2011 was a banner year with the Robo-Lions winning the Engineering Inspiration Award at the New Jersey Regional in historic Trenton, NJ (site of Washington’s famous crossing of the Delaware) and earning their first bid to the FIRST Championships as a team. 2199 finished 22nd out of 60 and made the Quarterfinals playing “Logomotion” in Trenton. Logomotion was Rack and Roll on steroids. The tubes were Red, Blue, and White and were square, triangular, and circular to match the FIRST logo (which celebrates the solid volumes used in Archimedes’ classical “bath-tub” experiment). A yellow tube was hung in the 15 second autonomous period. At the end of the match the big robots ejected smaller “minibots” made out of FTC parts which raced to the top of steel poles for extra points. The Blue and Gold went on to finish 18 out of 60 teams at the Chesapeake Regional and made it to the Quarterfinals. Junior Alex Bratchie, webmaster and wiring lead was one of the Dean’s List finalists making back to back selections for 2199. The team really enjoyed their trip to the FIRST Championships but weren’t as competitive as they’d like finishing 2-8.
The Robo-Lions instituted modular design in 2011 and added an improved three stage elevator at the FIRST Championships that extended to 14′ high. Unfortunately this was not utilized correctly and tubes were hung horizontally rather than vertically as intended. The latter problem was fixed at the Battle O’ Baltimore (BOB) Off-Season event with driver Connor Cole and hanger Preston Fuller taking 2199 to their first BOB victory. This was followed up with a Finalist finish at Ramp Riot in Ambler, PA as the Lions and their alliance partners bested alliances led by the formidable Team 341 Miss Daisy and Team 365 MOE, both Hall of Fame teams, only to be edged in the finals by Team 2016 Might Monkey Wrenches who lead the Finalist Alliance at the Championships. 2011 was also a tumultuous year with the Lions losing their space in the old London Fog warehouse right after Championships. Travel costs were also expensive ($10,000 for FIRST Championships alone) with Carroll County Public Schools instituting a requirement to have bonded licensed transportation services for all student teams and clubs. Additionally lead mentor Rose Young decided to leave Liberty HS for better opportunities elsewhere. This lead to the creation of the 501(c)(3) not for profit “Partnership and Inspiration for Engineering Education and Entrepreneurship”, or PIE3 (http://www.pie-3.org) for short, to insure continuity of the team regardless of external circumstances. PIE3 also affiliated with Carroll County Parks and Recreation through the local Freedom Area Recreation Council (FARC, http://www.freedomarearec.com/) which provided liability insurance and didn’t require bonded and licensed transportation, so team parents could drive team members to competitions saving the Lions a lot of money that could be plowed back into the robotics program. 2011 was also the year that the team standardized on bolt sizes selecting 1/4-20 and #10-32 as standard sizes. Related tools such as hex keys, sockets, or drills were color coded blue or gold to ease identification. The drive team was Johnathan Mayo and Connor Cole. The robot was named the Abi Fuller Junior. The Senior Captain was Katie Miles and the Junior Captain was Preston Fuller.
