Henry's Web Log

Our team competed in the Regional FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) at the Southwest Virginia Community College on Saturday, December 3, 2011. Team 4924 was in second place going into the semifinals and will now advance to the State Level robotics state championship. FIRST “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,” encourages students to pursue math and science careers through sports-like robotics competitions, building enthusiasm for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fields (STEM).

Team 4924 members, aka “Tuxedo Pandas” include: Ethan Bass, Alexis Marchand, and Kallista Winters of CMS; Austin Downs, Adrian Ruvalcaba, and Kent Anderson of BMS.

(left to right) Kent Anderson, Alexis Marchand, Kallista Winters, Adrian Ruvalcaba, Ethan Bass, Austin Downs

They also won the third place Inspiration Award and first place Motivate Award as well were finalists for the PTC Design and Rockwell Collins Innovate awards. Team 4924 Head Coach was Franky Marchand along with assistants, Henry Bass, Paco Ruvalcaba, Michelle Winters, Dean Downs and Eric Anderson. Over the last six months, Team 4924 learned to cut metal, use a milling machine, bandsaw, drill-press and pop-rivet gun. They also learned about programming in C, and prototyping their designs before building.

Their robot, “LuLu” is named for the parallelogram arm used to grab crates. Team member Ethan Bass said, “We didn’t have the chance in this competition to put LuLu to full use. There were 100 loose racquetballs on the field, plus 3 other robots, making for a lot of craziness! We plan to improve our arm so that we can put crates of balls on top of LuLu, then raise the crates with our four-foot scissor jack.” Coach Franky Marchand pointed out that his team was a rookie team, with five seventh-graders and one eighth-grader pitted against high-school students. “We’re ecstatic to have placed second in the qualifying round, as well as our Inspiration and Motivate awards, with such a new team. We attribute this to our experience in FIRST Lego League.” FIRST Lego League is a related tournament for ages 9-14 using Lego.

FTC is designed for students who want to compete head to head, using a sports model. Teams are responsible for designing, building, and programming their robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams. Teams, including coaches, mentors and volunteers, are required to develop strategy and build robots based on sound engineering principles. Team 4924 has been working under the mentorship of the the Montgomery County FRC (FIRST Robotics Team) Team 401 at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center since August to design, prototype, use tools to build and log all work effort into an engineering logbook.

The State FTC Championship will be held in Richmond, Virginia on March 3, 2012.

I've long been a fan of promoting education and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). Folks who know our family know that we have coached many robotics teams , and we're active in the local technology council as well as military STEM promotion.

I enjoyed this article on falling STEM numbers in USA Today on my iPad while working out at the Christiansburg Recreation Center.
Best quote: There is a global brain race, and the U.S. has been unilaterally disarming for years [Paul Saffo].

It's not all gloom, though. There are some bright spots, and we certainly want to continue promoting science as something really cool!




Followup, 11/14/2011: Eric and I exhibited with Team 401 at the Grand opening of the VT Collaboratory . Virginia Tech is making inroads in becoming the leading university in STEM programs. Mighty good!

Looking back on the deployment as we wrap this up and move on with our lives in Christiansburg, we went through an incredible amount of positive change:
I helped transition Basra from British to US command, relocating a Division headquarters, transitioning first to 10th Mountain Division, then the 34th Infantry Division, all the while growing the Basra military infrastructure by about threefold. I left much better than I found it! In the course of this...
I was promoted from Major to Lieutenant Colonel.
Lisa was recognized as Cub Scouter of the Year
Henry was awarded a bronze star for work from 5 October to 15 September. The Overseas Service Bar for serving in the Centcom area of operations, the Iraqi Campaign Medal with Campaign Star, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal (2nd award), the Armed Forces Reserve Medal with “M” device indicating I mobilized from the Army Reserve to deploy, the Overseas Service Ribbon (2nd award, since I previously served in Europe as a Lieutenant).
Lisa completed new landscaping, reshingled & repaired roof, and painted 3 rooms
Lisa and Henry became band parents: Eric is really sticking with the baritone!
Ethan advanced in Kempo and joined a Lego team that didn’t require Henry & Lisa-- winning regional tournement champion and competing at state level!
Henry got his weight down to 204 lbs.
Renewed my DoD credentials.
Certified Systems Engineering preparation (Passed the INCOSE CSEP exam this November)
Henry went from 3 pullups to 8 pullups.
Took our family to Germany
Henry participated regularly in a 4-month bible study
Lisa, Eric and Ethan attend church regularly. Ethan is an acolyte.
Eric has his first teenage girlfriend.
MatWeb was published as a successful case study in a Marketing book.
Laureen’s team built and fielded NextThreeDays.com
Eric and Ethan both are doing well in school, scouts and church.
Ethan competed at the 2008 State Lego tournament.
Both boys are frequently praised by outsiders for their excellent manors & behavior.
Successfully rehired Jim Wyers at ACI
Successfully found/hired Lisa Thompson for ACI

