Robotics Experience Part 3 (Semi-Finals)

After the Eliminations, we trained hard for the upcoming Semi-Finals. Since the drive to the place where the Semi-Final is being held was really long my father and I visited a nearby "Go Hotels" branch and stayed there at the night before the big event.

After sleeping in a surprisingly comfortable bed we went to SM North Edsa Annex to hopefully win the Semi-Finals and get into the Finals.

We arrived early because of the "Go Hotels " being, very conveniently, close to where the competition was held! When we arrived I saw Mattias there, before anyone else had been there. Mattias, not to my surprise, had made a presentation showcasing the improvements he had made to the code and what is left to be done.

After a while, Owen arrived and Mattias gave him a rundown on our progress. Sooner or later the rules for the competition was announced

The rules were the same as before, get the passengers to their respective places in order to earn points. The quickest and most productive robots win and get into the Finals! This time we only had 1.5 hours, I guessed its because there are fewer people now.

After everybody arrived at the competition the 1.5 hours began, we started building as soon as the bell rang. Surprisingly the build didn't take long! Considering that they changed it into a more complex build. There was a part I struggled with but Owen helped me because our sides were alike.

The eliminations basically repeated, I lined up while they made the code. We were able to run around 5 times so that was nice. We were pretty sure we would lose because there would only be 5 winners and everybody else was doing great, but we still tried our hardest.

After the 1.5 hours were up we waiting for our team to be called for the final run. I feel like Mattias and Owen had low expectations but I, for one, was still hoping to get in the Finals.

After a while our team was called, the 3 of us went to the course and we ran our final product. We did well and the robot operated as it was meant to. After the final run, we sat down and waited for the winners to be announced.

After a few snacks and chats the winners were announced, I was a little sad that we didn't make it but we tried our hardest. We also learned a lot too, all in all it was a great experience and I was glad to be in it.

The end

Robotics Experience Part 2

September 2, 2019

After many weeks of hard training, we finally made it to the eliminations! We arrived a little late because of traffic but there was no big problem. When I arrived I was directed to the table where my teammates were. I was paired with 2 people, Matias and Owen.

The ruled for the competition were simple, we all had 2 and a half hours to finish building, coding, and testing. After said time was up we will be called and one by one we will run our code at our respective course and determine our finishing score. There were multiple obstacles on the course, our course was very hard. It had many passengers in different places, we had to bring them to their respective locations in order to complete the challenge. What was so hard about this was we had to create a code that automatically detected the color (Their color determines where they are supposed to be) and has to have a pre-programmed code that makes it go to where they are supposed to be, so that means we need to make a custom code for all the locations in order to bring the passengers where they need to be.

Luckily I was teamed with 2 coding pros! When I arrived the competition already started and my teammates were knee-deep in code so I thought it would be helpful if I lined up before all the other teams did. Though there was already a huge line at least I made it before the others did. The line was really long! I didn't expect it to take 20 minutes to run just once! Because of this, we were only able to test our code out 3 times sadly, but the results impressed us!

After the 2.5 hours were up we were called one by one to run our final product and determine whether or not we got in the semi-finals, our code was decent but we didn't think it would make it. So we sat down and chatted while waiting for our turn.

After a while our team was called then we went to the course and ran our code. It did as planned, it delivered a few of the passengers to their respective locations, it's just that it missed a few thus lowering our score a bit but not too much.

After we ran our code all we had to do is wait for the winners to be announced and the awarding. This would take long but I had a really bad headache due to the stadium being too bright, so I slept through it all.

When the winners were announced we were surprised to hear our team name! We got through the eliminations!

To Be continued

My Robotics Olympiad experience Part-1

Hi! I am Alex, and this is my robotics olympiad journey in a nutshell.

Summer 2019:

I joined two ev3 workshops in iCreate this summer. These workshops were in preparation for the iCreate Robotics Cup. Each workshop ended in a competition and I placed first and second in them. The last preliminary competition was 2 days before the Robotics Cup. I knew that the course will be the same and my mom and dad told me to fix my code. I didn’t. I felt that my robot was already strong and I kept on beating the other competitors. I got cocky.

Robotics Cup 2019:

The competition started. I had high hopes because for the last few runs everything went fine. There were a few bugs in the code, but I didn’t fix it because I thought it was going to be okay. This lead to my failure. The first 3 winners in our category will be representing the center during the Philippine Robotic Olympiad. I came in 4^th. I went home and stopped thinking about robotics for a while.

3 weeks later:

I went back to the center to try and prove that I was worth picking to join the next competition. When I got there, I was surprised to see that the person who got 3^rd place wasn’t there practicing. I asked the coach about him and he told me that the other student dropped out because he couldn’t make it to the trainings. They also told me that they were considering me as a replacement! I was pretty happy when I heard this that I totally forgot about the fact that I hadn’t eaten yet.

To be continued.

Lessons Learned:

1.     Don’t underestimate your opponent

2.     Don’t get too cocky. There is always room for mistakes and improvement.

3.     Put yourself in a position where when the opportunity presents itself, you can grab it.

Tetra packs!

Hi! I am Alex and I just donated my tetra-packs to Coffee Bean and you should too! Here is how it went!

First I stored all of our used tetra packs, like milk cartons and juice boxes. Then, I fill them up with water then shake it in order to get rid of the remaining drink. After that I pull each flap located on the corners and then I hang it to dry. When it’s done drying, they are ready to be donated.

Photo from Tetra Pak PH

Just find one of their special, then find their special box for cartons and put them inside. When they receive your donation they will turn it in to Tetra Pak PH which will then turn them into useful things such as picture frames, notebooks, and many more! 

Photo is from Tetra Pak PH 

Pinoy Kids Read Pinoy Books challenge!

Have you heard about the Pinoy Kids Read Pinoy Books challenge (or PKRPB for short)? Well its basically a challenge where pinoy kids have to read seven different books with seven specific topics like animals or food and stuff like that. You get to chose which books you will read, you can also chose which topics because there is no specific way of going through it. If you want you want, check out my posts at https://www.facebook.com/alextanproject/! Although it is a little late but if you plan on joining check out https://www.facebook.com/pinoykidsreadpinoybooks/