Houston Maker Faire

This last Saturday, November 14th, Texas Torque joined teams 624 CRyptonite, 2587 Discobots, 4082 RoboSpartans, 4587 Jersey Voltage, 3335 Cy-Ranch Cy-Borgs, 3847 Spectrum, and 4412 SST Steel Stallions at the 3rd annual Houston Maker Faire at the George R. Brown Convention Center for a full day of demo-ing and exhibiting. The Maker Faire is a convention that showcases “makers” (independent inventors, engineers, craftsmen, hobbyists, etc) and their innovations at one large, centralized location. Here, products and inventions ranging from simple DIY fabrications to hand-built completely wooden C&C machines are presented for public viewing and interaction. FIRST had a strong presence at this demonstration with all of the aforementioned teams exhibiting together on a model FRC field. All sorts of functions were showcased, including challenges and events from previous years, like 2013’s Ultimate Ascent, last year’s Aerial Assist, and this year’s Recycle Rush. Team 624 made a guest appearance of it’s 2012 Rebound Rumble Robot. All of the teams there had great fun demonstrating the variety and intricacies of robotics to all kinds of crowds, and team members enjoyed the friendly interaction between audience and robot. Many of us look forward to returning here next year to continue upholding the standard of local robotics capabilities.

More info and a comprehensive maker participant guide can be found here and here, respectively.

CISD Bond Proposal Passes

It was announced Wednesday, November 4th, that the CISD school and education bond has passed with 69 to 31 percent in favor. This news heralds the advancement of robotics and STEM for years to come, and the whole team looks forward to seeing what new prospects this advancement will hold.

To support this bond, students from Torque went out to various polling locations and campaigned tirelessly for many hours, presenting flyers and helpful advice to any interested. It is without a doubt that the help from efforts like these went a long way in promoting the understanding and awareness of this bond and its importance for the future of the team.

More information can be found here.

2015 Robot Remix

On Saturday, October 24th, Texas Torque co-hosted and competed in the fourth annual Houston Robot Remix. We competed with our 2015.5 robot, an offseason build named “Rebel”.

brady stockton photo

Congressman Kevin Brady and CISD Superintendent Don Stockton came to the Remix and spoke at the opening ceremonies.

The team ranked 3rd in the qualification matches and went on to lead an alliance composed of teams 3478 and 3526, Lambot and Blue Ignition, into quarterfinals. Our alliance was successful in the quarterfinal matches and was able to qualify for semifinals, during which we were eliminated.

We at Texas Torque were glad to have competed with many of our friends in our last event of this offseason. We are also extremely grateful to all of the teams in attendance, having greatly enjoyed hosting this event and hoping to host it again next year.

remix photo copy_opt