Special Thanks to Our Sponsors
Kauffman Foundation
SME Foundation
RTE Techologies
Davis Networks
“Let the All-Nighters Begin”
Start the coffee perking. Make sure the cooler is stocked with Red Bull and Mountain Dew. Team 1777 will be “boting” 24-7 for the next four days. Yep, that’s right. For the next 96 hours, the Shawnee Mission West robotics team will be burning the mid-night oil, and listening to the rooster crow. The building, engineering and test track will be open and operating in an effort to meet the shipping deadline for their 2008 robot, which must be crated-up and shipped by 5:00 pm Tuesday, February 19th.
“This has been a tough year on our schedule,” says Mr. Rob Dudek, lead faculty sponsor of the Shawnee Mission West robotics team. “We have designed a very highly functioning and complicated robot, requiring a lot of metal work and welding. At this point, we are significantly behind our expected time line to complete it, so we have to really work to catch up. Thankfully, this year’s school schedule allows us to work for four straight days.”
By coincidence, students are not scheduled to be in school on Friday, February 15th due to parent-teacher conferences, and Monday is Presidents Day, a national holiday. And since Brynhilde, the name of this year’s robot, shipping deadline is Tuesday the team taking advantage of the schedule to catch-up on robot construction schedule.
Additionally, the team has build a full scale “Overdrive” track in the gymnasium of a nearby elementary school scheduled to be demolished soon. “We plan to put the Brynhilde through her paces over the weekend,” said Andy Hudnall, one of the seniors on Team 1777 who helped construct the practice track. “The track mimics the real race track site as best we can, considering budget limitations,” Any added.
“Robots Can’t Be Built on an Empty Stomach”
Anyone who has participated in FIRST Robotics during build season knows the importance of food to the student engineers, sponsors and mentors engineering and building efforts. Early mornings, late nights and the infamous appetites of teens make for quite a catering challenge. Fortunately for the Vikings Robotic Team, Mike and Deb Meehan, parents of team member senior Katy Meehan, volunteered to meet this challenge, and they have met it quite well.
“Yes, it has been a lot of work, but well worth it,” Deb Meehan says, “and we have had a lot of help from other parents and even the wives of some of the mentors. Those who don’t want to cook have contributed financially, and some parents have provided foodstuffs for us to prepare.” When asked what some of the problems have been, Mike Meehan replied: “Really, there haven’t been many. We look for dishes that are easy to prepare and, more importantly, easy to transport! There aren’t a lot of cooking facilities in the Technology Wing where the robot is being built. Most of the food has to be prepared at home and brought over in crock pots or reheated in a microwave.”
According to the Meehan’s, lasagna and tacos have been the most popular dishes served-up so far. “The trays of meat and vegetarian lasagna went real fast,” Deb Meehan said with a smile, “and being the mother of a teenage girl, we were really surprised on how much food teenage boys can put away during a single meal.” So which meals have been less popular with the student engineers? “Surprisingly,” Mike Meehan reported, “The Saturday we had pizza brought in, there were actually 2-3 full pizzas leftover. And we thought we wouldn’t have enough!” It should be reported, however, that the leftover pizza disappeared before the build site was closed for the day.
The students are very thankful for the Meehan’s efforts, and look forward to the lunches they provide. Thank you Mr. & Mrs. Meehan for all you do. The Team 1777 salutes you.
Web Calendar
Shawnee Mission West High School
8800 West 85th Street
Overland Park, Kansas 66212
Tel 1(913)993-7800
Fax 1(913)993-8099
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Robotics Club Now at West
 Viking Robotics, one of the newest student clubs at Shawnee Mission West, is looking for new members for the 2007-2008 school year. Founded two years ago, the club participates in events sponsored by F.I.R.S.T, (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an international organization sponsoring over 12,000 high school robotics teams around the world. Partially funded by Kansas City’s Kauffman Foundation, the team has designed and constructed robots to compete against other robotic teams to complete specific tasks as part of an overall robotic game.
