Eliot Cady

Six weeks of building comes down to a set of three days. Boston Regional is the competition that 2043 and the Wentworth mentors competed in. The work that the 11 students did during those six weeks all came down to 9 matches split between 2 days. The Wentworth mentors including myself were out there helping the students in whatever way possible. During the competition we had problems with the robot however we were able to fix all the problems that occurred. The high school students had a fantastic time and I personally could not have asked for a better group of students for this competition. These students worked so hard this year and did so well.

These students both at competition and during build season blew me away with how much they were willing to listen and how hard they work. During my eight years doing this competition I have never seen a team willing to work this hard and so proud of their work. These students after the 9 matches finished 7th out of 53 teams. Both the mentors and students were ecstatic after every match as we saw ourselves within the top 15 after every match. Sometimes we were as high as 3rd and as low as 15th. The adversity these students went through not only were other people impressed (mentors and teams that have done this competition as long as I have) but they should be proud of what they accomplish at the competition and what they learned.

After last year major problems that I had with my old team I wasn’t sure if it was worth coming back for another year. These 11 students changed that all around and I hope that in the coming years I can teach these students as well as other at that school about different systems of a robot, gracious professionalism, team work, and budgeting. The students I worked with may not no it but they learned so much this year, will back even better next year and they should truly be proud of what they did this year.

There were students from JDOB that were not part of the main 11 of the team but showed up to root on their classmates. I am hoping that in this next upcoming year we will see some of these students join in and help out with the building of the robot. I am hoping over the next couple of years to build this team and get as many students interested in engineering and technology as possible.

I know I am proud to be apart of 2043 and these students and I know the mentors are as well. The five mentors from Wentworth, the reason we mentor are for the students (especially the 11 this year) and that was definitely shown this year. Thank you students for making this year the best ever (so far).

WHO ARE WE!!!!! 2043

Here are just some quick glimpses of this years competition for our team.

As a robotics team, 2043, we are getting ready for our only competition of the year at the Boston Regional competition from March 25-27. We are ready and now what we need to do and are prepared for the competition. I cant wait to see these high school students compete, they have worked so hard this year in building this robot. I am extremely proud of the 11 students that worked this year on this robot from the John D. O’Bryant school of math and science.
We have prepared this students as much as possible and whoever can come out should come see the competition at the Agganis Arena at BU. We hope we can continue this program for the students and be able to continue teaching the students engineering in a fun learning environment. Here is a photo of the robot during testing the drive train and kicker during the last week of the build season.

These past six weeks are extremely hard for some college engineering students as they help mentor high school teams in a robotic competition as well as try and do their normal school work. These six weeks are almost over in the building portion of building the robot. It is done and is ready to compete. However on Monday students will be working on trying to build a better kicking mechanism as well as a lexan shield for the top of the robot. This robot was built and designed by the high school students. At the end of march (25-27) these students as well as the mentors helping will be competing their robot against over 50 other robots from around the Boston area. It is a great competition and everyone should try to make it out to it. It is at the Agganis Arena at BU. Here also is a picture that was taken from yesterday after a 12 hour day of working on the robot.

I know its already three weeks into the semester but over winter break I got a chance to go home to California. When most people think of California they think of going to the beach, maybe getting a tan but when i think of going to California its knowing that I get to go skiing and seeing family. Over my winter break I went back home and went skiing for about 10 days in which in those 10 days went skiing at Alpine Meadows. At Alpine I am a ski instructor in which I taught skiing for 10 days.

The week after new years I came back to the bay area in California to help my former high school drama teacher build a set for one of their upcoming plays. My high school, Kehillah Jewish High School, is a small high school in the bay area in which they have taken a classroom and re-created it do be a small black box theater.

The last week of winter break I came back to Boston to help two FIRST Robotics teams with kickoff and the first week of the competition. FIRST Robotics or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology primarily consists of building a robot in six weeks for a given task that is released at the beginning of the six weeks every year. This is my 8th season doing it as either a mentor or student and it is a great way to get students interested in the fields of engineering. This year I and a bunch of other Wentworth students having been going over there 2-3 days a weeks as well as going on Saturday to help students in the surrounding area of south Boston to build a robot. We currently help 2043 a south boston team which is the John D. O’Bryant School of Math and Science. Over the next couple of weeks I will try to give updates on how the robot is coming and how it looks.

This past weekend of friday, saturday, and sunday was amazing. Friday I went to the Museum of Science with my gf and got to see the Harry Potter exhibit while it was in town. Saturday I worked at another college for security and my sister came into town from Colorado where she attends Colorado State University as a freshman.

