Welcome Back! Welcome to the Gatorbotics newsletter! We are excited to share news of our team with you, whether you are a sponsor, a former mentor, a current parent, or just a general fan of our team. Go Gators! Programming During Preseason
As we near the end of November, that also means we're nearing the end of pre-season, a time for preparation and learning for our newest members. I spoke with junior Katherine Byunn-Rieder, the Gatorbotics programming lead, who has participated in robotics at Casti in all three years of her high school experience. When she joined our team as a freshman, she knew she had an interest in engineering, but she didn't have any background in programming. Three years later, she is the lead of our Programming subteam, a huge leadership position. She remarked that "I think something that is really important for people to know is that you don't have to gave a background in code to join programming. You're going to be learning alongside everyone else!". She accredits the robotics community here at Castilleja for allowing her to step into such an important leadership role in a field that she just began learning three years ago. She commented that she loves Gatorbotics' environment because she has been encouraged to face challenges for which she simply cannot find an immediate solution: "The [robotics] community has been my favorite aspect because it [the team] just provides such a great environment to learn, grow in, and get mentored. Gatorbotics has really piqued my interest in computer science." As mentioned, we're well into pre-season, and as one might imagine, the programming team has been hard at work. The sub-technical team codes the whole robot, controlling motors' speed, varying code during the autonomous and teleoperated periods of the game, and ya know, making sure the robot can function. For those of you who perhaps aren’t familiar with the FIRST competition world and lingo, a robotics match is split into two parts, autonomous and teleop. During autonomous, the robot is self-driving, which means it’s heavy on the programming side, as the coded instructions have to be pre-planned, so the robot has full functionality. Following the autonomous portion of the game, the teleoperated period will take place, which is when a member of our team will drive the robot using joysticks to complete several challenges. To prepare a robot for a competition, the programming team strives to have all the mechanisms and the drive code working. However, in autonomous, it can become difficult to rely on solely pre-coded commands because you never know until you’re in the competition if you’ll need a different variation of the code. For example, no team is guaranteed a set start position in the competitions, so it’s very possible that before the autonomous starts altercations will need to be made depending on what code we’ll need to call on. Times like these are when the foundational code we cover in pre-season comes into play. The foundational code is what allows everyone to be able to drive the robot. This year, the programming team has implemented a new pre-season curriculum, which is entirely student-designed and student lead. Every week of pre-season up until November 15, new team members have watched a short presentation and completed a small coding project to ensure that everyone on the programming team possesses the skills they need to write the code for the robot during competition season. With 20 new members on the subteam, it’s crucial that everyone can comprehend the foundational code. Ultimately, programming is all about understanding what you’re writing because you have to be able to know why you’re creating code so that you can apply that learning to different scenarios. As we head into our final weeks of preseason, the programming team has started writing the code that will drive the robot (to many victories this season). After new members write their drive code, they’ll be able to test it on last year’s robot, to simulate what it will be like come January. As the team returns from their Thanksgiving break, we can’t help but be reflective of all we’re grateful for. Team 1700 is always thankful for the support of its sponsors, parents, and mentors who encourage us to pursue our interest in robotics: “Gatorbotics has really piqued my interest in computer science because it’s such a real-world example compared to what we’re doing in classes and has made me more passionate about computer science and engineering” concluded Byunn-Rieder.
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2021 Preseason UpdateWe are currently underway with our 2021 preseason, where we focus on skill-building among new members. We have a record eighty members on the team this year, which is up 600% from four years ago! Many of our new members are freshmen and sophomores who have never participated in robotics before, so upperclassmen are focusing on teaching them how to drill, mill, saw, utilize CAD, and write code. Our specialists and leads have run dozens of workshops this preseason ranging from introductory mechanization, electronics, and pneumatics, to Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) Control. We've also been preparing our robot for two preseason competitions! We participated in our first pre-season competition on the weekend of October 2nd and 3rd. It was the first FRC Competition for almost everyone on our team, save for a few seniors, so it was an important learning experience for many. The Gatorbotics team will also be participating in its second competition during Halloween weekend! 2021-2022 Goals Gatorbotics is led by senior Siona Tagare, who has participated in Gatorbotics all four years of high school. She jokes that she has definitely spent most of her time at Castilleja down in the Bourn Lab, a place and a team she adores. In an interview, Siona explained that Gatorbotics was the first place to show her how fun STEM could be -- it’s what made her want to be an engineer. Her goals for the 2021-22 season include: 1. Growing and adapting as a team. This is a huge learning year for everyone, so she wants everyone to be able to grow as much as possible. She especially wants to prepare our juniors for an amazing senior year next year, where they feel prepared and confident! 2. Creating an operational robot that does well at competitions. The first week of January is dubbed our "FRC kickoff." The challenge and theme for the competition are released, so we are then able to start brainstorming ideas for mechanisms for our robot. Over the next seven to eight weeks, we plan to prototype, build, and test our robot before our regional competition! "We start the season with post-it notes and drawings and end the season with this giant metal thing in our lab, which is just really cool to me," shared Siona 3. Building community! Every day, our team provides a free meal for all of its members. Team dinners are always a highlight of our members' experience in Gatorbotics, as teammates have the opportunity to bond through conversations unrelated to Gatorbotics. This year, Siona really wants to cultivate a team culture of fun and learning, especially when it was quite difficult to bond as a team on Zoom last year. As always, our mission to inspire the next generation of women in STEM remains at the forefront of our minds! We thank you for your support during our 2021-22 season, and we are looking forward to a great year!
