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Who are we?

 

Team 3361 is comprised of students grades 10-12 who attend the Shenandoah Valley Governor's School (SVGS) in Fishersville, VA.  SVGS is a school that gives juniors and seniors from seven different "home" high schools who are gifted in arts and sciences unique opportunities to take advanced courses with a strong focus on hands-on experience and career development. The FIRST Robotics club at SVGS is open to any juniors and seniors at SVGS or sophomores planning on attending SVGS in another year. The Governators have participated in four competitions including the 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2015 games.

 

We currently have a few volunteer mentors, but new mentors are welcome. Physics teacher Chris Martin began coaching during the 2013-2014 season. In 2015, technology teacher Leonard Klein began mentoring to provide programming assistance and chemistry teacher Mr. Curtis helped provide engineering assistance.

 

Currently the team consists of 14 members. For the 2015-2016 season, Haley Sanders is our engineering captain and Erin Fosnocht is our administrative captain.

 

Each year, we split up members into three subgroups: the drivetrain, the manipulator, and programming. The drivetrain group works on making a base for the whole robot as well as the wheel system, which requires the use of motors, gearboxes, belts, and axles. It is important to take into account whether speed or torque is more important in the competition and design the drivetrain with that in mind. The manipulator group focuses on whatever unique system will interact with the in-game objects. For instance, in the 2014 competition, the manipulator was designed to intake an excercise ball and launch it into goals. As soon as the game is announced, the manipulator must start from scratch on designing a component that will score points on the field. Finally, the programmers must make sure that each component gets power and interacts properly with a controller for the driver. This team uses high-level programming languages such as Java to control the movement of the drivetrain and the manipulator. All of the teams must communicate to ensure that all components match up properly.

 

For the 2015-2016 season, we are forming a new media subteam to document and spread awareness of the Governators.

 

What sets us apart from other robotics teams is that our robots are almost entirely student built. We pride ourselves in allowing the students to learn from our mentors, but the students work from design to implementation to fully understand the challenges faced in an engineering project.

 

 

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