Nederland Pirates | FIRST™ Robotics Team 1584

Pirate Blog

June 13, 2019

2019 Deep Space: Season Recap

The Pirates would like to thank all of their supporters during this 2018-19 season. Meeting the goals the team set wouldn't have been possible without help from each one of them. This year, the team sponsored a fall activity in addition to the spring build for the FIRST Robotics Competition. FIRST© is an acronym, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, and was founded in 1989. It is the goal of FIRST© to inspire young people to pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math while building teamwork, gracious professionalism, self-confidence and life skills.


The 2018-19 school year was the 15th year for the Pirates. They had a few challenges on this anniversary, which the team met with energy and success. Each year, the team learns about electronics and wiring, graphic arts, designing then machining their own parts, and developing programming skills using C++, among many other skills.

This past year, they did all this at an off-site garage graciously donated while the high school undergoes construction. Being away from the school had its challenges and rewards. The team reached out to its village and found willing supporters to help bridge this two-year disruption. The students responded well to the challenges, became stronger and worked more cohesively as a team.

Jamison Graves, Hakan Chukon, Cody Martin, Oliver Vernon, Clay Kress, Zach Weiner, Ande Hammers and Ainsley Norman participated.

In October 2018 the team ran a workshop called 'Give A Robot A Brain'. This provided an introduction to Computer Language and Robot Programming to the larger community. We partnered with the Nederland Community Library, who graciously allowed us to use the meeting room for this four-day workshop.


In January 2019, the team began the six-week build for the FIRST Deep Space Challenge. They needed to design, fabricate and build a robot to work with other robots in a space-themed challenge. The robot, named the Stargazer, is designed to handle flat hatch panels and balls, then deliver them to cargo bays on a mid-field ship and rockets along the field perimeter. The Stargazer finished the match by climbing onto a 19-inch platform on the alliance's home "HAB" zone.

We competed in the Colorado Regional, in Denver, on March 22 and 23.The Pirates were part of a field of 52 teams from 7 states and Mexico. For the practice day this year at competition, we had a few modifications to make and so had very little drive time heading into the competition. We worked through repairs and modifications to compete in all our qualifying rounds. The robot and team performed well. Our design and engineering worked as planned, on time and under budget! The team works like a NASCAR crew going from their pit to the game field for matches again and again for three days! It is the hardest fun and the most intense learning.

The best moment of the competition happened in our first qualifying match. We were scheduled to be in round one with teams 1303 and 3704 as our alliance partners. The robot and drive team performed well and we successfully made a level three HAB climb. This was the very first time we could try climbing and it went brilliantly. Many whoops of delight and Pirate ARRRGHs were heard from the team and its supporters in the stands!


We appreciate your help in making this season a success! Look for us next year when we compete in the FIRST 2020 INFINITE RECHARGE.

The Pirates! NMSHS robotics team FRC 1584 would like to thank all of their supporters during this 2018-19 season. Meeting the goals the team set for the Deep Space competition wouldn't have been possible without help from each one of them:

Ball Aerospace

Anonymous Angel

Indian Peaks ACE Hardware

Dan Martin Excavating

Medtronic plc

Gilpin County Commissioners

Schedule Source, Inc.

SalesForce.com, Inc

NederNet, Inc.

Back Door Theater

Studio NHR

Xcel Energy

Nederland Middle Senior High School

Any family member or neighbor who lent a hand or a few $!

A hearty thanks from; Hakan, Oliver, Cody, Zach, Clay, Jamie, Ande, Ainsley and the mentors! ARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!