Jesuit Robotics

As we promised on March 5th, a lot of things were going to start happening on the website… We’re still working on things, but a lot has happened since then. The first major change, many of you will have noticed. We have redesigned parts of the website to use a blue, and white color scheme, as opposed to our black and blue scheme.

Some of our minor changes include:

• Administration Upgrades: We have redesigned our control panel so that we can work on the site much faster. We have recoded our page titling system, and added some new code to make our site more search engine friendly. These changes aren’t immediately visible, but they will enhance your browsing experience.
• All pages have been brought up to date to reflect 2009-2010 season information. Some of the pages that have notably changed are the staff listing page, which now has this years staff and mentors; and the competition information pages. The members page also has our current team organizational chart.
• The social media page is now a custom coded timeline. It pulls from all of our various networks, and integrates into one timeline. We have removed the javascript and flash widgets from twitter and the like.
• The video page now loads much faster. Instead of preloading several youtube videos, the page will now dynamically load only the video(s) you wish to play.
• Mailing List. As we mentioned earlier, we now have a mailing list. We’re preparing to send out our first newsletter, and would be excited if you were a part of it. Sign up here.
• Slideshows in the photo galleries. We have fixed the flash player that is used to display animated slideshows. Everything should be working now.
• Share / Bookmark system. Every page, and every post now has the option to share the page with your favorite social networking site, bookmarking site, or by email / bookmark.

A lot has been happening on the build side as well. The main part of our rov frame is completed, and work on our manipulators, and electronics can is being started.  Our new members are building a small rov so that they may learn the basics of ROV mechanics, balancing, and engineering.

Our mission / props department is working on building the props. They recently completed the vent chimney for the MATE competition, and completed a breakdown list of all the possible points for the competition.

Stay Tuned. More will coming from us soon. Greg Marchese, over and out.

Hello!

A couple things.

First off, We apologize for the lack of recent site updates. We are really busy and haven’t had time to get recent build logs online. A lot of things are being actively worked on, including the site.

Secondly, expect new things soon. We created a system for getting information from our various departments onto the site.  This system allows our department leads to get info online a lot sooner; and lessens the workload on our Public Relations team. We have a number of things to upload, andare wroking on getting them uploaded.

Third, and most importantly. We have a mailing list now. We request that you register for this low-volume list.  This year, one of our goals is to strengthen our connections with our followers, and more specifically, the alumni of Jesuit Robotics.

The site has been updated to hold all of our old photo albums…. check it out:

http://jesuitrobotics.org/photos/

This is our OFFICIAL announcement of Engineering Day to the Web:

The Jesuit Robotics team, now in its 7^th year, is sponsoring an event to encourage more area high schools to become involved in the  MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education) ROV competition, to encourage today’s youth to become engaged in science and engineering and to promote the importance of underwater remotely operated vehicles for future technology and exploration. Over 30 elementary schools and high schools have been invited to attend the event.

There will be many hands-on activities throughout the day.  Attendees can enroll in Discover Scuba training, participate in several underwater ROV demonstrations, create a ROV through computer modeling, and win prizes by taking part in many engineering games.

Be sure to see the full announcement!

Just a quickie today… Jesuit Robotics is back in school starting today… so things will start happening to the Jesuit Robotics site again. We are hitting the ground running this season, and already have many events planned for the next several months.. so stay tuned. We also have a number of robotics projects in the wings… and we’ll reveal more details closer to project release…

Pictures from the 2009 MATE competition are now online! You can see pictures of the team at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy competing with the 2009 Eripio ROV…

CHECK IT OUT: http://jesuitrobotics.org/photos/mate-2009-pics/

Also, new pictures have been added to the 2009 season gallery. Be sure to check those out too!

MATE 2009 was absolutely amazing this year. We were able to essentialy rescue our ROV. Due to continued electronics difficulties, we were required to ship a dead ROV and develop an entirely new electronics system. We were able to use the MAKER controller board to replace many of our electronics subsystems.

This years competition was held at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. We saw a number of new ideas for the design of an ROV. Our ROV did well considering the issues we had with the electronics this year.

There were many memories made this year, from the late night LAN parties to rescuing a dead ROV. It was a great season. We look forward to next years competition season and are already beginning the planning and design of our electronics and propulsion systems.

This marks the end of day 1 of the MATE competition. It was really cool, and we passed safety inspection, made our technical presentation and made final testing at the Hampton inn and suites. We are now succesfil with our controls after finishing a brain repair with the new maker board system. We will have SEMI-LIVE updates on our competition site located at live.jesuitrobotics.org

We have a compilation video from Maker Faire 2009! It shows various aspects of the Faire, and shows off many different projects. We had a great time at Maker Faire, and hope to see you guys there next year!

Today was our first day back after Maker Faire Bay Area 2009. We started by unloading our marauder-mobile (© 2009) and then later worked on our ROV for competitions.

We were featured on MakerFaire.com (pic below)

We also won an Editors Choice ribbon from the show producer for our booth promoting underwater robotics. We ran a pool with two ROVs with a game designed for the ROVs to pick up mesh balls and pieces of pipe.  Everyone had a great time at the Maker Faire. One of our mentors gave a speech to a large crowd about the SR-71 Blackbird. 2

Check back soon for pictures from Maker Faire, and we hope to see everyone there next year!

Jesuit Robotics was featured on CNET! We have a picture of us and our booth on a CNET post.

Check it out HERE

Check out Jesuit Robotics on twitter.

Go to twitter.com/jhsrobo or jesuitrobotics.org/twitter-updates

This post marks the end of maker faire day 1. We had a great time setting up, (our booth is AMAZING!) then explored the faire before the public gets to see. If you’re coming down, this years faire is going to be exciting. We ended the day at the faire with the makers dinner… (the team had a fun time with shrimp).

We checked into the hotel, and enjoyed the pool, and the internet connections.

The robotics team is now at maker faire. We are currently checking in and will later do setup. Expect more post throughout the weekend

The Public Relations people have designed this AWESOME new banner! We’re having it printed at a LARGE 3′x10′ size, and you can see it at Maker Faire, where we will be exhibiting on Grass J.