Mt. Olive Outlook

This Saturday will mark the first competition that Team 103 participates in during 2015. Mr. Willman, head mentor in the Manufacturing department, said, “I think this weekend will be a weekend where we finalize strategy, and I think… this weekend will be a weekend to build upon.” Mr. Willman went on to say that if Cybersonics does well, than it will be able to keep everything the same, but he sees this competition as a learning experience. At the Mt. Olive, competition 103 intends to find out where they stand, and improve based on those standings, for the end of the season leading up to Upper Darby and St. Louis. Cybersonics’ performance at Mt. Olive will play a large role in deciding how the team uses its time for the next few weeks and will set the tone for the rest of competition season.

Slingshot

Today, Palisades High School students had the opportunity to watch the film Slingshot, an inspiring film about Dean Camen, founder of FIRST, and his innovative ways. Cybersonics hosted the event, and the entire team, as well as many technology, science and art students students attended the showing. The film helped connect Team 103 with their roots in industry and better informed the team of FIRST’s beginnings and inspiration. Cybersonics relies on the support it gets from FIRST and the community.

This showing was a wonderful way to connect Cybersonics with the local community, and connect Palisades High School’s students with the team. This showed students what FIRST was and its role in technology. The movie also provided encouraging words for the students and spread the Dean’s message to work hard and never give up.

Scouting

With build season finished, Cybersonics has allowed itself to slow down a little bit, but students are still working as hard as ever. The schedule has been changed, as the teams, efforts have become less demanding, and the team is finished with this year’s largest projects.

Cybersonics is looking forward to its first competition tomorrow, which will only include the drive team scouting other teams. Next week Cybersonics will be competing at Mt. Olive High School in NJ, and this week our drive team is visiting MAR District Competition at Hatboro Horsham High school. This excursion will allow the drive team to get a sense of what competition will be like this season and start scouting other teams before they have to simultaneously compete.

Build Season Lookback: PR & Marketing

From the business plan, to the website, Cybersonics’ PR & Marketing department rebranded the team style to be more trendy while maintaining our signature elements. This took much of PR & Marketing department’s time and required its members to work as hard as ever to complete all of its projects in time to include them in award submissions. This pressed the department with demanding time constraints, especially with the limits of the winter’s weather. Because of these deadlines, the team accumulated valuable time management skills in the process.

Among the hardest challenges of 2015, Cybersonics had to train an abundance of new members with its dwindling supply of upperclassmen. This proved to be difficult, yet the seniors rose to the challenge, developing important leadership skills, and the new members cultivated their self-teaching skills to ease the burden on the seniors. The 2015 build season’s challenges were crucial learning experiences and Team 103 has grown from all of them.

Build Season Lookback: Manufacturing

The 2015 build season in Manufacturing proved to be challenging, yet valuable for Cybersonics’ Manufacturing members. 2015 came with a change in leadership in the Manufacturing department, the members gladly welcoming Mr. Reckner. Members say that his vast experience helped them learn new concepts and processes this build season, and the department adopted a number of new approaches to the build process. Manufacturing held a number of off-season training sessions and implemented a different drive train.

This year, Manufacturing was much more student led than it had been in the past, and members were happy to have more independence as a department. Manufacturing focused more on prototyping and research, and held more frequent team discussions. 2015 came with a number of improvements for the manufacturing department. The changes made this year will stay with Cybersonics for ages to come.

The End of Build Season

The robot has been officially bagged and tagged since yesterday and Cybersonics’ focus has officially shifted away from the robot and towards other endeavors. Manufacturing is finishing the practice robot and cleaning up the remnants of build season projects. The PR & Marketing department is ensuring all travel arrangements are final and competitions go as smoothly as possible. Cybersonics’ website has been completely remodeled, yet it is a continuously evolving entity and will be constantly updated and improved. Cybersonics’ programmers will be additionally responsible for programming Cybersonics’ tablets for scouting and maintaining Cybersonics’ social networking accounts and other digital media.

The 2015 build season was an extremely progressive one for Cybersonics and engendered many developments within the team. Ultimately the build season, though often challenging, was a valuable experience for the team and its mentors. During the build seasons, students could refine their skills while simultaneously bonding with their teammates and strengthening their team-building skills.

Media Revamp

Media has entered the forefront of Cybersonics’ attention, and the Web department has completely revamped Cybersonics’ online media. Last Saturday, Cybersonics officially launched its new website and is proud to call the project a success. Numerous programmers have joined the Cybersonics and have directed their efforts toward redesigning and reprogramming the website. This feat requires the entire public relations branch to contribute and encourages departments to work together. Although the Web department is responsible for the programming, the new website incorporates the work of the Marketing, Graphic Design, and Digital Media departments. The Web department additionally has commissioned the help of former Cybersonics member and current college mentor, Aaron Willey, who constructed much of the previous website.

Cybersonics is also directing a significant amount of its effort towards social media and is working to augment its online presence. Among its newer additions is Cybersonics’ mascot who now has his own Instagram (@Cybear103) and Twitter (@beartholomew103) and makes frequent appearances on Cybersonics own social media. This year Cybersonics has made significant advances in its communication and is confident that its efforts will make outreach to both the local and global community easier.