Field Trip to Waialua High School Robotics

On Friday, February 18, 2011, The Mekanikal Maniaks, Team 4951, visited Waialua High School.  We were greeted on campus by the students from the VEX and FRC teams, and taken on a tour of their robotics facilities.

We first visited their industrial education shop, where the parts of the robot were built and put together.

Then, we were taken to the animation room where we watched Waialua's Lifetime of Safety video and the animation video created by the animation/CAD designers.


Next, we visited Waialua's FLL Team 1739's room where we got to see their robot run through the missions.

After that, we went to the VEX room.  Their team members demonstrated their robots, and to our surprise, we got to drive the VEX robots.  It was fun, and took awhile for us to get the hang of it.  For many of us, this was our favorite part of the day.

Last, we visited the testing room where we all got to watch the 2011 FRC robot, Ho'okahi, in action.  This was a real treat for us, as their robot was in the final stages, and would be shipped out to New York, for their competition in early March.    The theme for their game this year is, "LogoMotion".

To end our day, we were treated to a pizza lunch from Waialua High School's Team 359, The Hawaiian Kids.  All of the members of Waialua High School's Robotics team truely displayed Gracious Professionalism, as they treated us with so much respect and kindness.  It was also evident in the way that they worked together with each other.

We were all amazed and impressed with what these teams have accomplished.  It was just awesome to see what the students are doing at the high school level, and this is something we have to look forward to.  It's no wonder that Waialua Robotics brings home so many awards!

Thank you to Waialua Robotics Teams for hosting our visit during a very busy time, just before your upcoming national competitions.  We wish you much luck in all of them!

FLL State Championship Tournament Dec, 11, 1020

The Mekanikal Maniaks met at the Blaisdell Center on Saturday December 11, 2010 for the First Lego League State Championship Tournament.

First, we went to the Robot Design interview, and introduced ourselves with our team cheer.  We showed the judges our best program which was the Mechanical Arm.  We also presented the program for the syringe and the Patient Area.  We all felt overjoyed from doing our best, but at the same time, we were relieved the pressure vanished.

After, we went into the Project Presentation interview.  Again, we introduced ourselves with the team cheer, and started our skit.  We were so nervous, but in the end, we were relieved once again.

We couldn't relax just yet.  The robot games had just begun.  It was very loud in the arena because all the parents were screaming for the teams.  In round 1, our robot, The Mekanikal Warrior, didn't run so well.  He scored 95 points.  It was very frustrating, but we kept persevering.  In round 2, we improved with a score of 135 points!  Round 3 was our last chance to score high, and we felt so nervous, some of us were starting to feel sick!  Still, the last round was our best score yet!  We had gotten 220 points, better than 95 and 135.

We practiced hard between rounds.  We were ranked 12 among the 56 teams for the robot game.   In the end, our robot was nominated for the QUALITY DESIGN by the judges, and The Mekanikal Warrior ranked somewhere in the top 10 of 56 other robots!  Team 4951, The Mekanikal Maniaks, was judged EXCELLENT by the Teamwork Judges, and again ranked in the top 10 of 56 teams.  In addition, our team was judged GOOD by the Project Judges.  

Although we did not take home any awards in the end, what we discovered about ourselves and our team is more important than what we could ever win!  AWESOME JOB, to the Mekanikal Maniaks of 

Liholiho Elementary School.