After the snow delayed exams and shop time multiple times, the Pitt Pirates finally made it to their exams and back into the shop. So many weather delays! However, the night before exams, members were told to stay home and study. When the Pirates finally returned, they got straight to work learning. Keenan, an Engineering and Drive Team member, said about using the sheet metal cutting tool, “I enjoyed using the nibbler this week”. And Jack said enthusiastically, “I learned the anatomy of a gear box.”

Members also learned some other lessons such as, “I learned that experience is very important as new people need help learning because it just takes time to learn, especially with programming because we have a few experienced programmers and they’re not really here right now because they’re doing other stuff and so the new programmers just take time to learn what they’re trying to do,” explained Team Captain Austin. Dillion added, “Well we just succeeded at getting a successful autonomous round to go in a square using the gyro and the encoders. It was a challenge figuring out exactly how to get the gyro to go beyond a certain point . . . cause there’s a positive negative threshold we had to overcome . . .”

Our engineers and designers have been working closely together to get the robot built. Taylor, a Design team member, said, “We overcame a lot of communication errors”. While there have been a few bumps along the road recently, some good news comes from the Drive Team Captain, Matt, “We succeeded at making more durable prototypes that aren't made out of wood and . . . moving closer to the final robot.”

The team also met as a group with a local Therapist to discuss the topic of suicide. Our sAfe Team arranged for the meeting to bring awareness of suicide, warning signs, and ways to find help. Learning more about it helps remove the stigma of needing help and getting help. If you know of someone that might need help, please utilize the contact information below. Help is out there.

Suicide Intervention “Real Crisis” Line 
252-758-4357

Suicide Prevention Hotline 
877-613-5609

Mobile Crisis 
866-437-1821

911

Suicide Text Line
Text MHA to 741-741