Robotics FinaleIzzy Bider As this year's Gatorbotics season is gradually coming to a close, Gatorbotics met on campus on Friday, 5/7 for an exciting movie night. The team ate Mediterranean food on the Circle while watching Mamma Mia, inspired by the team’s naming convention for this year’s robot. For reference, the Diagonavor on the robot is named “Feta,” the Flywheel is named “Falafel,” and the Intake is named “Shish Kabob” or “Bob” for short. Following these exciting events, the team played a fun game of karaoke together. Katherine, one of Gatorbotic's upcoming programming leads, reflects on how the movie night was the perfect wrap-up for the season. Entrepreneurship Update Izzy Bider The Entrepreneurship team continues to regularly update the Gatorbotics' website and social media. The sub-team has also been busy working on the Chairman’s Award in addition to capturing footage for our team video. The Chairman’s award essay focused on Gatorbotics’ foundation for success, how the team builds on previous accomplishments, their innovative responses to challenging situations, and community impact. Recently, a group of Gatorbotics students presented their proposal to a panel of judges. We are still waiting on the results. The team video that the Entrepreneurship team has been developing has two primary target audiences: Gatorbotics’ team members and sponsors. For the sponsors, the Entrepreneurship team has been interviewing team members, mentors, leads, and coaches on questions revolving around members’ growth and what members have learned through Gatorbotics. For the team video, the sub-team is focusing the interviews and the video as a whole on personal reflections and memories from this season. The videos will soon be sent out to the team and our sponsors, as well as posted to social media accounts. Team Member Feature: Janet Meng Izzy Bider with Janet Meng
Janet Meng is a current Sophomore in Gatorbotics. She initially joined both the build and programming team her freshman year but found a pension for programming. So, this year, she decided to pursue programming. Currently, she is the programming team’s vision specialist. While participating in this role, she has been able to take on more active roles in the programming sub-team, interact with the leads and specialist team, as well as the programming members. Next year, Janet is going to be a co-lead of the programming team with her fellow teammate, Katherine. Janet’s favorite part of robotics is the debugging stage. She reflects on how “The process of debugging is a very collaborative and rewarding one. One by one the errors will resolve and, at the end, when everything works, that moment is tremendously satisfying and very accomplishing.” In the future, the skills that Janet has gained and is still developing with Gatorbotics will allow her to tackle her future computer science-related endeavors head-on and with confidence. She has had “the opportunity to learn technical skills in terms of programming, and gain skills involving communication, time management, and commitment with Gatorbotics.” She will take the cumulation of these skills and lessons with her in her future endeavors. Team-Wide Update Sophia Trabanino Although this year's Gatorbotics season is coming to a close, the entire team has, without a doubt, been working very hard. The Entrepreneurship team recently presented their Chairman’s Award proposition to a panel of judges and is continuing to update the Gatorbotics website and social media. They have also been working on interviewing various members, leads, and mentors of Gatorbotics to create a team video and have designed gear and surveyed the team to order gear for the rest of the season. The Strategy team has been doing team workshops, and one of their most recent ones was a scouting party. They learned scouting and team ranking techniques, individually scouted a 2013 game, and made team rankings as a group. The Strategy leads are continuing to take the feedback of the strategy sub-team members on what they are interested in learning about, and the topics they want to explore for the rest of the season. The Programming team has just finished Sprint 2: writing autonomous code to move the robot from the starting position to the power port, and at their most recent code review, presented each group’s autonomous code, and introduced Sprint 3: Mechanism Code, which they are currently working on. For this sprint, their group will be working with a programming lead or a specialist so that they can guide them and answer any of their questions. The goal of this sprint is to write an intake subsystem, a shooter subsystem, and a climber subsystem for the robot, and they are working closely with the build team as they are working on the mechanisms of the robot, and their designs are being finalized. The build team has also been hard at work, finalizing their designs for the different mechanisms on the robot using CAD (Computer Aided Design) techniques, and they have taken full advantage of the opportunity to test these mechanisms during in-person lab hours. Being able to come on campus for lab hours has allowed the whole team, especially the build team, to not only use the equipment they would usually use in the Bourn Lab, and work with physical materials and the robot, but has also given everyone the opportunity to bond as a team, and work together, while having fun and learning new things around the shared interest of Gatorbotics. Robot UpdateSophia Trabanino The build team has been working on creating the mechanisms of the robot, and finalizing their designs that they created using CAD. These include the intake mechanism, which is nicknamed “Shish Kabob” or “Bob”for short, and parts of it were 3D printed and once the design and placement of the hardstops is finalized, the programming can begin and the motor can be integrated. Another mechanism is the ramp or transition, which has been prototyped and the team has been working on testing the intake of it and how it brings the balls up, and they are almost ready to start milling. The build team has also been working on the flywheel of the robot (nicknamed “Falafel”), and they have been designing it and modifying it using CAD, while prototyping it and testing it on campus. Being able to come on campus for lab hours has allowed the whole team, especially the build team, to not only use the equipment they would usually use in the Bourn Lab, and work with physical materials and the robot, but has also given everyone the opportunity to bond as a team, and work together, while having fun and learning new things around the shared interest of Gatorbotics. Team Member Feature: Sierra Stark Sophia Trabanino with Sierra Stark
