[srawn] SR(A)WN 2015 -- 14

[Tom Leese]

SR(A)WN 2015 — 14

This is the fourteenth issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Internal updates:

• Mentoring in Southampton has started, a bit later than usually though.
• The first Tech Day in Munich happened at MAI, who have built an arena for testing.
• Competition Software now runs on Python 3 and uses Setuptools for installation.
• SRBot has been replaced by Willie.
• Sign-ups for a committee position have now closed.
• Various updates to Southampton venue ideas for the competition have happened.
• There is a date hold on Newbury Racecourse as a competition venue.
• The first Volunteer Activity Day is happening this week.
• A summary of the possible results from the committee vote has been posted.

Committee Vote:

The following people have applied for positions on the committee:

• Community: Tom Leese
• Engineering: Rich Barlow, Peter Law
• Events: Lilafisch, Sam Phippen
• Public Interaction: Harry Cutts
• Schools & Mentoring: Jon Bartlett, Jeremy Morse
• Sponsor Interaction: Andy Busse, Rob Spanton

Team updates:

• Peter Symonds https://pscrobotics.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/cheeky-build-photo/
• QMC http://teamqmc.esy.es/uncategorized/update-2112015/
• Collyers http://collyersstudentrobotics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/keeping-everything-clean-and-tidy.html
• Cornwall College Saltash http://ccsrobotics.over-blog.com/2015/01/week-8-recapping-the-code.html
• Brockenhurst have a robot base and a good idea of how they're going to build the rest of it.
• Taunton do not have a robot yet, but they have been prototyping on last year's robot.
• Bishop Wordsworth School have not assembled a robot, but they have started programming.
• South Wilts Grammar School have a robot base with wheels and lots of code.

First time mentor, Andy Barrett-Sprot, says "I expected it to be more like teaching, but it was more about supporting the teams, I think that's a good idea because it doesn't waste their time.".

Thanks to Tom Leese, Alistair Lynn, Lilafisch and Murray Colpman for working on this issue. The previous issue can be found here.

[Peter Law]

> First time mentor, Andy Barrett-Sprot, says "I expected it to be more like
> teaching, but it was more about supporting the teams, I think that's a good
> idea because it doesn't waste their time.".

Awesome. Can we get that on the website?

Andy: clearly you felt it was beneficial to the team. Just out of
interest: did you feel that _you_ got something out of it too?

Thanks,
Peter