Progress to Date and Tournament

We've gotten a lot done since the last post!  We've shared our project idea with several experts and gotten some good feedback.  Dr. Linton liked the spinning magnet idea and thought it could work.  When we asked why nobody was using the ideas we found patents for he said it's probably because they cost too much.  Silicon that's 99.9999999% costs $25/kg.  Silicon that's 98% pure costs $4/kg.  So to be practical a solution needs to cost less than $25 per kilogram of awesome silicon, or less than $4 per kilogram of pretty good silicon.  Dr. Loock also liked the idea, and he too wondered about the cost.  We'll need to figure out how much ours solution costs to see if it's practical.

Dr Tenney also liked the idea, though silicon wafers aren't his specialty.  He did say that we could probably save ourselves a drill and a bunch of magnets by using an induction motor instead.  He sent a video of someone who made one with a lego controller and some non-lego pieces.  It basically gives the same effect as spinning magnets, but without anything moving.  See the video below:

Since Dr. Linton and Dr. Tenney are both named John, the secret word for the week is "John".

We've also made good progress on the robot programming.  Olivia spent 6 hours working on it on Sunday.  The robot now does the Careers, Valuables, Compost, Windshield, Plastic Bag, Turtle, Truck, and Methane missions for a total of 600 points.  We have a few more missions that are close to working and may be able to get almost 800!

We've also made good progress on the t-shirts.  They are supposed to arrive today and get printed by Thursday.  Let's hope there are no delays.

We've made good progress on the presentation as well.  Things we still need are: a song!  And practice!  We'll need to practice this a lot before the competition and there's very little time left.  Who wants to write a song?

We're meeting with Team HiTech (Ella Hsu's team) at Olivia's house after school tomorrow (Weds.).  We're hoping to do our presentations for each other, and try out our robots in competition.

We have another expert to speak with on Friday at 11:30.  Her name is Dr. Lauren Linton and she's the Deputy Director of the Tufts University Innovation Institute.  They focus on turning ideas into products by involving people with a lot of different skill sets, and may have advice for us on how to make our idea better.

We've emailed the tournament schedule to everyone.  Please arrive Saturday morning no later than 7:45 at MacArthur Hall (corner of Sir John A MacDonald Blvd. and Union St.)