Sierra Stark is a current senior on Gatorbotics. As a Competition Strategy Specialist, she is in charge of picking and training the drive team for the competitions. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions this year, she unfortunately hasn’t been able to take on that role, but she has still been able to bond with the team and have a lot of fun as a working member of the build team. This season, Sierra has focused on the flywheel mechanism on the robot. Her favorite part of Gatorbotics is “the very beginning of the season when we get our design challenge and start brainstorming. The energy is high and there is so much excitement and camaraderie in the lab.” She joined Gatorbotics during her sophomore year, and says her friends talked so highly of the team, and she wanted to “join in on the fun.” She described that “they were right– this team is a lot of fun and the work is really rewarding.” Throughout her years of being on the team, she has a lot of fond memories, but she says her favorite is the first competition she ever attended with the team: “It was my sophomore year, and we drove up to a high school in San Francisco for a regional competition. It was really the first time I had seen the full extent of what FRC is really about– there were dozens of teams all decked out in full spirit with face paint, big banners, some had even brought team mascots. It felt a lot like a really nerdy sports game!” Through team meetings, lab hours, competitions, and just being alongside the team, she has not only learned technical fabrication skills. Sierra shared, “robotics has taught me that even the smallest and least glamorous tasks are important and have real value and that teamwork relies on people stepping up to get things done. I have also learned that what you put into your work is what you get out of it.” Build Team UpdateBy Loralei Rohrbach With the 2021 robotics season in full swing, the build team is currently prototyping the three mechanisms they’re working on this year. They’ve disassembled most of last year’s robot and are working out the details for each mechanism. With ample time in person, they team has been able to put the ideas they came up with online to the test and started finalizing details before manufacturing real pieces! At the beginning of the season, the team choose not to participate in any of the competitions offered by FIRST this year because they didn’t match with our focus on exploration or our time restrictions due to COVID-19. The team is, however, still looking to possibly scrimmage against other teams towards the end of the season. In previous seasons, time spent in the lab is less structured, and multiple students can work on the same mechanism at once. With COVID-19 restrictions, lab hours require very careful and thorough planning to ensure group sizes aren't too large and social distancing is practiced. Additionally, two of the most important parts of the team are team bonding and building friendships across grade levels. It has been challenging to replicate the same positive team energy online and from a distance, but our student leadership team works hard to create fun opportunities for team members to get to know each other outside of lab hours. Over the past few weeks, the team has started hosting in-person lab hours, and the build specialists have worked hard to create an outdoor lab space to work in. Although lab safety was discussed at the start of the year, being in-person makes it a lot easier to teach new members about power tools and lab safety. One highlight is that the vast majority of the build team is attending in-person lab hours, allowing students begin physically building our robot. Being in-person has also ensured that more students can attend lab hours for longer periods of time and allocates productive work time. In terms of details around our outdoor lab space, students from different grade levels are able to come to campus, remaining 10 feet apart throughout group meetings. Our lab has been transformed into a collection of tools, tables, and shelves all on wheels that team members roll out into the Sunken patio at the start of each meeting. Most recently, Gatorbotics has started to open up more options for in-person lab hours and developed a successful hybrid model. Finally, the team is currently on track to have a completed robot by the end of the season and is super excited to see where the rest of the season takes us! Hybrid Learning and Programming Update Loralei Rohrbach Gatobotics has successfully adjusted to hybrid learning, and despite not having an official competition season this year, the team continues to work to make the season as fun, productive, and educational as possible. Throughout the second half of the 2020 season, as well as the beginning of this season, the leads worked tirelessly to adapt the in-person tech so members can see, hear, and participate from their homes and still feel like they’re getting a genuine lab experience. As of recently, the build and programming teams have started conducting in-person lab hours during the week and on weekends, allowing students to collaborate in person and work in the lab on more hands-on activities. On the programming team, new members have been working on sprints, where they have collaborated in small groups of two to three to write working code for the robot. The intention of the sprints is to introduce the different mechanisms of the robot and is also practice for the newer members as they learn how to use programming software. During in-person programming lab hours, the programming team is looking forward to testing out their codes on a real drive train! Team Member Feature: Alexis Eskenazi Loralei Rohrbach with Alexis Eskenazi
Alexis Eskenazi is a current sophomore and is Gatorbotics’ Co-Community Outreach Liaison. She was also recently named this season’s Entrepreneurship leader-in-training. Alexis started doing Casti robotics in sixth and seventh grade, and when the middle school team disbanded, she and her friends formed a robotics team un-affiliated with Castilleja during her 8th grade year. Now in her second season on team 1700, Alexis is a member of the programming, entrepreneurship, and build sub-teams. Her favorite robotics memory is of being down in the lab working with the rest of the team. She also misses daily team dinners, and loves the robotics community, from building relationships with new members to socializing with upperclassmen. As one of our team’s community outreach liaisons, Alexis has helped develop an introductory robotics class for 3rd-5th grade students interested in STEM. Alexis worked tirelessly to gather lots of sign-ups, and to spread the word about the opportunity to our broader community. Alexis explained that “online learning has helped us reach more kids than we would have been able to reach through an in-person model. Nearly 50 kids have signed up for just the second semester of our course. That wouldn’t have been possible during a normal year, since our lab would’ve never been able to hold that many kids. COVID-19 has opened more possibilities for our team to reach students outside of the Palo Alto area as well.” Outside of her role as community outreach liaison, as our team’s entrepreneurship team leader-in-training, Alexis is taking an increasingly active role in newsletter coordination, managing social media deadlines, leading meetings, writing grants, and applying to sponsorships. Robotics has certainly been an influential part of Alexis’ life. Through her work as our team’s community outreach liaison, she has become a better teacher and communicator, which are skills that certainly will help her later in life. The interpersonal abilities Gatorbotics instills are just as valuable, or are more valuable, than the technical skills the team builds. Build Team Update
