Palos Verdes Institute of Technology (PVIT) – click photo to enlarge
As we head into second semester, PVIT teams are in high gear, refining projects and preparing for competitions. We had a very exciting visit from our superintendent, Dr. Austin, and school board members to discuss the growing space and resource needs of PVIT which is bursting at the seams. What are PVIT-eers up to?
- PVIT 101 proved to be a highly successful, hands-on curriculum of robotics, electronics, and programming instruction that resulted in a number of Sumobots that will go on to Robogames in April.
- The First Robotics team is deep into the engineering design process for their competition “FIRST Stronghold”, a medieval-themed game where teams of robots work together to weaken their opponent’s fortress with boulders to capture their tower.
- Underwater ROV is producing CAD models of their vehicle which must explore underwater and Jupiter’s moon Europa.
- The electric car is finishing up its complete rebuild and ready to roam campus and the streets of PVE.
- With volumes of data, the Space Group is analyzing their last balloon launch and preparing next steps to start building their satellite.
- Robomagellan has Monty, the autonomous ground vehicle, running with various software features working, but still more coding to do before competition.
- With the boat built and painted, the Solar Cup team is working to install new electronics and testing in a bay.
- With the HP Codewars Programming Competition coming up, the Video Game group is refining their programming skills by continuing to code their game.
- Two UAV teams with multiple aerial vehicles built are now programming their vehicles for autonomous flight in anticipation of the aerial competition that PVIT will host.
- The Battlebots team, composed of mostly experienced seniors, is in final design stages for their robot to compete in Robogames.
- The all-girls VEX team continues to redesign their shooter for the “Nothing But Net” competition.
- Cyberpatriot has been actively competing with some new hardware and with plans for more to come.
- The Rocketry team is putting in extra hours to have a launch to qualify for TARC Nationals.
- After switching gears, the RC Vehicle group is ready to build their first car and explore the sub-culture of remote-controlled vehicles.
- Two TEAMS groups, a senior team and a sophomore team, are preparing for the Test of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science in a couple weeks on “Engineering the Tools of Innovation.”
- The new SwarmBots group is starting to build minibots to investigate swarming software algorithms.
A look back on 2015:
- 1st Place Regional MATE Competition – Underwater ROV
- 3rd Place MATE International Competition – Underwater ROV
- 2nd Place Robogames – Robomagellan
- 13th Place First Robotics Los Angeles Regional