Build UpdateBy Allison Rabbani Since the season started on January 5th, the Gatorbotics Build team has been hard at work on the robot. In the recent lab days, the team has focused on panels and cargo. Cargo Mechanism The cargo catapult, dumper, shooter, and puncher have all been prototyped, and all have specific uses to score points during the competition. The catapult throws the cargo in a swing-like motion with the cargo in constant contact with the catapult. The dumper uses a ramp to allow the cargo to roll into the cargo bay. The shooter, living up to its name, propels the cargo towards the scoring locations. The puncher directly and linearly propels the cargo towards the target. The next steps for the cargo mechanism will be to work on the cargo scorer, which will deposit cargo into the cargo ship, the rocketship, and to make a static and deployable intake. Panels In addition to cargo, the build team has been working on creating a panel mechanism to pick up and score panels around the field. The team has made an arm prototype and a velcro pick up a prototype from the loading station and the ground. The next step in the panel mechanism process will be to create a “beak” to center the panel on the robot. We're excited for the rest of the season! Team Member Spotlight: Emily ChanBy Grace Kim Emily Chan is one of the freshmen who joined Gatorbotics in the Fall of 2018. She is part of the Entrepreneurship branch and has been working hard on our social media, specifically the Instagram (@gatorbotics1700). So far, she has helped the social media team establish a consistent theme, reach a wider audience, and update our followers more regularly. By working in collaboration with the photography/video team, the social media group has brought their A game to Instagram. Emily is also a very active team player, and she is always brainstorming new ideas to engage our audience and reach our community, whether it be through using Instagram stories or the way we edit pictures. She says that she has learned a lot from her first semester working on the team, and is excited for the rest of the season.
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Happy New Year from Team 1700! Gatorbotics has been busy preparing for our upcoming competition season. We're looking forward for all the great things to come! Continue reading to hear the team's most recent updates. Lead Spotlight: Ella Henn By Emily Chan Ella Henn is the current Mechanical Lead of Team 1700. She’s one of the many people who build technical mechanisms for the robot. One of Ella’s favorite things about her position on the team is being involved with the decision making and “being a part of all of it.” Through Ella’s work as Mechanical lead, she is constantly coming up with innovative ways to make Team 1700’s robot even better! When she is in the Bourn Lab, Ella loves the Gushers in the snack cabinet, but her preference changes over time due to the new variety of snacks. Ella is a helpful and kind person who is an active member of the team. The first time I messaged Ella, I was surprised to see her reply very promptly, and from this very first interaction, I knew that she truly cared for the team members of Gatorbotics 1700. Ella is also a fantastic lead who is open to trying new things, and she even has a pet gecko named after her third-grade teacher, which is super cool! In Ella’s free time, she loves binge watching Parks & Recreation and decided, during this interview, that she really needs to find a different show to watch. Ella loves Sushirito and eats it often, and says she needs to “find something else to Doordash.” We ended the interview with the question, “Would you rather be in space drifting but with fast wifi or on Earth with super slow wifi?” and she said that she would rather be in space drifting with fast wifi. Behind the Scenes By Carson Schultz The Entrepreneurship Team has been busy working behind the scenes of Gatorbotics to prepare for the upcoming technical season. Here’s a brief summary of what we’ve been up to! So far this season, we’ve designed a new team sweatshirt featuring the updated Castilleja gator, taken numerous photos and videos at technical sessions, raised over $24,000 to support supply fees and travel costs for the build and programming teams, and improved our social media impact. Right now, we are working on improving our mission statement, creating more content for social media, modifying the Gatorbotics website, raising more sponsorship money to reach our goal of $30,000, reaching out to new mentors, and providing more opportunities for outreach in our community. Building a Drivetrain in the Preseason By Riona Yoshida This preseason, the team built a drivetrain from scratch. Here’s what we tried and what we learned:
