11.11.

2016

AMES
THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER ON AMES ROBOTICS,
TEAM PROGRESS, AND EVENTS!
Robotics
We hope you find the newsletter informative and fun! This is meant to keep all team members, mentors,
and parents updated. [Created by: Annika Young, Quincy Parkes, and Ms. Whitbeck]

RoboFest Recap
This past Saturday was RoboFest, hosted by AISU. If you
werent able to attend, here are some updates about the
cool stuff that happened!

We started the day off with two keynote speakers: Dr.

Mark Minor and Beau Freckleton, a graduate student
from the University of Utah. Dr. Minor spoke about
FIRST robotics in Utah, and the robotics department at
the University of Utah. He also touched on how Salt Lake
City is the heart of some major technological
developments in industry involving robotics. Mr.
Freckleton presented the drone he is developing that is
designed after the claw mechanism songbirds use to grab
hold of tree branches. He also spoke of resilience, and Team Lead
how it is never too late to start learning about robotics!
Riley Sorenson
AMES gave a demonstration of RoboPong, and also
performed a few practice shots of one of our launchers My name is Riley Sorensen. This
that has already been put together. This launcher is on its is my third year on the robotics
way to being ready for RoboPong in December, it just team. I am the programming team
needs to be refined for accuracy and precision. Good job lead. I started going to robotics my
to the team members that participated in this! freshman year. I was originally
interested in joining the
The rest of the day consisted of workshops dealing with programming team but didn't end
parts of FIRST robotics teams: from the build side to the up doing much programming my
business side. We had workshops taught by AMES freshman year. Before coming to
Alumni Mark Van der Merwe, two of our teachers, Doug AMES I didn't know how to
Hendricks and Sara Whitbeck, and two of our mentors, program at all. All the
Dr. David DeTienne and Mr. Chris Hirschi. Mark taught a programming I have learned has
class on programming, Mr. Hendricks on electrical issues, been either self taught or learned
Ms. Whitbeck on financial aid, Dr. DeTienne on Robot from my experiences on the
Computer Vision, and Mr. Hirschi on how robots are robotics team. While my specially
designed and built at SARCOS. Thank you to all that is programming I also help a lot
attended and supported our team! with building the actual robot.
 NEWS:
News regarding the AMES Amperes and
those connected to our team.

Robotics T-Shirts
Robotics shirts are currently on sale for $5 each! If
you would like to purchase one, please see one of the
team leads, Mr. Hendricks, or Ms. Whitbeck! These
shirts are important for our team members to have as
we use them during events and competitions to show
we are a part of the AMES robotics team. For
RoboPong in December, we would like for everyone
to be dressed in AMES gear so other competing teams
Saturday Build Sessions know who to talk to in regards to getting around
RoboPong is approaching soon, and in order to AMES and the competition. If you cannot buy a t-
prepare we are going to be holding Saturday shirt, we will let you borrow one for the day, but if
build sessions November 19th and December you would like to purchase one to keep, you may.
3rd, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on both days.
Based on our progress thus far, this extra time
will be necessary for getting our launchers ready
to compete. If you are working on a launcher,
please try to plan on attending these extra build
sessions. We would also appreciate if any
parents would volunteer to bring in food for our
students. They will be here through lunch so if
they are hungry we would like to have food
available for them. If you are interested, please
email the AMES robotics team at
ames.amperes@gmail.com. Thank you for
supporting our team!

Important Calendar Dates Parent Committee

For any parents that are interested, our robotics team
Builds every Tuesday is planning on starting a committee for parents to join
(3:40 p.m.5:30 p.m.) that would like to help our business team. This
committee would help support us in fundraising,
Saturday Builds, Nov. 10th, Dec. 3rd reaching out to sponsors, and other activities. This
(10 a.m. 4 p.m.) would include giving team members rides to visit
December 10th: RoboPong @ AMES companies, or helping to write letters and emails to
(10 a.m. 1 p.m.) potential sponsors. If this is something you would be
interested, please email Ms. Whitbeck at
swhitbeck@ames-slc.org.