Team 687Z – Hey GuiZth

 
Team 687Z is made up of Thomas, Michael, Wilmer, Lauren, Eric, Renzo, Jose. They first developed in the fall of 2009 with four members and was the only completely freshman team in all of CAMS Robotics.  Now, three years later, 687Z has grown to contain 7 members. 687Z is a very fresh, eccentric team that is known for their love of hats.
 
Their team utilizes an engineering design process known as the waterfall model, where each step of the process (Requirements–> Design–>Implementation–>Verification–> Maintenance) falls right into each other. Team 687Z then elaborated to me every step of the process. “As the Requirements were essentially handed to us in the VEX Gateway Manual, we went straight to the Design phase. Once we had our designs brainstormed, we used a decision matrix in order to properly assess each one. Before the Implemention phase, we rendered a Computer Aided Design, or CAD, model in order to better understand our design. After the robot was built, we refined our design based on data from empirical testing.” Describing their design process, it was clear that all team members were well-informed, as every member contributed to informing me about how they came up with a robot design. Team 687Z capitalizes on the available resources, and through partial specialization, has managed to create a team that works not only synergistically, but effectively.
 
Last season, Team 687Z won the Design Award at Granada Hills and were Driver Skills Finalist. In addition, 687Z was a Tournament Finalist, won Programming Skills, and the Promote Award at Mount Sac. With this years robot, Nerdherd’s Outstanding Mechanical New Omnivorous Machine (N.O.M.N.O.M.), 687Z hopes to win the Excellence Award.