Making custom gearboxes Although the milling process of making custom gearboxes is difficult, we were able to pull it off in the end. It would be nice if we could find a way to mill stacked items at the same time without shifting either of the plates in the process. It was also good practice determining the gears needed to create certain speeds. Powering the drivetrain with mini CIMs Using three mini CIMs seems to work well but since the drivetrain is much lighter than the real robot would be, we can’t say for sure. We are looking forward to testing the new NEO brushless motors during the season! Switching from 35-Chain to 25-Chain We originally wanted to try switching from 35-chain to 25-chain because the change would lighten our robot and take up less space. Some of our concerns included having to replace all of our current chain equipment and that the 25-chain wouldn’t be strong enough. Team members got to drive the robot around for a while, with additional crash testing, and the 25-chain seemed to be alright. Using Blue Nitrile Wheels The blue nitrile wheels are one of the most durable wheel types, but since the tread dug into the carpet it was pretty difficult to turn the robot. On the other hand, driving the blue nitrile wheels on hard surfaces proved to be much harder since the wheels slipped. New Encoders The new magnetic encoders seem to be working well!. It was quite hard to mount the sensor but will be easier if we make the magnet stick out past the end of the shaft. We hope to use this practice drivetrain to begin driver practice as soon as the season begins, use it to quickly test prototypes, and give the programming team something to test with. See you on January 5th for the 2019 FRC Kickoff! CalGames: Starting Off the Season on a Good Wheel!Article By Carson Schultz Although we did not win every match at CalGames (and in fact ended up dead last) the competition was a huge success for the team in terms of learning, becoming more efficient, and getting familiar with the competition environment! I personally thought that CalGames was a fun way to kick off the Gatorbotics season. As a new team member, I got to see what a competition was like, controlled the robot for the first time, and took a lot of photos of the team in action. This preseason competition allowed the team to test autonomous code and our self-made gearboxes, and introduce new members to the FRC competition format. New and returning members alike were encouraged to try driving the robot, and the stands were filled with supportive fans and teammates. Entrepreneurship team members came to take photos of the team in action, and many members were able to complete outreach hours by monitoring the pit for safety. Team members were able to talk to other teams in our alliances, be a part of drive team, and learn to quickly fix the robot in the pit. Calgames was a successful bonding opportunity between new and returning team members, and we are more excited than ever for competitions in this upcoming season! Fall WorkshopsArticle By Mea Heron We started off the 2018-2019 season with our student-led workshops for both new and returning members to learn about Gatorbotics and how we run. All team members are required to attend the Safety and Inventory Workshop where we learned about where things are in the lab, how to use basic power tools, and how to be safe while working with all the different tools in the lab. In the following workshop, we learned about our team’s designing process and strategy breakdown with our own Mock Kickoff, where we used 2016’s FIRST Stronghold game, brainstormed different strategies for when we build the robot, and debated the pros and cons of various mechanism designs using weighted objective tables. This workshop helped members think more critically about the design elements of the robot while letting new members know what to expect at Kickoff in January. At the electronics workshop, we learned all about the types of wires and the different ports for input and outputs on the robot. Then we had a Motors and Power Transmission Workshop where we learned about different types of chains and motors and practiced putting on chain and taking apart a gearbox. All of the workshops have helped provide team members with a solid foundation for the season to come!! Lead Interview: Riley Guggenhime, Entrepreneurship LeadArticle By Grace Kim Riley Guggenhime is the current Entrepreneurship Lead of the team. Her job is crucial to make everything work; she fundraises, manages the team’s website and social media pages, creates team gear, and writes grants. One of Riley’s main goals for team 1700 this school year is to integrate the technical and entrepreneurship teams by hosting events and helping the team bond to create a stronger community. Not only does she want to focus of on integration within our team, but she also hopes to strengthen the relationship that Gatorbotics has with the Castilleja community. One of the biggest challenges for Riley so far is the organizational aspect of leading. Even with its challenges, Riley enjoys her role as the Entrepreneurship Lead because the job integrates a lot of her interests, including finance, graphic design, and photography.
