​The LASER team members writing the Chairman’s Essay are currently making great strides towards completing the essay, and are deep into the editing process. LASER is also working on updating the current website and is almost completed with its’ development. Additionally,  a LASER team member will be presenting to the team in regarding the production of LASER’s own Code of Ethics. 

Despite two snow days this week, build season has been very productive for LASER. Several prototypes have been created, tested, and tweaked throughout the course of this week. The programmers are adapting to terminology changes that were made this year, and will be spending most of this week making the necessary adjustments.

​Mentor Dennis Harmon has found himself under this week’s mentor spotlight. Dennis first began mentoring when his eldest son joined the team, which also happened to be LASER’s first year. Since then he has volunteered to serve as a judge at numerous FIRST® official events: an FTC® Inspector: and has been an FRC® Inspector for Regionals, the MO State Championship, and the St. Louis World Championship. He has also mentored at the FRC® and FTC® level. He uses his knowledge, as an electrical engineer, to “Power Up” LASER for this year’s challenge!

LASER was incredibly excited to begin the 2018 Power Up season. During Week One we began to brainstorm and breakdown ideas for Chairman's. Team pictures were taken and personality buttons designed for this year's team members. We also made time to certify all of our members who needed CPR certifications. A LASER team member is also working to formulate a code of ethics that the team will plan to update every year.  

​Kickoff turned out to be an eventful day full of brainstorming and sketching for the whole team. LASER  printed manuals and began to formulate ideas surrounding strategy and general game play. We then broke up into specific groups to make design ideas and later addressed them with the entire team present. The team immediately began prototyping, and developing different aspects of the overall design.