skills.

The Peninsula STEM Gym will also host a robot pre-inspection day on February 22nd.  All local teams are invited.  This event is a great opportunity for teams and volunteer Robot Inspectors to prepare for the first round of competitions.

Our VCU Occupational Therapy doctoral student has begin their capstone practicum semester
For the 2nd year, Triple Helix and Intentional Innovation Foundation welcomes to our team a student from the occupational therapy doctoral program at Virginia Commonwealth University.  For their semester-long capstone “Doctoral Experiential Component” (DEC), this student will join us as a mentor while also learning the skills and tools at the intersection between therapy and engineering.  Together we’ll be extending the previous work of last year’s student, completing some awesome assistive technology projects, and establishing strong connections between our robotics team and the local allied health community.  Welcome Sierra Taylor Wolf!

–
Nate Laverdure
Head coach, Triple Helix Robotics
President, Intentional Innovation Foundation

Happy New Year! Triple Helix is looking forward to a super exciting 2020 season!

We’ve locked in our event schedule
Triple Helix aims to compete at up to 4 FIRST Robotics Competition events this spring. Hope to see you there!

• February 29-March 1: FIRST Chesapeake District Haymarket VA event, Battlefield HS
• March 14-15: FIRST Chesapeake District Portsmouth VA event, Churchland HS
• April 3-5: FIRST Chesapeake District Championship, EagleBank Arena, George Mason University, Fairfax VA
• April 30-March 2: FIRST Championship, TCF Center, Detroit MI

A great way to help Triple Helix (without devoting endless amounts of your time) is to volunteer at one of these events.  We really appreciate when we see friendly faces in the volunteer roles at our competitions.
In addition, you’re welcome drop by any of our team meetings– we’d love to show you what our awesome students are working on!

The Peninsula STEM Gym is ready for Infinite Recharge
The Peninsula STEM Gym is stocked with the materials and tools needed to build mockup wooden field elements for the 2020 FIRST Robotics Competition game!

Attention woodworkers among us: we are seeking volunteers who’d like to use their building skills to help the local FRC teams by constructing these mockup game elements with us! Please contact us if you’re interested in joining the project.

Thank you to all our wonderful sponsors!
The team greatly appreciates your support.
https://team2363.org/partners/

–
Nate Laverdure
Head coach, Triple Helix Robotics
President, Intentional Innovation Foundation

Triple Helix congratulates our friends,

The Magically Energized Lightning Waffle Bunnies
and
The Ruling Robot Falcons

who both championed their divisions at the Virginia/DC FIRST Lego League championship this weekend at James Madison University.  Both teams have now qualified to represent our region in the World Tournament held at the FIRST Championship this spring in Detroit.

Great work teams!

Nate Laverdure
Head coach, Triple Helix Robotics

In the news: the Peninsula STEM Gym
“During the school year, hundreds of students practice their passions in after-school clubs such as art, sports and STEM programs. But where do some of these teams like robotics, meet to practice for the upcoming season? The Peninsula STEM Gym, of course.”  Our community robotics practice facility in Newport News was the subject of a Williamsburg Yorktown Daily article published yesterday.

Founded and operated by Triple Helix’s operating sponsor Intentional Innovation Foundation (IIF), the Peninsula STEM Gym is a place for student robotics teams to develop competition robots and have real-world engineering experiences that will inspire a lifelong interest in science and math.  Our gym features a 75%-sized mockup FRC field as well as an official FIRST Tech Challenge playing field sponsored by Newport News Shipbuilding.  These resources are available for our neighbors to share.

The Peninsula STEM Gym was initially established with the generous assistance of a Community Knights GIFT Grant.  Ongoing operation of the STEM Gym is supported by IIF and Triple Helix sponsors.  More information about our STEM Gym can be found here.

Now live: our 2019 Chairman’s Award video
Triple Helix students and mentors developed this video during the spring 2019 season to meet the submission requirements for the FIRST Chairman’s Award and to discuss the personal impact that team participation has had in their lives.

Only 10 team registration slots remaining for the 2019 Rumble in the Roads
The 6th annual Rumble in the Roads, Hampton Roads’ unofficial offseason FRC tournament, is scheduled for Saturday, November 3, 2019 at Heritage High School in Newport News.  Team registrations for the event has proceeded quickly and the competition is now just 10 teams away from being full.  Triple Helix is proud to help organize this event along with partners Blackwater Robotics team 1610 and CAT5 Cybercanes team 5957.  The volunteer registration for the event will open later this summer; stay tuned for more information!

Summer work is well underway
Triple Helix meets year-round, and this summer we have been diving deep into team development projects, training activities, outreach event planning, collaborations with other teams, and more.  Now is a great time to drop by and check out what we’re all about!

