TDT members enjoyed a great visit to the local chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Team members demonstrated clearly the value of outeach events like this one, using the opportunity to practice explaining everything from the game to their robot design, and answering SME members’ thoughtful and interested questions.

Bennett, who has taken readily to CAD, gave a great overview of the design process for the robot arm, and new member Marissa jumped right in to help show engineers some of the game elements and explain some of the challenges they’ve faced in their build this year.  If Marissa looks familiar, that’s because she’s Adi’s sister. Adi had hoped to return to the team with her sister this year, but school and other responsibilities took understandable precedence.  We’re delighted, however, that Marissa decided to join. She brings some FLL experience, great positive energy and an interest in programming to the team.

Today, team members met at Tampa Technik for a build session, and tomorrow, they’ll be splitting their time between drive practice and volunteering at Learning is for Everyone’s TEDxYouth@TampaBay 2012 event. The theme of this year’s event is pretty apropos of our all new team – Dream Big and then Do! Former FRC student Tim Arnold‘s topic, “Failure isn’t what you think it is,” sounds pretty promising, too!

Then it’s back to work, in what will undoubtedly be a very short week before our December 8th meet at Middleton High School.