Certainly these are all great things, but this was an extremely challenging year. It was much harder than Lisa or I ever thought it would be, and has made a big change on both of our world-views and personal philosophies. God Bless those still deployed.

The Roanoke Times did a fantastic two-part spread on my deployment and this blog in the New River Current! What a great reminder of all the people who helped me through this deployment: I may have been just one soldier, but I had an Army of support back in the New River Valley, Virginia, Texas, and nation-wide! First and foremost was Lisa- twenty wonderful years of marriage and truly a hero in this deployment! She ran Cub Pack 145, coached a Lego Team, guided Eric and Ethan through another very successful year in school and their extracurriculars. She continued her multiple part-time jobs at the Christiansburg Recreation center, the Blacksburg Aquatic Center, and volunteer work at Christiansburg Elementary and Middle schools, including the Just Run club and the Reflections art contest. Plus she sent me numerous care packages, each with supplies for 20 or more soldiers, kept me informed on local news, and spearheaded an awesome inspirational banner project: Lisa sent nine vinyl banners specially created by the fantastic folks at Sign A Rama in Christiansburg. These are now on display in one of the main hallways of the Division Headquarters in Basra, seen at least a thousand times a day by passing soldiers.

Thanks to the many gifts and prayers from St Paul United Methodist Church in Christiansburg:



Thanks to the Cub Scouts of Pack 145, with the most well-traveled banner (see my blog post on 14 January, A Banner Year.)


Thanks to the developers, designers, engineers and managers of Automation Creations, Inc. with lots of magnets and keeping in touch as best we could with spotty Internet and phones



Thanks to the Boy Scouts of Troop 42, Eric’s troop under Mr. Gary Brumfield, a veteran and outstanding role model for our youth.



Thanks to the students of Christiansburg Elementary School, for their magnets, picture frames and All-American flag design on their banner!



Thanks to the students of Christiansburg Middle School, for an awesome banner with well-researched inspirational quotes!



Thanks to businesses and employees working at the VT Corporate Research Center, for a great banner and frequent emails



Thanks to the church members and citizens in Little Rock, Arkansas for their banner, where my Aunt, Uncle, Niece, Nephew and families live.



And a big Texas Thanks to my mother, grandmother and the citizens of Abilene Texas for their banner, a huge collection of magnets (with metal surfaces everywhere, decorated magnets were great for hanging photos or just on their own!), and other care packages.



I can never say enough great things about how much Lisa contributed to this effort. I know the Army has awards for soldiers, so I decided to create an award for Lisa! Using a piece of Iraqi marble, I designed the state of Virgina, with a “heart” over Christiansburg, and superimposed this on an outline of Iraq, with a Star (symbol of the US Army) in Basra. Dave Cunningham of Magnificent Woodworkings has a large, powerful engraving laser and engraved my PowerPoint design onto the marble. He has a truly awesome shop! The inscription reads, “For Your Outstanding Support and Tremendous Sacrifices” – there’s definitely only one of these awards, and there’s only one of Lisa!

Suddenly, a lot of moving parts and a great deal of luck came together: as the unit redeploys, a dozen of us have been moved up, joining a group of the Brigade’s STB (Special Troops Battalion) to return to the USA! We flew from Tallil to Camp Virginia, Kuwait on a hot C130. In Kuwait, we turned in our weapons and waited a few days for a charter flight home.