Sunday, 9 October 2016

Competition day - part 2

What a day!

Mr Green spent the day judging teams whilst Shark Robotics competed.  The Sharks started off slowly. It with determination and clever alliances soon picked up the pace and began climbing the scoreboard.

After lunch, the judges then called them, one of the few teams, to present their robot and designs to a panel of 10 judges.  The team had to explain the design process and the development of the robot, fully justifying their choices.

Back on the playing field, the team formed an excellent alliance with teams which completed their strategy and design.  This moved the onto the quarter finals, then the semi finals.  There were a few tense rounds before moving forward to the finals!


Everyone was ready for the final matches, when one team had to be re-inspected as it was suspected that their robot no longer met the criteria.  During the inspection, the team were disqualified from participating in that round, meaning a third team needed to step in.  This round did not go as hoped and there then followed some debate before the disqualified team was finally allowed back into the alliance.


The alliance teams were anxious by now and played extremely well, but unfortunately lost the second round, leaving them in second place.  This means the Sharks came second place in the USA competition competing against 40 teams!  

A fantastic achievement by the Stanborough team!



Friday, 7 October 2016

Day 2 - Robot checks and Venice Beach

Awesome day!  

A stop at Denny's for pancakes before heading off to school to check out the robot and the competition.  Preliminary checks completed in a few hours so headed to Venice beach for some downtime.  

Rented some bikes and cycled along the beach to Santa Monica pier.  






Feeling suitably replenish and refuelled, the boys then felt ready to challenge the locals at the gym near to Muscle Beach.


On the way back to Venice beach we watched local skateboarders having their skate-off before arching the sunset.











Thursday, 6 October 2016

Day 1

Arrived in Los Angeles yesterday.
Got to spend a lot of time on the 6-9 lane freeways with the relentless heavy traffic!  Quick turn around at the hotel and off the watch an excellent basketball game at the Staples Centre between the Toronto Raptors and the LA Clippers.  What an exciting game it was too!