Thursday, September 17^th, marked the unofficial kick-off for Menchville’s robotics team, Triple Helix. Whatever you are interested in, you are sure to find a place on the team, as many new students found out at the meeting hosted in Café 1. “You can come to the team and like art, writing, or editing videos, rather than mechanics, and still find a place on one of the subteams,” said team alumni, Kevin Holmes, “mechanical, electrical, programming, CAD, or multimedia and management.” A constant fear among new students to the team is that they do not know enough about robots and engineering to be on the team. That is certainly not a problem. Very few students come to the team understanding the difference between a gearbox and a cRio, or knowing how to program an entire robot in Java.

Even if a student did not get a chance to attend the new member meeting, they are still more than welcome to attend meetings held on Thursdays from 6-9 p.m. to learn more. “This year is guaranteed to be interesting. I can’t wait to find out what subteams the kids will want to join, and what the game is, and how we’re going to solve it,” announced Nate Laverdure. So, in preparation of the official FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) kick-off in January, Triple Helix is more than ready.