“These are not the ‘Rock-em Sock-em’ robots or ‘Battle Bots’ you might have seen on TV,” says Robert Dudek, one of the faculty sponsors of the club. “Rather, all participating teams receive an identical kit of parts and the rules of the year’s game at same time during the first week of January. The teams then have exactly six weeks to design, build and test their robots before they have to be shipped off. It can be a hectic time!”
In addition to the FIRST competitions, the Viking Robotics team also participates in VEX Robotic competitions. “These games use smaller, kit-type robots” according to Vicki Davis, the other faculty sponsor. “The building and competition with these  smaller robots helps us prepare for FIRST competition, and sharpen the student’s planning, design and building skills.” The VEX competitions are held during the first semester of the year. Both VEX and FIRST offer college scholarships, and at least one SMW graduate received over $2,000 to attend K-State just for taking part in the FIRST program.
Robotic team meetings are held weekly, and all interested students are invited to participate. Parents are also encouraged take part, especially those with engineering backgrounds.
For additional information contact Mr. Robert Dudek or Ms. Vicki Davis at (913) 993-7800 or you can email them at: smwest.robotics.inc@gmail.com
Our Team Members
Charlie A.
Year in School 12
Programming Team-1st year
Anthony B.
Year in School – 10
CAD Team – 1st Year
Logan B.
Year in School – 11
Web-page Team – 2nd Year
Nick C.
Year in School – 10
Build Team – 1st Year
Axex D.
Year in School – 10
Build Team – 1st Year
Terrisa F.
Year in School – 12
Public Relations – 2nd Year
Computer Aided Design
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Andrew A
Year in School 12
Build Team-3rd Year
David B.
Year in School-10
Build/Drive Team – 2nd Year
Enrique C.
Year in School-9
Web-page Team – 2nd Year
Josh C.
Year in School – 12
Programming Team – 1st Year
Anastasia D.
Year in School – 10
Public Relations – 1st Year
Phil F.
Year in School – 12
Welder/Build Team – 1st Year
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Chanel G
Year in School-10
Public Relations – 1st Year
Andrew H.
Year in School-12
Build Team – 1st Year
Robbie J.
Year in School-12
Build Team – 1st Year
Justin K.
Year in School – 10
Build Team – 1st Year
Joshua P.
Year in School – 12
Build/Drive Team – 2nd Year
Wolfgang R.
Year in School – 9
Build Team – 1st Year
Anna W.
Year in School – 12
Public Relations – 2nd Year
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Randy G.
Year in School-11
Build Team – 1st Year
Andy H.
Year in School-12
Build Team – 1st Year
Jack K.
Year in School-11
Build Team – 2nd Year
Katie M.
Year in School – 12
Build / Public Relations Teams – 2nd Year
Rachel R.
Year in School – 11
Public Relations – 1st year
Jared W.
Year in School – 9
Build Team – 1st Year
Brunhilda
Year in School
Industrial Technology
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SM West Robotic Team Christens 2008 Robot
With the FIRST robotic “build” season quickly coming to an end, the Shawnee Mission West Robotic Team has announced their name for this year’s robot: Brynhild. Keeping with their tradition to use the names of Viking mythological figures, Brynhild was a logical choice, according to Ms. Vicki Davis, physics teacher and assistant sponsor of the team: “Brynhild was one of the Valkaries, the Norse myth feminine figures that would scout the battle fields trying to save strongest and most handsome of wounded and fallen Viking warriors. Considering the ferocity of robotic competition at times, Brynhild fit with the motif of our team and the name of our high school.” Other names considered for the 2008 season robot were Loki, Norse god of mischief and magic; Tyre, the son of Odine; and Magni, the inheritor of Thor’s mighty war hammer. Previous robot names were Thor in 2007, the Norse name for the god of war, and Odin themythical king of Viking after life.
Building of this year’s robot continues almost not stop. Brynhild must be completed, crated and shipped to the competition site, Hale Arena, by 5:00pm on February 18th. The Kansas City Area Regional competition will be held March 6-8, 2008. 46 high school robotic teams from around the Midwest and across the country are expected to compete. Winners of the regional competition will go on to compete in at the national championships at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
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