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.
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