Electric Eagles Bring Home Second Place Trophy
posted 04.03.06
Hello all,

The Electric Eagles, Lindblom Math & Science’s robotics team, came away with some hardware from this past weekend’s Milwaukee Regional Competition with robotics’ teams from seven states.
The Electric Eagles partnered with two schools from Wisconsin to form an alliance that took on seven other alliances in a dramatic competition. Napoleon, our robot! - named for his short stature as well as his great power and tenacity - brought home the alliance’s second place trophy!
There are so many people to thank, for we could not have taken part in this four-day event had it not been for many wonderful supporters. And I want to thank them all:
First, our students who built and drove the robot (in alphabetical order): Gamaliel Alarcon, Sharonda Barr, Jonathan Bass, William Carey, Chaz Donalson, Robin Hall, Carl Hicks, Adam Jiminez, Sacha Sims, and Tynisha Sudberry. Congrats! on your great run!
Next, we had great help from some students from IIT who came in and worked with our students on Saturdays: Adam Bain, James Pierce, Sam Solomon and Aleksandr Shnayder.
Also, we would be remiss if we did not mention that - at these competitions - there is an incredible amount of cooperation among teams. Our team wants to recognize the great help of Al Skierkiewicz, of WTTW, who works with Rolling Meadows High Schools’ Wildstang team that won the competition. His and their friendship and guidance was invaluable.
In addition to coach Hortense Brice who worked incredible hours with the students and organized our team, there were other faculty who helped a great deal with either chaperoning or working with the students on different aspects of the competition. Nathan Diamond designed the logo and worked on the
Electric Eagles’ website. If you go to the site, you can see pictures of students building Napoleon. Danna Dotson accompanied Ms. Brice and team to Milwaukee from Wednesday - Saturday night. John Woods helped to program the robot’s movements.
Our students and staff had some outside help as well: Tinicko and Jennifer Griffin, who work at Daley Academy, spent many hours working with the team on Saturdays and offered their time in Milwaukee as well. Perhaps our greatest shout out goes to Tom Piette, the students’ mentor from Segway of Chicago where he is Vice-President of Sales, who gave so much time with our students and discovered not only how much he likes working on robots, but also how much fun our students can be!
Special thanks goes to two alumni: Larry McCune designed and donated Lindblom shirts and Electric Eagles’ caps. Jackie Moore is a FIRST senior mentor and won the mentoring award in Milwaukee for her work with our team. In addition, she brought the other Chicago team to Milwaukee! She’s the best!
Our greatest thanks goes to those who made our trip to Milwaukee possible! Had it not been for the generous financial support of the following companies and individuals, we would not have been able to make the trip:
Lindblom Alumni Association
CBR Consulting (Chenita Lawson)
Marquette Bank (Thom Bamford)
NASA
USAFIRST
Alumni: Tasha Clopton, Songie Milhouse