At the start of the 1999-2000 season this sophomore team was brimming with confidence. In our rookie year we had managed to field a competitive robot won the UTC Connecticut Regional Rookie All-Star Award and very nearly made the finals at the FIRST Championship (known as the Nationals in this time period) at Epcot in Disney World in Orlando, FL. This seasons Co-Operation FIRST competition was in many ways more sophisticated than previous year’s Double Trouble. This was the year the expression RTFM – Read The FIRST Manual was invented for us. Without an in depth look at the pneumatic rules we designed a very effective, but highly illegal, venturi vacuum system to lift the play ground balls, the scoring object of this competition, off the floor. This was pointed out to us the day before we had to ship. The midnight oil burned that night. In addition our direct drive drill motor system didn’t take into account side loads. The tripping breakers made for a robot that could not get out of it’s own way. To say the least this was a rebuilding year fro Team 230 but the lessons learned made us much stronger the next year.
The best thing about this robot was it appearance. It looked cool. It looked like a robot. During this year the Connecticut and Massachusetts teams were asked to demonstrate their robots at the Big E, a large well known regional county fair known as the Eastern States Exposition which has been held yearly since 1917. A picture Team 230’s robot, Talon, was selected as the cover art for the Exposition flier that year.
Team
Students
| Dominic Amatoro | Julie Easter | Laura Mariano | Donald Sheehy |
| Jason Bachman | Rachel Foglia | Sean McCaffrey | Anne Szeker |
| Jessica Bal | Michael Grant | Drew Mihalick | Jennifer Vogl |
| Jennifer Baker | Joshua Hill | Joshua Moran | David Wickers |
| Charles Baugh, III | Carol Koty | James Ordija | Christopher Zito |
| Chris Bertucio | Stacy Koty | Brian Reed | |
| David Chapman | Matthew Lawrence | Shannon Reynolds | |
| Gloria Chen | Kevin Lundberg | Daniel Schofield-Bodt |
Teachers
| Ronald Mileski | John Niski | Tracy Nolan | Louis Schmecker | Kerry Taylor |
Engineers
| Tom Dannenhoffer | Rob Lundberg | Elizabeth Sheppard | Henry Voegeli | Richard Vogl |
Parents
| Janet Baker | Charles Baugh, Jr. | Rebecca Baugh | Barbara Bertucio |
| Jerry Dos Santos | Laura Dos Santos | Donna Easter | Joseph Koty |
| Susan Koty | Glen Lawrence | Carole Mihalick | Evelyn Reynolds |
| Herman Szeker | Robert Wolf |
2000 Events
- UTC New England Regional – Meadows Music Theater, Hartford CT March 30-April 1, 2000
- The Championship Event – Walt Disney World Epcot Center, Orlando, FL April 6-8, 2000
Team Awards
Community Events
- Gaelhawks Dinner & Auction 1999
- Relay for Life – 2000
- Special Olympics of Connecticut 2000
Off-Season Competitions
- Bash@theBeach – CT 2000
- UTC Scrimmage – Suffield High School, Suffield, CT
