This past weekend, while the varsity football squad fought its way to another CCS Championship, a different team was hard at work over 2000 miles away.

Last Thursday, eight Bellarmine students traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii to participate in the VEX Robotics Pan-Pacific Championship. The event, involving almost 90 teams from Hawaii, the West Coast, and China, is one of the largest robotics events in the world. Bellarmine entered three teams into the fray (254A, B, and C), with surprising results.

Team 254A seeded 2nd after qualification rounds, one of only two teams to go undefeated the entire tournament. Because of its high standing, it was in prime position to first pick Team 254C, then 254B – forming an all-Bellarmine alliance for the double elimination rounds. The trio went nearly undefeated on its way to the top, dropping only a single match when all three teams broke down completely. In the end though, the Bells managed to pull through, taking all three tournament titles in an unprecedented sweep. All in all, the team collected five trophies from the championship event, making it one of the most successful tournaments in Bellarmine Robotics history.

This latest victory marks 254A’s fifth tournament win this season, 254C’s third, and 254B’s first. Click here for a video of the first quarterfinal (Bellarmine is on the right; 254A starts in the foreground and 254C in the background).

The 2010 entry to the FIRST Autodesk Animation Competition has been created and submitted by Team 254's awesome animation team.  The video can be found in the website video gallery (link).  Great job Animation Team!

The robot was dropped off at the Drayage facility today and confirmation of robot shipment was sent to FIRST.  Most of the robot was shipped, but some components were withheld as part of the 65 lbs allowable withholding allowance of parts which we can bring to the regional with us.

Our first regional competition is March 18-20 at the Event Center at San Jose State University.  The Silicon Valley Regional promises to be exciting and the team is almost ready.

The 2010 scrimmage and practice weekend will be occurring at the lab on February 20 and 21st. Teams 254 and 1868 will be opening up their labs with an 80% size playing field and official field elements for teams from around the Bay Area to come and use.

As week five comes to a close, the robot is taking shape.  Wiring is almost complete and manufacturing will be done in a few days for final assembly during the first half of week six.  Week six will be busy, trying to manufacture all of the parts to build the robot.

For the second half of week six, we will practice and host our annual practice weekend and scrimmage on the practice field with official field elements in our lab.  The field elements have arrived and are almost completely assembled.  Teams from around the bay area will be in to test out their robots and practice for competition on February 20 and 21.