Thea Dai The Build Team has been hard at work reviewing specific mechanisms on last year’s robot. They’ve brainstormed many ideas for mechanisms that they would’ve built differently in previous seasons and came up with various prototype designs. The Build Team has also learned about CAD (Computer Aided Design), which they use to make digital models of pieces before they actually build them. On January 23rd, Gatorbotics hosted its first hybrid kickoff. Many of the activities were geared toward the Build team, including a presentation on last season’s statistics, a competition rules Kahoot, an in-person robot demonstration, and a discussion on mechanism priorities. The Build team has managed to engage many of its new members. Perry (‘24) says, “My favorite part of being on the team has been learning from everyone's creative and unique ideas.” Another freshman shares a similar perspective, saying “It’s fun to work with people in other grades.” Entrepreunership Update Thea Dai Currently, the Entrepreneurship team has been very busy contacting sponsors, running social media sites, designing team gear, and applying for grants. Recently, Entrepreneurship has created multiple Gatorbotics merchandise designs, including t-shirts, sweatshirts, and possibly sweatpants. The team is also preparing for the Chairman’s Award by brainstorming to short answer and essay questions. Additionally, they have recently welcomed new mentor Daryl Inna Vulis, who has previously competed on FRC Team 694, StuyPulse. Despite the challenges posed by the shift to distance learning, the spirit of the team has stayed the same. Sophia (‘24) says “I really enjoy working with sponsors and on social media, as this allows me and my fellow teammates to reach out and get to know new people, and we get to showcase all the hard work the Gatorbotics team is doing.” Alexis (‘23) agrees, saying “I’ve enjoyed doing a lot of the behind the scenes work on the team, whether that’s designing gator gear, writing newsletters, or applying for grants.” Team Member Feature: Tallie Molano Thea Dai Tallie Molano, a current sophomore, is one of the Programming Co-Specialists this season. This title means that she takes on more leadership roles and helps to plan out activities for the rest of the programming team. One of her favorite aspects of her job is “helping new members with their code.” Tallie has been a part of Gatorbotics for two years now, and initially joined when she discovered programming through the required freshman Computer Science course. “I didn’t know I liked coding, but it turns out it was really fun. And then I decided I wanted to try out robotics too.” During the pandemic, she misses “just hanging out” with the other members, but enjoys that they have more time for planning. To adapt to distance learning, Programming has been incorporating more individual work to minimize the amount of time spent on Zoom. Tallie’s favorite part of being on Gatorbotics is “spending time with people who I have so much in common with.” Besides Gatorbotics, she enjoys solving Rubik’s cubes and playing tennis. Workshop Update & Team Life
Katherine Byunn-Rieder Gatorbotics is currently in our pre-season, a period of preparation, learning, and team bonding before our competition season in the spring. During pre-season, Gatorbotics’ team members are attending a variety of workshops such as a CAD workshop, electronics and pneumatics workshop, introduction to build, programming presentations, strategy basics, etc. Most recently in November, the Gatorbotics mentors and leads have led electives weekend. Electives weekend is a unique experience because many workshops are held and team members can choose to attend whatever workshops are of most interest to them. During electives weekend, Gatorbotics’ programming mentor, Kim, led a very interesting and informative workshop on motion profiling. Motion profiling helps the programmers make the robot quick and effective in the autonomous period of the game. Additionally, Patricia led a fun strategy workshop where she showed robots from former years and explained what strategies they used. She then determined whether our previous robots were unique, incredibly effective and/or especially creative. Another great aspect of electives weekend is that it grants everyone the opportunity to participate in team bonding over lunch. Even while we are all online, Gatorbotics has been getting it’s team together for team bonding. Not only during electives weekend, but also frequently on Fridays the team gets the chance to hang out together. As a whole, the team has been learning more and more skills and has also been getting to know each other better! Everyone is excited for the ‘build season’ to start this coming January. Entrepreunership Update Sophie Lamm Gatorbotics’ entrepreneurship team has been very busy preparing for the season! They are currently emailing sponsors, applying for grants, updating the website, making a social media plan, working on the merchandise, and doing outreach. The Entrepreneurship Team hasn’t been impacted greatly by shifting to distance learning, as most of the work is done online. However, students are still finding new ways for Gatorbtoics to be involved with the community. Since the start of the school year, Alexis (‘23), the Co-Community Outreach Liaison, and her co-liaison, Radha, have worked with Curieus, which is a group that works with the students at the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula, to lead a virtual robotics mini-course for the children: “It’s been so fun planning and teaching the 3rd-5th graders enrolled in our course, even though it’s been via Zoom!” Reflecting on the Entrepreunership team, Izzy (‘23) says, “With such a small team this year, Gatorbotics Entrepreneurship Team members have been given many opportunities to step up and take on substantial leadership roles. It has been an amazing and informative experience which I am extremely grateful for!” Meet The Leads (Part 2!) Sophie Lamm Q&A with Alexa Libbey ‘21 (Team Captain), Michelle Xu ‘21 (Build Lead), Linnea Leaver ‘21 (Programming Lead), and Sara Baudler ‘23 (CAD Lead) What is one fun fact about you? Alexa: I have a twin brother who I'm eleven minutes older than. Michelle: I make kombucha at home. Linnea: One fun fact about me is that in elementary school, I had a cloud obsession, and I used to hunt for rare types of clouds. Sara: My favourite boba drink is banana milk with honey boba, Boba Guys makes a pretty good one but now I make it at home because my family always has too many bananas on hand; it sounds weird but it's really good! What are you most excited for this season? Alexa: I'm excited to get to know the new members better :) Michelle: Bonding with the rest of the team & getting to know new members better Linnea: I’m most excited to get started programming this season! I’m hopeful that we’ll get to work on some cool features (like vision!) this year. Sara: Getting to know all the new members! I hope they have a good time! How has virtual Gatorbotics impacted you / what do you think of it? Alexa: While virtual robotics obviously isn't ideal or what many of us would love to be doing right now, I'm hopeful that we'll continue to find ways to connect our team. I think our team is in a tough spot right now; very few things that we can do virtually really match the feeling of being in-person or in a 'normal season' so it's difficult to try to find activities that come close. Michelle: I miss being able to see everyone in person & forming stronger intergrade connections. However, I'm still slightly optimistic for being able to return later in the season. Linnea: I think programming has been the least affected by virtual Gatorbotics so far, since most of the work we do already happens through the internet- however, I’ve been missing seeing everyone in person. Sara: I think it's definitely challenging because it's hard to connect with new people and you really can't learn how to use a mill or drill over Zoom. However, it's the best we can do given current circumstances and while I do recognize our privilege in even being able to do virtual robotics, I can't wait until we can get back to doing at least some stuff in person! Welcome Back!
