The most exciting time of year for Team Sprocket is here: build season! For our kickoff meeting on January 6th, all of the team members convened in our cozy robotics room to watch the 2018 FIRST® Robotics Competition game be broadcasted live to teams across the world. This year’s game elements are especially exciting to us because of some brand new game mechanics and play strategy integrated into the competition. It’s a welcomed challenge for Team Sprocket to tackle!
To help jumpstart our team’s productivity, a swarm of inspiring alumni came and joined us to brainstorm initial competition ideas. For eleven hours, our team worked diligently to develop a strong work foundation for our team’s build season. We split off into smaller subgroups to efficiently discuss in-depth strategy, and then we came back to share collectively. Many of us communicated with presentations and models. Mr. Aguilar, our advisor, whipped up pancakes and eggs for breakfast along with hotdogs and burgers for lunch for the whole team!
Our engineering team is hard at work on competition planning and prototype prep work. Each subteam is actively integrating brainstormed strategy and design from kickoff into our standard meeting agenda. The Mechanical subteam is in the process of prototyping intake arms for our robot. They’re also researching elevator designs and elaborating even further on robot system ideas. Electrical is closely collaborating with them to ensure that the intake arms’ circuitry is at its best. Programming is working on adjustment and optimization of our scouting app in accordance to this year’s game.
The Engineering team is planning on replicating all game elements to thoroughly prepare us for our first competition in early March: San Diego Regional. Prepping for San Diego has been Business Team’s top priority! Hotel logistics have nearly been finalized. Please contact us as soon as possible if you’re available to chaperone us for this overnight trip from March 8 to 10. Now, team dinners and restaurant fundraisers are being organized to boost team spirit. We had a Souplantation fundraiser at the Brea location on Friday, the 26th, from 5:00 – 9:00 PM. Our team members and supporters enjoyed some warm soup and delicious salad while supporting our team!
On a different note, Team Sprocket will be welcoming three various groups of visiting students from China for throughout the end of this month and the next. Robotics workshops will be provided to introduce them to our team’s management and work. There’ll be casual talk between our team members and these visitors about school and other subjects that’ll make them feel comfortable here in California. We’re all very enthusiastic for their arrival.
Team Sprocket looks forward to testing the limits of our engineering ingenuity and to developing a strong work ethic. We have much more planned this year and we’ll make sure to keep you updated.