–
Nate Laverdure
Head coach, Triple Helix Robotics
President, Intentional Innovation Foundation

Season recap
Triple Helix concludes our 2019 competition season with an overall record of 31 wins, 17 losses, and 1 tie in official matches across three competitions, winning one event and making our exit as semifinalists in another.  We were proud to receive two judged technical awards, including one at the regional championship level, for the design creativity we exhibited in our approach to the Destination: Deep Space challenge.  In addition, with the Engineering Inspiration Award we were recognized for our hard work towards our organization’s core mission of developing an interest and respect for STEM in our community– a radically gratifying thing to receive this acknowledgement for something we hold so important.

The FIRST Robotics Competition is one game, played on a thousand levels.  Only a few of these levels have points, rules, and a strong definition of what it means to be “successful.”  While our team’s performance across our competition season was stellar and successful by a number of important metrics, we missed the bullseye on a couple of our goals, including making a strong play for the win at our regional championship event.  In the engineering world, “failures” don’t have a negative connotation– stuff fails, and learning from its failure is key to meaningful improvement.  Our friend Karthik Kanagasabapathy says that “only a few teams are going to win the event, so failure is… intrinsically part of the FIRST experience… Success is inspiring but there are more learning opportunities associated with failure if you handle failure correctly.”  Continuous improvement is central to our team culture; the learning opportunities that Triple Helix experienced this season have already become valuable assets in our toolbox.  Our competitors would love the chance to peek inside that toolbox!

At the District Championship, I was awarded the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award which “celebrates effective communication in the art and science of engineering and design.”  While this is an individual award in name, it truly reflects the strength of the team as a whole (which is why the award comes with a blue banner for the team!).  I owe my thanks to everyone in the Triple Helix community, and especially the current and former students, for your contribution to our program.  The team works because of your passion and your belief in our mission– and because you’ve learned the big “secret:” that’s it’s fun to work super hard and accomplish something meaningful as a part of a team.  I have greatly enjoyed working and playing with you over the past 5 seasons.  I’m so proud of what we’ve built together– and of you.  Let’s keep it going…

We are indebted to the many wonderful sponsors who make our program not just possible, but also effective and important.

Now is the perfect time to join
(also, come to our open house the evening of Thursday, May 30)
If you’re on the fence about getting involved in the team, know that May-June is the best time to visit, poke around, lend a hand, and become a team member.  For our year-round team, the summer is all about tech development projects, training, outreach, and fundraising.  Since every team member is working on learning something new, you’ll fit in really well.

Our doors are always open, but on one special night this month, we’ll be hosting an open house for all interested new folks.  Please join us on Thursday, May 30th starting at 6:30pm to speak with current our students and mentors, tour our workspace at Menchville HS, and learn more about how you can help us build an even stronger team.

Our year-round team simulates a small engineering firm, and we have a core product: our mentors and students work side-by-side to field a highly competitive FRC robot. Building a robot requires wiring a complex electrical system, writing hundreds of lines of code, machining and assembling high-precision parts, and much more. As a company we also have many extensive public speaking and outreach opportunities, as well as the need to write essays, film and edit videos, and develop marketing materials. If you’re not a technical person, there’s still a place on the team for you! Remember that you need no experience, special skills or knowledge to be a valuable member of our team.

We’re recruiting adults too!

Save the date – Rumble in the Roads
The 6th annual Rumble in the Roads, Hampton Roads’ unofficial offseason FRC tournament, is scheduled for Saturday, November 3, 2019 at Heritage High School in Newport News.  Triple Helix is proud to help organize this event along with partners Blackwater Robotics team 1610 and CAT5 Cybercanes team 5957.  The volunteer registration for the event will open later this summer; stay tuned for more information!

Congratulations to Jason Ingram
Triple Helix congratulates VCU College of Health Professions student Jason Ingram on completion of his degree requirements and imminent graduation as a Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD).  Triple Helix was a key part of Jason’s doctoral experiential capstone project: exploring the crossroads of engineering and occupational therapy.  Jason joined Triple Helix this season and worked alongside our students and mentors to develop and modify assistive technology for clients throughout Hampton Roads.  As a result of this experience, our students gained a deep appreciation for how they can use their budding engineering skills to make a meaningful, personal impact in their community, and we look forward to continuing our relationships with the many therapy professionals and organizations Jason connected us with this spring.  We also look forward to working with our next VCU OT student who is planning to continue and extend the long-term project when she joins us in January 2020!

–
Nate Laverdure
Head coach, Triple Helix Robotics
President, Intentional Innovation Foundation