Sydney's+Reflections

By every measure, the FIRST Tech Challenge was totally different from what I expected it to be. When I first arrived at the New England Tech Automotive Center, I was totally taken back by how many people were in attendance and the grandeur of the event. Honestly, I felt like I was at some sort of Star Wars convention. There were a lot of sweaty adolescent males who smelled of mechanic oil and potato chips, and there were a lot of adults who seemed pretty into it, too. I started warming up to the Challenge after we had gone through judging, measurements, and testing. Although I was overwhelmed by the amount of engineering and design that went into some of the other robots, I felt like our robot had a chance at doing well. However, I did expect our robot to be in full working order upon arrival, which was not the case. The other teams, especially the team from Mount Hope were really helpful in assisting us with our programming glitches and we were able to get everything figured out pretty early on. After Frances and I got a handle on the steering and control of the sweeper and shooter, I felt more confident that our robot had a fighting chance. Although the competition was super long, I had a lot of fun. I definitely felt like I became oddly competitive, which is slightly unusual for me. Despite the members of Alliance #1 talking to us like we were mentally handicapped, all of our other alliances were quite friendly and really helpful and mentally astute. They were definitely eager to learn about our robots strong points in order to formulate a plan of action that would be beneficial to our alliance and would allow us to play to our maximum potential. I was also super excited when we got some balls into the high goal!!! Although I didn’t have any friends or relatives attend the event, it was exciting to see that our robot impressed other teams! For me, this was confirmation that our robot was “legit” and we represented Lincoln well. We also won the design award! Woot woot!

As far as engineering is concerned, our robot was pretty quality. After all, it did “silence” quite a few of its competitors. I do feel as though other teams had more experienced members, more advanced knowledge of their equipment, and more sophisticated designs, but for what we had to work with, I think that we did an excellent job in the construction of out robot. Or sweeper was super effective; our shooter was receptive, but “erratic” according to some. I think the angle of our shooter was perfect. I think there was also a lot of luck involved in our engineering. Since we assembled all of the components separately, we were lucky that everything came together so beautifully.

The power and stability of our “bot” was incredible impressive. The chassis was not the most functionally correct, but it worked. It ended up looking a little warped and bent, but still functioning to the nines. One thing that I was really impressed with was the ball-holding capacity of out robot. Although I don’t think that any of us gave this much thought, our robot was holding 8-10 balls, which really worked to our advantage and put us in the top tier of holding capacity at the competition, and was a great asset to have for our alliances. Also, as a side note, we did not loose a single bolt or screw from our bot. Pats back.

On a different note, one thing that needed improvement on our robot was the virtually non-existent autonomous mode. I think it really boils down to a time issue. We were forced to prioritize in the days leading to the competition, and that particular aspect of programming did not make our list. After I ate four chocolate chip cookies, I decided to work on it with Mr. A, but it was short lived and did not really accomplish anything that could be considered “legit”.

For next year:

I would DEFINITELY spend less time on building the chassis, programming, and the autonomous period in the first few months of the class. I would still go through all of these aspects of engineering and building, but in a much more abbreviated period of time. I think these exercises are helpful for the girls to get the jist of things, but at some points it did become excessive and monotonous. Especially because we knew we were just going to tear our designs apart.

I would start off the first couple of weeks of class showing the girls the video footage from our competition. Even though the game will have changed, it will be helpful for them to see what the field is like in real life, and also to see the atmosphere and environment of the competition. This will be sure to weed out the boys from the men! After all, we have a title to defend!

More Snacks!

Do NOT split the girls into teams early on. I think this caused some issues when we first started working together as a larger group.

Eliminate the phrase, “that’s so money,” from your vocabulary entirely. This phrase makes me feel uncomfortable.

Finally, I would get more teachers and faculty involved in the creation of the robot early on in the year. I think Dr. Rudnicki could offer a lot of helpful advice in the way of physics, and the maintenance crew and other science faculty could also contribute to the robot. Whether it’s advice or hands on help, we could have used all of this! I think next years robot will be more efficient, accurate, and beautiful.

Go Lincoln Robotics 10’! Good luck Lincoln Robotics 11’!

Whoa, 976 words, this blows my mind.