Get ready for CHS's fourth year hosting the annual FTC Flashback Scrimmage! Hear about it straight from NJ FTC:

Hello Teams …

Welcome to the first day of Spring! The snow is melting, the clock have been turned back and it’s staying light out later. Know that means? … ... For NJ FTC, that means it’s time for the post-season to begin!! Those not going to the Super Regional, we sure hope that your robot is still functional. 

We are looking for teams to join us at Montgomery Township HS on May 17th for the 8th Annual “Monty Madness” Extreme Game. Come on out and play normal “Block Party” in the morning and then a surprise twisted-version in the afternoon! You need to strategize quickly to deal with the extra scoring options and bonus opportunities that will be thrown at you in the afternoon’s “Extreme Block Party” Game. 

We are also looking for teams to join us at Chatham HS on May 31st for the 4th Annual “Flashback Scrimmage”. This is the competition that uses this year’s robot to play a hybrid Game with game elements from 3-4 years in the past. (Minor adaptation of your bot is allowed, but you can have a blast without any mods too.) In the past, we’ve flashed back to the 70’s, the Old West, and Caveman Days. Where are we going this year? The Game, venue and participants will be outfitted to flashback to … Argh! Guess you’ll just have to apply to find out! 

Send a note to NJFTC if interested in either event. Teams not participating in the Super Regional Teams get first dibs, then other NJ Teams, and non-NJ Teams. Let’s fill up these events!

Fear the Gear had an awesome time at the State Championship, held as usual at NJIT.
Having your birthday on States can sure have its perks! Happy birthday, Paul!

We're going to the state championship! Congratulations to all the other teams that qualified this weekend!

Fear the Gear t-shirts for 2014 are now officially in production, thanks to the help of our amazing CHS art teachers!

Competing in the Holiday Meet on December 1st (thanks to C'est la Vie for hosting!) was a great experience! Our hanging arm didn't perform as well as we had hoped (we bent at least four axles beyond hope of repair) so it's back to the drawing board on that, but our autonomous scoring is really improving! We also had the honor of winning the Think Award--go Fear the Gear!

We finally managed to score the IR block and the ramp in autonomous, with some advice from our computer science teacher, Dr. Jones. Check it out!

After the success of the robotics summer camps, Fear the Gear, Chatham STEM, and some awesome teachers have created a brand new robotics after school program at three of our local elementary schools. Second and third graders are using lego Wedo kits, and fourth and fifth graders are using mindstorms. 

We at Fear the Gear are so excited that competition season has started again! While we got off to a rough start at our first meet, we certainly learned a lot and got a chance to captain an alliance in the semifinals during our second meet! Paul blames the programmer.

Today was our first meeting of the 2013-14 season-and for our new members, their first time ever working with an FTC robot!
Check out this video of the robot disassembly process: