Combustion Triangle

The "Combustion Triangle" outlines what produces our fiery spirit in the FIRST program. Similar to the components of a fire, without any of these elements we would be unable to be the successful team that we are. Every team gets their start with funding and support of their sponsors, essentially the spark. The teachers and mentors provide the steady stream of guidance that feeds the fire of innovation, keeping it alive like oxygen. Students form the fuel of the equation, serving as a vast and potential source of new ideas and products.

Louisiana State Capital

Team Combustion likes to get political. For the second year in a row we have been invited to demo in the Louisiana Capital Rotunda while both houses are in session. When senators and representatives are running our state government we like to distract them with a giant, sometimes chasing, robot. We enjoy telling our lawmakers about FIRST robotics and they like to drive our robot, so its a fairly balanced trade. The long trip and subsequent sight seeing around the area lead to some fun Combustion shenanigans!

	IEEE Visit
	We like to partner with not only local corporations but orgnizations as well. We are a glad benefactor of the New Orleans chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Through a continued partnership and annual visits, we learn about professionals working under some of the same constraints FIRST participants deal with.

School Board Presentation

We are very happy to have the full support of our school board. They have twice sponsored us and some of the board emmber have even come to events sucha as our Open House. THis year we were able to thank them at their special end of the year meeting in May. President Jack Loup accepted our plaque on behalf of St. Tammany parish School Board. We continue to encourage them help us start more FIRST teams within the school district.

Take Our Children To Work Day at MAF

We are lucky enough to have several sponsors who operate at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF). We were invited to thank them all as well as participate in their annual "Take Our Children Work" Day. As part of the large event, involving more than three hundred children, we ran a exhibition station where we explained and demonstated our robot to the different groups. It was interesting to see the inside of MAF and meet all the amazing engineers who work there, some of which are familiar FIRST faces!

Take Our Children To Work Day at PWR

The Stennis Space Center is home to many of our most generous sponsors, NASA, NRL/NDEP, and PWR. As part of a long fun-filled day at Stennis we thanked all three for their wonderful contributions. We gave our near patented presentations to PWR's management and later their kids as part of their "Take Our Children to Work" Day. Since there were several events going on at Stennis we were able to meet up with some of our closest friends, Team 364 Fusion and Team 1421 Chaos for an interesting tour and random fun.

Summer of Innovation Training

As part of NASA's Summer of Innovation we co-hosted a science camp (see FIRST Flames for more details). To become properly certified we attended a one day trainign session at the Stennis Space Center. By doing all the Summer of Innovation activities we were able to get much needed experience that came in handy when we instructed our summer campers. We launched a few rockets, built some mini robots, you know, NASA stuff.

	JCPenney Mall Visit
	As a JCPenney sponsored team, we came to help celebrate our local store's 25th anniversary. Team members performed a variety of tasks including serving drinks, popcorn and cake. One of our more enthusiastic member dressed at the Cat in the Hat and ran around the mall. In addition we also demoed one of robots outside the front inside mall entrance.

Gift to Kevin Trimble

Unfortunately, a former member of Team 1304 N.O.Botics, Kevin Trimble, was injured while serving in Afganistan. He lost both legs and aan arm and is currently in a hospital in Houston. It is sad when an one in the armed forces is harmed, but this hits especially hard as he was a FIRST alumni to a team we have always known. Although we cannot change the past, as much as we would like to, we wanted to show him that we support him and hope for his quick recovery. Our team president was able to paint a beautiful commerative board that all of our team signed. We shipped this and a candy wreath to hopefully boost his spirits and remind him that his FIRST community will never forget him.