Alexis Eskenazi Team 1700 is in the midst of pre-season, a period where members further their understanding of programming, game strategy, electronics, pneumatics, and more before entering our competition season. So far, Gatorbotics' leads and specialists have worked to mimic the experience of in-person workshops and trainings on Zoom. Two of our workshop leaders, Arya Nukala ‘23 and Sara Baudler ‘23, in addition to a few of this season’s new leads, Genia Goldwasser ‘22, Mukki Gill ‘21, Carson Schultz ‘21, Mea Heron ‘21, Mackenzie Friedman ‘21, and Masako Yang ‘22, have offered to share some of their virtual robotics experiences below. Behind the Scenes Update Carson Schultz Gatorbotics leads and team members have been hard at work adapting our pre-season programming and workshops to operate online. Team 1700 has been involved in Safety, CAD, Build, Programming, and Strategy workshops, as well as team bonding events and outreach initiatives. Gatorbotics began a new partnership with Curieus, a non-profit that provides STEM classes to students from under-resourced schools, and our team members have been hosting basic robotics and engineering workshops via Zoom. The Entrepreunership sub-team is busy researching potential sponsors and applying for various grants and awards to fundraise for our upcoming season. In terms of competition, FIRST has announced three options to engage with their program. The first option is a game design challenge in which teams engineer and create their own robotics game concept. Second is an innovation project that combines engineering and entrepreneurial skills as students design a solution and business model to address a real world problem. The final option, most similar to what a traditional FIRST competition would look like, is to build a robot that can complete a specific list of challenges. While we are not sure of which of the three games we will decide to compete in, Gatorbotics is committed to participating in the FIRST program this season. Q&A with Arya Nukala ‘23 Alexis Eskenazi Q: How long have you been a member of Gatorbotics and what team(s) are you on? A: This is my second year of Gatorbotics (I’ve been on the team since I was a freshman), and I’m on the build and programming teams! Q: What is your position on the team and what does that job entail? A: I’m the safety, pit, and spirit specialist, meaning that I’m in charge of making sure everyone is safe in the lab. I’m also in charge of boosting team spirit through activities. Usually the SPS specialist would be in charge of pit organization at competitions, but this season, it doesn’t look like I’ll be doing much of that. Q: What’s your favorite part of your job? A: Everything. I love bringing spirit to the team! Q: What workshop(s) have you led this year? A: I lead a safety workshop at the beginning of the year, which all members are required to go to. Q: How are the skills taught in your workshop applicable to our robot? A: The skills I teach help members stay safe and out of danger while manufacturing the robot. I make sure that our work environment is a positive and safe one. Safety is always the top priority! Q: How has your experience leading a workshop been over Zoom vs. in-person? A: I have not led an in-person workshop before, but I would say that my Zoom workshop was a little harder to put together. I made a virtual lab tour for everyone to watch (because we couldn’t actually walk around the lab together), which took a surprisingly long time to finish. But altogether, I love teaching and talking so I didn’t mind the virtual format very much! Q&A with Sara Baudler ‘23 Alexis Eskenazi Q: How long have you been a member of Gatorbotics and what team(s) are you on? A: I’ve been a member of the Gatorbotics build team for just over a year, since I joined freshman year. Q: What is your position on the team and what does that job entail? A: I’m the CAD Lead, which means I organize the team’s CAD and also do a little bit of CAD-ing. Q: What’s your favorite part of your job? A: I get to work with a lot of very cool people, and I also have the power to make our team’s CAD as beautiful as possible, which is always fun. Q: What workshop(s) have you led this year? A: I’ve led the CAD Workshop along with the CAD Specialists, Aramis and Claire. In our workshop, we introduced CAD to the rest of the team to get people started with the software. Q: How are the skills taught in your workshop applicable to our robot? A: CAD is a way to model the robot digitally, so the workshop teaches the basics of how to design and model robot parts. From there, we can analyze how they will work individually, and how they will all fit together as a whole. Q: How has your experience leading a workshop been over Zoom vs. in-person? A: Zoom sucks, but at least we’re keeping everyone safe :) Meet the Leads Alexis Eskenazi Q&A with a few of our team leads: Genia Goldwasser ‘22 (Inventory & Financial Lead), Mukki Gill ‘21 (Strategy Team Lead), Carson Schultz ‘21 (Entrepreneurship Team Lead), Mea Heron ‘21 (Project Management Co-Lead), Mackenzie Friedman ‘21 (Co-Archivist), and Masako Yang ‘22 (Co-Archivist)! Q: What’s one fun fact about you? Genia: I was born on Christmas! Mea: My favorite Trader Joe’s item is their dark chocolate peanut butter cups :) Carson: My favorite snack combo is goldfish and apples. Q: Outside of Gatorbotics, what do you like to do in your free time? Masako: I love being outside in nature! Mackenzie: In my free time, I like to read, listen to podcasts, and make friendship bracelets. Mukki: I love taking care of my 40+ plants, going on walks, and drinking coffee. Q: Describe Gatorbotics in one word. Carson: Passionate Genia: Inclusive Mea: Fun! Q: What’s your favorite part of Gatorbotics? Mukki: Obviously the free food....just kidding I love our community! Mea: I love working with other students to come up with designs or build a part. Carson: The team members - everyone is so nice and very dedicated to what they do. Q: How has Gatorbotics adapted to going completely virtual? Masako: We've been having online workshops, lab activities, and FRC has proposed two online challenges and one in-person challenge, and all teams can choose whichever they want to do. Genia: It’s been challenging, but the leads are doing an amazing job adapting and making sure the regular requirements are being done online. Mukki: It has been a lot of work for the leads, but we are really happy that we are still able to connect with our new members! Paly Scrimmage Update
Piper Lyons Last weekend, our team was invited to a scrimmage at Palo Alto High School, where we had the opportunity to meet other teams in the Bay Area and experiment with our robot. This event allowed us to learn a lot about the design of our robot, gave new members a chance to practice driving the robot, and was an opportunity for us to test our mechanisms and perfect our strategy. Ava, a Freshman on the team, was very eager to drive the robot, while others were more hesitant at first; however, everyone ended up having a lot of fun. We learned that our robot can shoot the “power cells” (which are basically dodgeballs) five to ten feet, and on top of that, we were able to fine tune the chain distance for driving our robot. While we gained a lot of knowledge during the event, the two days weren't all smooth – on Sunday afternoon, we encountered a problem with driving the robot, and finding a solution occupied Sunday afternoon. After two hours, we figured out that the bolt attaching the motor to the gearbox was too tight, preventing the motor from turning and keeping half of the drivetrain from working. Once we found out that this was the problem, we quickly fixed it, got back to the matches, and enjoyed the rest of the scrimmage. Team Member Feature: Christy Garreau Piper Lyons Christy, a senior on the team, has been a part of Gatorbotics for four years and is proud to say that she has enjoyed it all! Last year, Christy was the Electronics Lead, but she has switched roles to become the Build Lead this season. Her experience as both a member of the team and as