Congratulations to Cricket Moore! Cricket was honored tonight with the inaugural Outstanding Volunteer Award at the 2009 FRC Washington, DC Regional. This award is a testamony to Cricket's dedication and hard work, for which we are all very grateful. Well done, Cricket!

Yesterday, Thursday the 26, the team played in several practice rounds. The practice rounds helped the team make adjustments to the robot to help it play the game better. Today, Friday, the team will be playing in 5 seeding rounds. The times of those are as follows (subject to change):

The D.C. regional competition is in less than one week  away on February 26, 27, and 28.  It is being held in the Convention Center. If you would like to watch the webcast of the event live, click here.

We are now registered for the Washington, DC regional competition on February 26th, 27th, and 28th. This is the first weekend of FRC competitions.

What is FIRST Robotics?

• Five years ago, George Mason High School enrolled in a robotics competition sponsored by FIRST, (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology). FIRST is a prestigious organization founded over a decade and a half ago by Dean Kamen, an inductee into the Inventors' Hall of Fame and founder of DEKA Research and Development Corp. The goal of FIRST it to inspire high school students to pursue careers in engineering and the sciences.

On Friday morning, part of the team left to go up to the Battle O'Baltimore at The Park School in Baltimore, Maryland. That afternoon, the team had time to do several practice rounds so that the new drive team could get practice driving with other teams.

Over the past couple days, Andrew and Matthew have been busy driving, testing, and troubleshooting the robot. They have removed the power diverter box which was causing several problems. We are going to try and compete without it, but if they make us use it, it has been fixed so it can be used again. Other than that, they have not had any more major problems with the robot.

By July 12th, Mrs. Moore will need confirmations on attendees to the Battle O'Baltimore which occurs August 8th through 9th. The event will have teams such as 365 MOE, 339 KILROY, 768 Technoworriors, and 1727 REX. Hopefully for the team, it will be a good off-season social/competitive experience.

It ends up that we have enough members of the team to go to the Battle O'Baltimore. However, neither the Petersens nor Eric will be able to attend, so we need a new drive team. Ms. Moore, Mr. Ballou, and Jade have been contacting all members to see what their plans are for getting there. If neither of them have called you, please call Jade or Ms. Moore.