Going to the Museum of Science is always a fun trip but being able to go and spend it with a Harry Potter fanatic and going to the exhibit was amazing. Being able to see all the costumes that were created for the film and seeing all that u see in the movies was pretty cool. It is an exhibit that started in Chicago and Boston is its second stop and leaves sometime in February. The work that went into the design of the costumes and the props they used (especially props that may have been used for just a second) was a cool thing to see. This was just a great day all around plus afterwards we had dinner at Longhorn steak house. The purpose of doing all of this stuff on friday was it was my gf’s, melissa, 25th birthday.

Saturday was just as good as friday for me. Unfornuately I had to work but my sister came in from colorado for 7 days since she has 10 days off for thanksgiving. After work I got to spend sometime with my sister and catch up a little and get to see what she is doing for school. I showed her around wentworth a little bit since she really wanted to see where I have been having an education for the past 4 years. After for me a great day I spend dinner at CPK or California Pizza Kitchen with my sister (sara), my gf (melissa), and my best friend (bill).

Unfortunately Sunday wasnt much fun since I had to work again but my sister went out to hang with my gf for the day while I went to work. Ill be having another blog later this week for spending thanksgiving with my gf and sister in Trenton, Maine.

This was the second day of an amazing weekend with some friends. On Sunday three best friends went to six flags to try to do the impossible. Katie and I tried very hard but unfortunately didn’t complete trying to ride every row of Bizarro in one day. That is 17 rows which means 17 times on the coaster. As hard as we tried 8 hrs is just not enough time to do it especially when during Fright fest on the second to last weekend before the park closes for the year.  Melissa (gf, Wentworth alum) enjoyed watching us try and do it. We got over halfway, beat our own best record (was 9, now 10) and hopefully we will be able to complete our mission next year. Six flags was a chance to enjoy having fun with two of the best people and getting a little time off of school.

When we notice that we were getting tired, dizzy and not completing it we stopped to a trip over to the other side of the park, rode the coaster and then started heading out. On the way we stopped to get pretzels, buy some gifts, and watch a show on “main street”. All in all it was an amazing weekend with some great friends and we thoroughly enjoyed some time off work or school.

Bizarro Team (Katie, Eliot)

This past weekend was a fun way to get away from school and have some fun with some friends. Three current students from Wentworth, an alumni, and a friend from Maine went to three different places around Boston to have some fun on a rainy day in Boston. The original plan for us was to go to Six Flags for two days but the rain changed that. Instead Saturday we went to these different Boston places and Sunday we went to Six Flags.

We decided to be tourist and do some things that tourist normally do in Boston. First we went to the aquarium where we got to see the penguins, sharks, fish, and turtles. It was so much fun to be able to spend time with friends and see these magnificent animals. we got our tickets early from Wentworth which they sell at much cheaper rate to Wentworth students.

After we were done with the aquarium we decided to walk over to Quincy Market where we got to eat from some of the places inside it. At Quincy Market they have just about every type of food.

After that we hopped on the T and took it to science park where the Museum of Science. We got to see the always fun lightning show, nano technology exhibit that they have and them having some of the props already out for the Harry Potter exhibit that is going to be at MOS for the next couple of months.  This was especially fun to see the h0rse chess piece used in the first book and the Mr. Weasley car from the second.

After pretty much the day was coming to a close we all decided to walk to the Cambridgeside Galleria to eat at the always amazing cheesecake factory. This was an amazing dinner that was able to finish off an amazing day that I had with four great friends. The next post is going to be about the same weekend and the amazing day of Sunday at Six Flags.

The gang at the aquarium

at the MOS

For most Columbus day weekend is a chance to go home, see their families, and get an extra day off of school. Most students live in the New England area and unfortunately for me since live on the west coast doesnt make sense to go home for a three day weekend.

So this Columbus day weekend it was all about working for TeamOps, company that does security, and doing a sleep study for sleep apnea. This was a very interesting experience for me since I had never done it before and it was unusual having electrodes being attach just about everywhere on the head.

School is about 5 weeks in so far. It has been a long but fun five weeks. Since having to redo and retake my junior year, it has gone better then the first time around so far. For me, professor gave their first set of tests last week and I got two this week. The teachers are willing to sit down with u and make sure things are going well and that you are understanding it like they do with me.

Today we had our first open house and it seemed to have gone really well. Unfortunately this was a long weekend but a good one. But work required me to work on sat for 14 hours but it was good and then had the open house today.

Not pertaining to school is that hockey season just started and ecstatic that it is here and already underway.

Well I have a couple trips in the workings between now and the end of the semester plus my sister is coming out for thanksgiving to spend some time out here.