Riley is an amazing photographer and she has a photography account @rileycharlottephoto, so take a look because she’s super talented! Riley is also such a kind and welcoming presence on our team, and is always understanding. I love working with her because she is very hardworking and driven, but also sweet and relaxed. KickoffThe 2018 season of Castilleja Gatorbotics has officially begun! Marked by the annual Kickoff Celebration on January 6th, the Gatorbotics team and their parents celebrated the start of their new season. The event started with a information session describing the expectations for the season (12 hours in the Bourne Lab per week!) and the presentation of the official FIRST Robotics Competition video. This year, the competition theme is similar to a video game, where the team will have 6 weeks to build a robot. Students went on to work in the lab, while parents stayed behind to talk about support the team - it really takes a village to build this robot, as “they” say! Bring on a new season! PrototypesThe Gatorbotics build team has been working on prototypes for their machine in order to maximize the effectiveness of the robot. They’ve been working on the elevator and the intake to figure out how to most efficiently and accurately complete the challenges. For the elevator, they’ve tried two different models, called the cascade and continuous elevators, to see which one would be easier to build and more accurate. As well as that, they’ve also worked out different ways to place the wheels on the intake so that they can get the best possible grip on the wheels.
Chezy Champs! In late September, the Casti gatorbotics team competed in the 4th annual Chezy Champs tournament. 42 other teams from the West Coast came to Bellarmine school for this pre-season competition. Gatorbotics did very well. In the first part of the competition, we ended up in 6th place. We were selected as captains, and chose Paly and Valley Christian as our alliance. Although we lost in the quarterfinals 1-2, it was a success for a first performance. Riona and Vanessa drove the robot for the first time, and they did really well! At the end of the first night, the chain of the robot was impaired, but the leads and coaches worked to fix it so it was ready for the next day. On the second day, Reese pulled together all of the data that helped us choose our alliance. The competition went smoothly, and the leads and coaches got to work together which was good practice before the season. Thank you so much to Riona, Vanessa, and Reese who performed against some of the best teams in the world, and thank you to our coaches, Hal and Victoria who were with us for the whole weekend! Fall Workshops! Castilleja’s Gatorbotics team provides a series of workshops during the Fall preseason in order to prepare team members for the rigorous competition season in the Spring. These workshops are required for both the Build and Programming subteams, and each team member follows a workshop track that is specific for their subteam. Both new and returning members attend these workshops, which cover topics such as Safety and Inventory, Java, and Intro to CAD in order to gain skills that will be helpful during the competition season. Ria Sonecha, who is co-leading the build subteam, says, “Our goal for workshops is to give every member a solid foundation in the technical skill they'll need when the build season starts in January.” She continues to add, “We hope that this helps everyone feel like they are able to contribute to all aspects of building the robot from strategy and design to CAD, fabrication, and programming.” Ria’s goal as a team lead is to prepare the members of the build team with the skills that they will need when the competition season begins. She works to create and run the workshops, making sure to cover all the skills necessary to prepare the Build team’s members. Many new members find this guidance helpful, as they are required to take introductory courses that cover basic skills needed to be successful in creating the robots. Gatorbotics’s mentors also play a huge role in this process, and can use their knowledge to make Gatorbotics’s workshops worthwhile and successful. Overall, the workshops have received positive feedback, and are helpful in providing team members with skills necessary to be successful during the competition season. Meet the Leads! Arushi Gupta, Team Captain
Arushi is a senior who has been on the Gatorbotics team for all four years of high school. She has had a variety of positions and is very excited for the coming season. As as freshman, she joined the robotics team because she was interested in using power tools. She continued on the team because she learned so much in her first year and was able to try out so many new things. This season, she hopes to excite new team members, “In the past, newer members of the team have sometimes been bored, so I want to do a better job of including all members of the team during the season.” She would also like to improve the team’s time management during the season for as much practice time as possible. Her goals for the season are to “build an amazing robot without compromising our student-driven team culture.” She hopes to achieve that with the use of team workshops, especially focused on CAD. She is most excited to form bonds with the new members and spend lots of fun times with the team. Rashi Bose, Financial & Inventory Lead Rashi Bose has been a member of Gatorbotics since she was a freshman, making this her fourth year in the program. She has been an integral part