Electronics Lead has helped her become a better Build Lead, as she understands all parts of what go into building the robot; she is able to better collaborate with other members, operate as a group, and delegate tasks. On top of Christy's excellent work on the technical side, she is an essential part of Gatorbotics's team culture. Christy has an upbeat spirit and works to keep everything interesting – whether while tightening bolts or milling, she always cracks a good joke. One of her favorite parts of robotics is the competitions, because they're an opportunity to hang out with the other cool people on the team while seeing what we have been working so hard on come to life. A last note from Christy (and her signature phrase): “Always eat metal.” Build Update Sophie Lamm Nearly a month into the build season, Gatorbotics’s technical teams have been very busy! This year, the challenge is Star Wars themed, where the robots have to store power cells (balls), shoot them into targets, rotate a color wheel, and hook onto a bar and levitate. At the beginning of the season, the team strategized about which parts of the challenge were top priority to maximize our points. We spend our hours in the lab in groups of 3-5 people to create prototypes using laser cut wood, the 3D printer, pulleys, shafts, bearings, and many other materials. We work together to discuss challenges, such as how to execute a mechanism. Anushka, a 10th grader, says that “one challenging part of being on the build team is the amount of time spent designing and planning.” However, she feels rewarded when her prototypes work out and are used for the final robot. No matter how many challenges they face, the team members look forward to “using the cool machines like the mill” (Finn, 9th grade) and “collaborating with friends to design and create something completely new and helpful for the team!” (Anushka, 10th grade). Entrepreneurship Update Sophie Lamm The Entrepreneurship Team meets every week to complete tasks such as emailing companies for sponsorships, designing new merchandise, and working on publicity, including a video project. Our newly-designed clothing gear will arrive soon, and the Entrepreneurship Team is excited to see our designs on the T-shirts and can’t wait to wear them. A freshman says her favorite part about the Entrepreneurship Team is “collaborating with members from different grades and practicing [her] business and communication skills.” Another freshman shares a similar perspective and says, “Entrepreneurship is a place where you can improve your writing, design, and marketing skills.” In second semester, members of the team look forward to working with members of the technical teams to continue to get to know new people and learn about their strategies. Finally, the Entrepreneurship Team is excited to continue to maintain a social media presence, take photos, and write newsletters. Team Member Feature: Charlotte Lamm Sophie Lamm Senior Charlotte Lamm is the lead of the Gatorbotics’ Strategy Team and is also a member of the Build Team. She joined the Gatorbotics team in her sophomore year because her friend, Lauren Byunn-Rieder (captain of the team), strongly recommended it. As a lover of art, Charlotte felt that robotics was a great way to practice her creativity through building robots. Now, she says her favorite part about Gatorbotics is the team spirit: “I think it’s really cool to work with other students to create something new.” Charlotte also enjoys prototyping in innovative ways. Her favorite tool is the lab is hot glue because "it’s super versatile and you can use it to prototype nearly anything." Outside of the workspace, Charlotte enjoys making art, playing music, hiking, and cooking. This semester, she looks forward to going to competition because the team is "going to be awesome." Thank You! Happy Holidays from Gatorbotics! With our preseason coming to a close, we're taking time to reflect on everything we've learned this semester in Gatorbotics. While we're taking a small pause during winter break, the team is looking forward to beginning our 2020 build season when we return to the lab in January! Workshops Update By Katherine Byunn-Rieder After a semester of learning and experimenting, our preseason workshops are coming to a close. On top of our usual electives rotation, we had two "Electives Weekends" in November where each member chose four electives – deep-dives into more advanced topics. Electives Weekend was a great opportunity for new and returning members to meet people in Gatorbotics and discover what they’re most interested in. Students on the team went to upwards of four workshops and also spent time at lab hours. During the pre-season, we used our time in the lab to practice skills that we will use during the build season. For example, the build team practiced making a drive train, including milling a custom frame and designing gearboxes, which will be important in the game so that our robot can move around. On the other hand, the programming members learned about control systems – they talked about the differences between Bang-Bang and PID (Proportional, Integral, Derivative) controllers. The last few weeks of our preseason ended with Strategy, CAD (Computer-Aided Design), and Mock Kickoff workshops. With our build season approaching, everyone on the team is excited and ready for the challenge to be announced and the season to start! Entrepreneurship Update By Katherine Byunn-Rieder The Entrepreneurship Team has spent the semester working hard designing gear, communicating with sponsors, and updating our social media platforms. This year, the Entrepreneurship Team is composed of 11 members – eight freshmen, two junior liaisons, and our Entrepreneurship Lead, Riley ‘20. We meet every week to complete tasks such as updating sponsor materials, writing grant proposals, and designing this year’s team merchandise. The team takes a collaborative approach to brainstorm, innovate, and reach the best results possible. We build on what we’ve learned in previous years to achieve our 2020 goals to raise money for materials, competitions, tools, and food and get to know other FIRST teams. A lot of our learning took place during the Entrepreneurship Team’s branding workshop that spanned several weeks. We looked at how other companies present themselves using their branding and the impact that their visuals make. Then, we designed our own advertisements, posters, and social media posts for a made-up company and analyzed how the different design elements impact the viewers’ perception of the company. From this activity, we learned about the importance of a consistent color scheme, font, and logo design when creating branding materials. Members of the team look forward to continuing to photograph the team, write newsletters, design materials, complete outreach, and post on social media throughout the build season. Team Member Feature: Piper Lyons By Katherine Byunn-Rieder Piper Lyons is a new freshman and a member of all four teams – Build, Programming, Entrepreneurship, and Strategy. Starting high school, she was unsure about joining Gatorbotics, but became fascinated with the team after the first info session. When asked about her favorite things so far, Piper had many answers: she has enjoyed the relationships she is building with other students (including ones in other grades) and loves learning how to use new tools. Piper thinks everything that she is learning will be useful in real-life engineering, bridging the gap between classroom learning and practical applications. For example, she felt like her skills improved when she learned about the efficiency curve in programming. So far, Piper has loved every minute in the lab, and she appreciates Gatorbotics because of the inclusivity and how welcome she has felt from the very beginning. Piper feels that Gatorbotics’s inclusive approach is a unique attribute of the team: “Everyone wants to share their knowledge… they’ll always help.” Piper can’t wait for the season to start and she is excited to be a part of the journey to build the robot!
