FSM wins the Tech Challenge!

Photo courtesy of the San Jose Tech Museum

We went to Tech Challenge with a fully functional airship, that had gone through two full cycles of testing, and with drivers with a few days of practice. We were as prepared as we would ever be.

That morning, we saw all kinds of devices. Lots of people had created gliders and planes to reach the top of the volcano. We also saw plenty of towers and crane-type devices, which would (most of the time) be pushed up to the volcano. There was even an FRC chassis, made out of extruded aluminum, with a rig set up on top and ready to roll.

We even saw a couple of blimps around – they all looked rather similar to off-the-shelf blimps, though – and there were also a few RC helicopters. It looked like we had some competition.

Our first run at the volcano during judging took one and a half minutes because we overshot. One “sensor” (ping-pong ball) landed on the bottom ring of the volcano; the other five on the top. After reloading and getting approval from the judges for a second flight, we go for the volcano again. This time, it took 30 seconds. All six sensors on that run landed on the top. After we knocked off two of the sensors with our propellers’ thrust, we ended with a total of 9 on the top platform in just about 2 minutes.

For our presentation, we had created a 20-slide PowerPoint. We also came prepared with all the designs and sketches we had made at the beginning of the year.

Afterwards, the whole team went outside and flew our device for a while to celebrate what we felt was a really good run. We loaded our everything onto Mr. Brucker’s car again and waited for the awards ceremony to begin.

Our device’s performance as well as presentation earned us the grand prize for Best Overall Solution, the top award of the competition.