of the team, serving in the build, programming and entrepreneurship sections. This year, as a senior, she will serve as the inventory and finance lead. This position is a new addition which was put in place this year. Rashi will serve as a liaison between the entrepreneurship and build team. Her job includes making sure the team stays on budget and has all the necessary materials. She will ensure that the team has enough financial support to go to competitions, keep inventory, and inform the team on what needs to be bought and what resources can be reused. Having been on the team for three years, Gatorbotics has been a large part of Rashi’s high school experience. This year she hopes to be a leader and connect the two groups, build and entrepreneurship. Rashi will work to close the gap between the two teams and try to make sure that the members of the entrepreneurship team are informed about the build team, and vice versa. This season, she is very excited to get started with the build season. Rashi loves the late night fun in the lab. She also is looking forward to going to competitions to see the robot in action and meet members of other teams. Rashi’s favorite memory from last season was during their first competition. Looking back, she remembers how amazing the energy was. The whole team was ecstatic and had incredible spirit. Through her past three years on the team, Gatorbotics has also taught Rashi about resilience. She remembers all the failed prototypes and how they taught her to move on and try a new direction. She is also grateful to Gatorbotics for teaching her how to use the complex power tools. Rashi says being exposed to such interesting machines is a privilege. Not only is Rashi a important member of the Gatorbotics team, but she is also a skilled bollywood dancer and plays tennis in her free time. We are so lucky to have Rashi as a member of the team, as she is extremely skilled in her work, but also supports the rest of her group with her kindness and is committed to the success of the program. Rekha Ramanathan, Entrepreneurship Lead Rekha first joined Gatorbotics because when she was a ninth grader at the Clubs Fair, the Gatorbotics team was giving out free t-shirts. She wanted a t-shirt so she joined the club, and she says today that it was one of the best choices she ever made. Gatorbotics has been a creative outlet and fun way to connect with girls from other grades. Her favorite part of Gatorbotics is spending time in the lab with her teammates. She appreciates knowing that her teammates always have her back and are as committed to building a successful robot as she is. Rekha also feels she has benefitted from her experience in robotics, “I am also so appreciative of all the new skills I've been able to learn through Gatorbotics, from using power tools to design thinking to CAD to technical writing.” She recounts that her favorite memory from a past Gatorbotics season was seeing Team 1700 appear first on the scoreboard during Chezy Champs only one month ago in September. Rekha says, “Airgon was our best robot to date and it was so satisfying to see all our hard work pay off!” Outside of the Gatorbotics season, Rekha writes for Counterpoint is a member of the Castilleja Track and Field team, and participates in the Halford’s Young Women Leaders’ program. Rekha also feels that Gatorbotics has influenced her in a positive way, as she has gained many technical and leadership skills, confidence to pursue STEM, made many close friends through the club, and received valuable mentorship from adults and team members. Vanessa Woo, Programming Lead Vanessa Woo has been a key member of the Gatorbotics team ever since she joined in her freshman year. She first joined the team because she was interested in CS and engineering and thought that it would be a good intro to the relationship between hardware and software. Vanessa decided to stay on the team throughout high school because she found Gatorbotics to be fun and rewarding. As the programming and electronics lead, Vanessa’s job is to program the robot and organize its electronics. She also has to teach the new members what to do and delegate tasks to them so that the robot is finished in time. You definitely won’t regret spending time with someone as funny and honest as Vanessa. This season, Vanessa is looking forward to making an amazing robot with vision and an advanced autonomous mode that can complete even the most complex task set by the FRC (First Robotics Competition). She says, “Our team has only improved through the years and I want to see us winning a regional.” She thinks that this year will be our best year yet, and she is super excited to work with all the new Gatorbotics team members -- old and new! Ria Sonecha, Build Lead Ria Sonecha is one of this year’s two Gatorbotics Build leads. She is entering her fourth year of Gatorbotics and she is eager for the new season to begin; more specifically, she is looking forward to “getting to know new members, and implementing CAD to build a better robot.” Last season, Ria loved “watching [our robot] climb” and she remembers being “excited to see that [mechanism] work.” She loves the Build team as “it’s very hands-on and it’s very rewarding to watch models become real.” This season, she and Riona, the other Build lead, are making some changes to the way the build team works. According to Ria, this year will include an “increased focus on CAD,” as Gatorbotics has just switched from using OnShape to Solidworks, a more professional CADding service. One change that they are embracing from last