Back in the Bourn Lab! By Masako Yang So far this pre-season, the Gatorbotics team has run a series of workshops for both new and returning members. Workshops have included Safety, Intro to Build, Intro to Programming, and Electronics/Pneumatics. In the Safety workshop, led by Lauren B. (‘20) and Emily (‘22), we learned basic safety rules and reviewed how to use the bandsaw and miter saw. The Intro to Build workshop, led by Christy (‘20), and Intro to Programming, led by Eliza (‘21) and Linnea (‘21), taught us basic mechanical and programming knowledge. These skills will come in handy when the season begins and we start building the robot and programming its code. Finally, Mukki (‘21), Michelle (‘21), and Siona (‘22) led the Electronics / Pneumatics workshop, in which we learned about fundamental robot design and worked with a pneumatics circuit. In addition, the team was also excited to introduce Electives Weekend this year, where students chose from a variety of electives in which to participate. Electives Weekend was a great way to bond as a team during the immersive program! This Fall's workshops for Electives Weekend included Fabrication, Research Presentations & Prototyping, Motion Profiling, Programming for Build, and Drivetrains. These workshops are a great opportunity to dive into some specific topics that we’re interested in! No matter what branch of Gatorbotics students are members of, they can always stop by another workshop to learn about what others are working on. It's so exciting to be back in the Bourn Lab! Get to Know Our Leads By Sara Baudler Lauren: Our Fearless Team Captain Lauren’s robotic career started off on a very exciting note when she joined her elementary school robotic league and then promptly quit (she was the only girl). However, evolving from her elementary school habits, she has grown to love problem solving and engineering and wanted to join Gatorbotics as soon as she got to Casti in sixth grade. She’s continued with Gatorbotics because she loves the team members. Her favourite Trader Joe’s snack is the dark chocolate peanut butter cups, and her favourite part of the season is kickoff! Christy: Build Lead Christy initially joined Gatorbotics in 9th grade as a way to further explore STEM fields (and also because her mom told her about it). About halfway through her first season, she became the robot’s driver and enjoyed getting to know older team members while learning to drive. Her favourite Trader Joe’s snack is the milk chocolate peanut butter cups. During the season, Christy looks forward to competitions and to when the robot starts to come together. Charlotte: Strategy Lead Charlotte joined Gatorbotics (at first) because Lauren B had joined the year before and was obsessed with it. Once Charlotte joined, she could see why – because she didn't participate in sports or theater, Charlotte finally felt like she found a community on campus that she could be a part of. As for her Trader Joe's snacks, Charlotte loves dried mangoes, dark chocolate peanut butter cups, and lentil curls! Charlotte looks forward to competition season; she is excited for the opportunity to continue to bond with her teammates and learn more about robots in general. Eliza: Programming Co-Lead Eliza joined robotics because she wanted to apply what she was learning in her science and math classes to the real world, and she comes back every year because she finds working with a team of dedicated people and mentors to be extremely rewarding. Her favourite Trader Joe’s snack is the dark chocolate peanut butter cups (sensing any themes?), and she’s looking forward to working with a bigger programming team this year! Eliza also spearheaded a track where members can be on both programming and build teams, so she’s excited for that, too! Linnea: Programming Co-Lead Linnea did robotics during middle school at Casti, and although at first unsure about joining in high school, she was persuaded when she realized that team members were allowed to use the miter saw. She has chosen to stay on the team because of the extremely supportive community. Her favourite Trader Joe’s snack is the dried mango, and Linnea is looking forward to having a bigger programming team and attending competitions! Emily: Inventory Lead Emily was on the Entrepreneurship Team last season and loved it so much she decided to join the mechanical team this year. Her favourite Trader Joe’s snacks are the Boo Chips as well as (by this point rather unsurprisingly) the dark chocolate covered peanut butter cups, and she also thinks the elderberry soda is good. In terms of what she’s excited for, Emily is looking forward to the competitions! Riley: Entrepreneurship Lead Riley initially joined the Entrepreneurship Team because she’s fascinated by all the different aspects of running a business. She provides some variety in the favorite Trader Joe’s snacks category as she loves the frozen chocolate-covered bananas. Riley is excited for build season where she (and the rest of the Entrepreneurship Team) will get to support the technical teams on a greater level by writing more newsletters, having a larger social media presence, and lifting team spirit. Freshman Focus By Sara Baudler The 2019-2020 Gatorbotics team has 16 freshmen who make up more than one third of the entire team. All of the freshmen are really excited for the competitions that the team will get to attend. Freshmen team members are also excited to get to know upperclassmen and become a part of the Gatorbotics team. One of the 9th graders says she is excited to design “one heck of a robot.”
