Las Vegas Robot Team-Building
A Las Vegas robot team-building event with Sunrun was a fabulous success and the highlight of their 3-day meeting with folks from across the country.
“The event was awesome and the highlight of our Vegas work trip. Thank you very much for a special experience! I will recommend your team for future team events.”
Five teams with people from the Western and Eastern division mixed up on each team, competed to build the battle robot faster than the other teams, and for the World Record.
The winning team, pictured here, built their robot in a Las Vegas desert hot time of 37:16 (thirty seven minutes and sixteen seconds). The people at Sunrun are used to executing hands-on, mission critical, projects on a daily basis, as they spread solar panel installation throughout willing states. It was no surprise that 4 of the 5 teams finished under the average build time of 45 minutes!
Interestingly Sunrun was not always in Las Vegas, despite the overabundance of daily sunshine to be converted into power. Recent legislation passed in the last decade eliminated punitive taxes levied by the PUC which made solar untenable financially. Coupled with improved efficiency, solar can now compete favorably with traditional sources of consumer electricity.
Another interesting fact I learned about solar power, is that too much sun can be a bad thing if you are transporting the power from the creation source. The hotter it is, the more power we lose through transmission. The ideal solution for powering homes is to use the power where it is generated – e.g. from the solar panel on the roof to the home below.
Sunrun’s robot battles were inspiring, and extended by the teams uncanny ability to keep the robots going long after the traditional number of battles. We completed the regular round of 2:00 minute battles and then everyone participated in a last-bot-standing competition that made its way to a final winner!
A huge thank you to Sunrun solar for an amazing day building and battling robots together!