season is the increased workshop requirement; it worked out well. Ria anticipates challenges for the upcoming season due to the condensed build season. “We only have 4 weeks with the robot, so we have to be really efficient and stick with deadlines,” she said. This season she hopes to get the whole team invested in building the robot. She wants each and every member of the team to “be able to say ‘this is my robot,’” and she wants everyone to have the “skills to contribute.” With Ria’s help, this season is off to a great start! Sacramento Recap! This weekend we competed at the Sacramento Regional and completed one of our most successful seasons ever! We ranked 13th during qualification matches and reached quarter finals as the first pick of the fifth seeded alliance. Throughout the competition, we established ourselves as a competitive gear robot. In one match, we placed a gear in auto and six more in tele-op! Our quick and consistent climb also stuck out throughout the competition. This is the first year in our team’s history that we have reached eliminations in both of our regionals! From the scouters, to the pit crew, to the drive team, to the cheerleaders in the stands and at home, we were a well-oiled machine from start to finish. Thank you to our sponsors, mentors, and parents for your support this year! Season Recap!The Castilleja Robotics team concluded the season with strong performances at the Sacramento and San Francisco Regional competitions. Members have thoughtfully reflected on their experiences of participating in Robotics, reviewing their hard work and many shared memories over these past few months. When asked about her favorite memory of Gatorbotics, sophomore and first-year member Sophia Nesamoney (‘19) says,“It was definitely at the competition getting to watch our robot compete. The whole team was involved and people were scouting and some people were driving the robot while others were fixing the gears into the robot.” Rashi Bose (‘18), says, “ My favorite memory of Robotics for this year was going to In-N-Out after the robot was bagged. The whole team was arguing over what to name the robot, and it was really funny to hear some of the arguments. I was really glad to be a part of such a great team, and I was really proud of the robot we had made at the end of season.” The Sacramento competition was held from March 22 to March 25, 2017 where fifty-six teams around California gathered together. Nesamoney describes her experience; “I think [the competition] was a really fresh experience for me because I’ve never seen anything like it. So many teams were doing so many incredible things and when we heard all the awards they talked about teams that held after school classes and partnered with schools around the world and did really amazing things to maximize their impact on their greater community.” Smiling, Nesamoney proudly explained the results of the Robotics Team’s tireless work; “We were able to compete with some of the top teams and getting chosen for the playoffs was amazing.” Bose adds, “ I also enjoyed cheering for the team and just being able to participate in team spirit activities because we didn't do that in previous years.” Nesamoney offered valuable advice for next year’s members. She says, “My biggest piece of advice is to always ask questions. It can be kind of confusing at first at the competition, a little chaotic, but team members are always there to explain things to you. Knowing that no matter what you do you have an impact on how the robot turns out in the end. It’s really incredible — even if you have a minor role as a new member — you’ll be able to know that you helped the robot succeed.” While Nesamoney and Bose are sad that the season is coming to a close, they are proud of all their hard work they have completed these past few months. Leads' Reflections Christine Cho ‘17, Programming Lead, said: “Overall, I am extremely happy with this season's code and electronics for the robot. One of my goals for the season was to get vision working, and even though it wasn't functioning perfectly in the end, I'm still satisfied that we were able to program autonomous modes that could place the gear at any peg and that the team can continue to build on the vision code we wrote this year. Our team encountered a few hurdles during the competitions, but we worked together to solve the issues quickly. One of my other goals was that every member of the programming and electronics team felt included, and I think we were able to achieve that goal because every member had the opportunity to contribute to the code and wire the electronics. I'm excited to see how the team continues to build on our progress next year!” Arushi Gupta ‘18, Build Lead, spoke on her own experiences:“I think this season was a success! I never imagined we would make it to eliminations at both our regionals, let alone reach the semifinals at the championships. We built a strong robot, and I'm extremely proud of everyone on the team for their hard work and dedication. I've learned so much and I truly enjoyed the season.” Aditi Satyavrath ‘17, Entrepreneurship Lead, reviewed the team’s accomplishments: “I would say that establishing the newsletter program helped us accomplish our goal of creating stronger connections to our community. We've been able to reach a lot more people more consistently this season thanks to the newsletters.” New Initiatives this Season Gatorbotics led the field this year, and made it to quarterfinals in Houston! What are some of the innovations distinguishing the team from the crowd?
