Over the these weeks, we made a list of the things we think we will need to buy for Tech Challenge by conversing back and forth over email. Also, we’ve basically decided that we will build something to fly to the target zone, in the spirit of volcano exploration. Here are the estimates:
- Airplane or helicopter: $400
- Camera or some other autonomous system for targeting: $200
- Team shirts and banners for sponsors: $100
Eric drew up a whole bunch of designs for blimps. We also decided to begin finding sources of funding since this year’s challenge would be somewhat costly.
Throughout September, we met during lunch in Mr. Brucker’s room. We tried our hand at sponsorship by visiting local companies and offered advertisement services in exchange for funding. Got $100 at Learning Bee and $100 at Martial Arts, located in the plaza of Lucky’s, Fremont. Learning Bee agreed to sponsor us if we presented our device afterwards. We think quite a lot of tutoring places will be willing to give us money if we can demonstrate our device to their students.
We’ve gotten through the beginning of the school year, so now we can start working on our projects. However, we didn’t get a lot done today. We talked a lot about what we were doing this year, since there were a few competitions coming up soon, including a science competition for Catherine and a robotics tournament that Raymond and Rebecca were going to. We decided that we liked this year’s challenge – it would give us a chance to work with electronics and build a control system. We also realized that it would cost us quite a bit of money if we were going to use electronics. Afterwards, we talked about the year’s schedule for Tech Challenge, and drew up this list of what had already passed and what we were going to do:
- August
- The challenge is released, and we’re all finishing up summer vacation. Quite a few of us were gone over summer so it wasn’t practical for us to meet then.
- September, October
- We’ll all have a lot to do since we’re starting junior year.
- Start brainstorming throughout the first few weeks of school, and think of crazy ideas that just might work.
- November, December
- Focus on getting sponsorship and finding some good (and inexpensive) sources for what we will need. Try to get in-kind sponsorship for anything we may need in quantity.
- January
- Revise and finish first design
- Procure all our parts and test them individually
- February
- Assemble first testing airship
- Inflate blimps and test
- Correct flaws in design
- March
- Complete both airships
- Find a site for practice and practice with both airships
- Decide on who will be controlling the airships
- April
- Finish early and work on team spirit!
Another season of Tech Challenge has begun! The Funky Shiitake Mushrooms are back and ready for action. We even have the addition of a new team member, fellow Mission San Jose High School student Raymond Zhong, who is also a Junior.
Raymond also set up a blog for us! Since we’re all going to be busy and we don’t have that many classes together, we expect that it’ll be easier to write about everything on a computer. Last year, we left a lot of documentation incomplete in the end, and we had a hard time downloading and tracking down all the photos on our camera and pasting them in the blanks we left in the notebook, so now that we’ve got a blog, hopefully everything will stay in one place.
