The Flaming Chickens breaks its team up into departments that specialize in different areas. Each active member of our team belongs to at least one department, and they remain in that department for the season. Like everything else at Team 1540, the departments are student-run. Each department has a student manager, who decides who ends up on their competition team (though we're always very flexible). The manager of the department handles all department issues and planning as well as communication between departments.

Our departments each have a certification process, allowing for easy and thorough training of each new member. The certification requirements are re-evaluated each year by the managers of each department.

Check out our 2008 Certification Requirements! (2009 Requirements will be posted once the season is underway.)

CertificationRequirements.doc

Our departments include: Software, Design, Fabrication, Control Systems, Animation, Electronic Media, Marketing, Chairman's Award, and Competitive Analysis.

Software:

Co-managed by Christina and Johnny, Software's job is program the robot and make it do all the cool stuff you see happening on the field. In short, it's software's job to make sure the robot is easy for the drivers to use, and accomplish the robot's goal.

Design:

Team Captain Trevor is the manager of Design, which forms its own separate department this season for the first time in recent memory. The main objective of Design revolves around turning the plans brainstormed at the kickoff into concrete plans. Designers have to ensure that the robot will meet all the restrictions laid down by the rules of the challenge. When the plans are completed, Design hands them over to Fabrication, which is then in charge of transforming the plans into a functional robot.

Fabrication:

Managed by Brad, the fabrication department builds the robot using plans from the design department. They also build the pratice course and shipping crate. All these tasks involve working with metal, plastic and wood using the power tools in the robotics lab. In short, Fabrication does all of the real "work" with construction of the robot. Fabrication and Design have existed as one combined department for the last few years, but for the 2009 season, Team 1540 has decided to separate the areas to give new members greater chances to be involved with the two areas.

Control Systems:

Managed by Kalifa, Control Systems deals with the tasks invloving wiring on the robot, including the wiring of the control board, motors, sensors or encoders, and all parts of the robot that require power. Control Systems also constructs and wires the control box from which a member of the competition team controls various functions of the robot. If a job involves soldering, heatshrinking, constructing control boards, routing wires, or dealing with wires in any other way, Control Systems does the job.

Animation:

The animation department, managed by Anthony and Chris, is in charge of creating and submitting a short animation for FIRST's animation competition. 2008 was the first time that Team 1540 attempted to enter the animation competition. View the animation, storyboards, and more information about the submission here.

Marketing:

Managed by Natalie, the marketing department's goal is to spread the news about FIRST throughout our school and the community and to have our team noticed at the competition. This is the group that creates the brochures, travels to community events to present our robot, organizes assemblies and notices at school, and contacts the local TV stations and newspapers encouraging them to cover the competition. The marketing department also gets the team noticed at the competition by making t-shirts, posters, buttons, handouts, and signs.

Chairman's Award:

Blair runs the Chairman's Award department, which is dedicated to writing and preparing the Chairman's Award submission and presentation. The Chairman's Award department writes the essay, and later, Blair chooses the Chairman's Committee, who will present the essay to the judges at the competition in hopes of winning the Chairman's Award.

Electronic Media:

Devyn runs the Electronic Media department, which is, of course, in charge of all electronic media relating to the team. Devyn's main responsibility is managing the website, but she also is in charge of taking pictures in the lab and at events. In addition, the Electronic Media department is in charge whenever we need an electronic presentation, such as the slideshow of pictures at the FLL tournament or the photo/video montage we show at the robotics assembly near the end of the year.

Competitive Analysis:

Co-managed by Cole and Ryan, Competitive Analysis is all about knowing everything about everyone at the competition. Competitive Analysis collects data about each team and their performances in matches and then ranks them. Basically, the Competitive Analysis department scouts for other teams that we would like to compete with. They watch all the matches and keeps track of a mind-bogglingly large quantity of statistics on all the teams.