So far, the freshmen members of the build team have enjoyed learning how to use the power tools to build the robot. The freshmen have felt very welcomed by all of the older team members and are enjoying having conversations and learning from team leaders. The 9th graders are also enjoying the outreach opportunities at Gatorbotics, saying that “the outreach event at Street Code was super fun and that she definitely wants to go back to help out again.” And now for a few fun facts about the freshmen build members! Like a lot of Gatorbotics members, the new freshmen have a penchant for carbs; however one of them is allergic to buckwheat so snacks with buckwheat will be cautioned against in the lab. One freshmen hates tomatoes yet loves ketchup, saying that “[she doesn’t] know how it works out, but it does.” And finally, one new member loves tortoises (and owns one!). The freshmen are super excited to be a part of the Gatorbotics team, and they can’t wait for a great season! The End of a Great Season! We're so honored to have had the chance to compete at Nationals in Houston - we had so much fun and are proud of all we've accomplished this season. Houston Champs Update By Masako Yang and Siona Tagare Our championships were located at Houston this year. Ms. Park, Ms. Greysmark, Kim, Sean, Katy, Ms. Ketsdever and Mr. Henn accompanied our team to champs. The lead team members all worked really hard on finishing the final touch ups on the robot in preparation, but none of us were expecting us to do as well as we did. After the first day of qualifications, we finished ranked 18th (and were 6th at one point!!!)!!! We realized we had a chance to be in one of the alliance teams! We were super excited, so everyone pitched in where they could. The leads team practiced driving and human player-ing both on the fields and in the hotel. The other team members worked really hard scouting other teams and making a picklist in case we became alliance captains. The second day of qualifications, our deployable intake worked, and we smoothly climbed to level 2, and more than once!!!!! We also did a great job with placing panels and throwing cargo into the cargo ship- even when we were being defended! We ended up ranked 13th at champs! Unfortunately, we were not chosen in the alliance teams. However, we couldn’t be prouder of the team and our robot! The whole experience was so exciting and enjoyable, and we learned so much. Although not being chosen for an alliance was pretty crushing, it doesn’t come close to matching how we feel about this season ending. This was an amazing team to be a part of, and we are not team 1700 without our seniors: Ella, Reese, and Riona. We want to thank them so incredibly much for this season and for our team’s success. Thank you so much seniors! We truly appreciate all your leadership and commitment towards not only robotics but also to the team members. We would also like to thank our mentors: Chris, Kley, Katy, Kim, and Sean for all the time and effort they put into our team and our robot; we couldn’t have done it without them.
Catch Us in Houston! We're so excited to announce that we will be traveling to Houston to compete at Nationals! Gatorbotics placed 2nd overall at the Utah Regional Competition, which is the first time we've made it to finals in Gatorbotics history. Just last weekend, the Gatorbotics team traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah to compete in the Utah Regional Competition. Gatorbotics was extremely successful in the preliminary rounds and overcame many challenges to get the robot in working condition. In addition to improving current mechanisms, the team added a climbing mechanism. The robot is now able to gain extra points at the end of the match by climbing onto the level 2 platform! The team was selected as the first pick of the #2 ranked alliance and helped them win elimination matches to reach the finals for the first time since our team was founded in 200 Additionally, the team was awarded a “wildcard” for reaching the finals, which qualifies the team for the Houston Championships! We can't wait to attend Champs, and the team is super excited and proud of all of its hard work this year. The team kept long hours of scouting, watching matches, and working on the robot exciting by making vlogs and tasting delicious food around Salt Lake City. It was a great opportunity for bonding between students and with coaches and mentors. The team received medals from FIRST for all of their hard work and success in Utah and is super excited to get back on the road to travel to Houston. Congratulations to the Gatorbotics students and mentors!
Check Out What Gatorbotics Has Been Up To! We've finally wrapped up our build season, and we're excited for all the fun events to come! Read on to learn about what we accomplished in the final weeks of our build season. Build Update By Annabel Goldman Just a few weeks into second semester, Gatorbotics’s Build Team had already made a ton of progress on the robot, finally wrapping up the build season over February break. As the competition season approaches, the team has been creating, adapting, and refining all the mechanisms for the robot and working on supports. Refining the Robot Towards the end of the build season, the practice robot sustained a few injuries to its systems after much testing. The team worked to refine these systems in order to create a stronger robot for the next round of testing. One of the injuries the robot sustained was to the battery mount. After a crash test where the robot Did a "wheelie," the battery mount became damaged, and the build team problem-solved to fix the battery mount and make it stronger. The next steps for the team revolved around testing the redesigned and refined parts of the robot before going into another round of fine-tuning. For every correction made to the practice robot, the CAD for the real robot was altered to prevent breaking or stabilize parts when the real robot hits something. Supports In addition to refining the robot, the build team has also worked on milling supports in order to stabilize the practice robot. We also learned learned how to adapt these supports to the real robot. Supporting the robot is necessary to in order to improve durability so the robot does not break. Robot Update By Allison Rabbani Gatorbotics has been working hard building and programming the robot so it’s competition-ready. The coding team especially has been improving the robot, working on hard-coding the mechanisms and vision. Since we completed the robot over February break, the team is now able to practice driving, shooting cargo, and scoring panels with the practice robot. The robot is able to complete the tasks necessary to score points for the team at competitions and respond to commands from the team. With vision through the Limelight camera, the robot can identify targets, do basic alignment, and calculate its distance from a target. This helps the robot during autonomous mode as it is able to “see” and react to things without intervention from a team member. The team is also able to receive live images and video from the robot, and can react according to information directly from the robot. The next steps for Gatorbotics’ programming team were to combine the mechanisms and vision so the robot can drive and score with the use of its vision and to automate the cargo intake. The coders did amazing work alongside the build team this season getting the robot ready for the competitions. Team Member Interview: Sam Borbas By Lauren Ashby Sam Borbas is a senior and a member of the Gatorbotics build team team. Sam joined Gatorbotics in her junior year because, as she puts it, “ I love inventing things, working through mental puzzles, and working with my hands.” Sam’s favorite part of Gatorbotics is getting to do projects with everyone saying, “you’re all in it together, you get to joke around and learn about the other people, and when you’re finally done and it fits into the bigger picture it is so rewarding.”
When Sam was asked about what she’s learned in Gatorbotics she said, “I have learned so much, but to keep the list short, I’ll say that I have learned how to use a 3D printer, how to cad (somewhat anyways), how to troubleshoot problems, how to figure out what tradeoffs to make, how to prioritize, how to tap, how to exist in a slightly chaotic workshop with dangerous tools and safely use all of them, how to use a mill and not destroy the highly precise machinery, how to make Reese happy (oreos and red vines), how to teach other people all of the above skills, and how to be better at making friends.” Sam is a tremendous team member as a leader for the younger members and uses her technical skills to help the team become even better. |