The build team integrated more workshops into the season, and placed more emphasis on practicing building robots. Arushi Gupta, one of the build leads, said that the workshops got everyone “used to working in the bourn lab, with each other, with tools and with designing a robot.” The build team also built a drive train and held driving practice in the fall, for prototyping and to find a driver before the season began. Gupta said that having a driver before the season began “was a big part of the success over the season.” Additionally, another initiative implemented was the new CAD requirement. Gupta said that in seasons past, one person did all the CAD but during this past season, more people could use CAD and design themselves, making the design process more efficient. The outreach team also innovated, adding shadow days for 8th graders to see what the season is like, the big gator - little gator program, to integrate more mentorship into Gatorbotics, and started a First Lego League team for the girls from Building Futures Now, a non-profit helping high achieving students in underserved schools. Gatorbotics used last year’s FLL challenge to teach programming to the BFN girls and will start a competitive team next year - according to Ria Sonecha, Outreach Lead, the FLL team went really well and the girls are really interested. Sonecha said that the Big Gator - Little Gator program allowed “people to get to know someone on the team before build season started, so they were more comfortable and already part of the team. This helped their ability to contribute in the build season and made the experience more enjoyable. It was nice for older members to get to know other people on the team.” In terms of the shadow days, the feedback was good, but as Sonecha remarked, “we will find out how well that went next year.” The Entrepreneurship team added the newsletter you are reading right now. Aditi Satyavrath, Entrepreneurship Lead, said “there was a noticeable change this season in the way that our community -- mentors, parents, sponsors, and everyone in between -- connected to our team, and I attribute it to the newsletter initiative. I think that conveying the importance of the different aspects of Gatorbotics, from our outreach programs to our integration of new members, truly relayed the well-roundedness and thoroughness of our team in a way that we haven't been able to communicate before. I believe that readers of the newsletter become close to our team, which is mutually valuable, and this program has definitely become a sustainable and exciting part of Gatorbotics!” The build season ended in the second week of February. As Gatorbotics prepares for competition season, we are so excited to share with you some features of leads, mentors, and coaches and an update about our outreach program with the new First Lego League team at Building Futures Now. Thank you for your support! Meet the Leads (Pt. 2)! Kathleen Mhatre: Mechanical Co-Lead Kathleen started the season hoping to make sure everyone felt that they were contributing and to build a functioning robot. She is definitely making progress with this goal; she said that “people learned a lot this year and got a lot of good experience.” The robot does two of the three things it needs to do, which is great, but Kathleen is ready to make improvements on the robot before competitions start. She said that in order to accomplish the team's goals, the build team became much more familiar with CAD and the mill this season. The increased use of these tools came with a learning curve; she said “you don't just go from no knowledge to doing it 100% correct. There's a lot especially about CAD that we didn't and still don't know. Learning how to use CAD to our greatest advantage will take time but is a process we started this year.” While accomplishing her goal for the season was harder than she anticipated, Kathleen said that “everyday we face problems we didn't anticipate, so it was difficult, but I think that's a good thing.” Aditi Satyavrath: Entrepreneurship Lead Aditi’s main goal for this season was to form better connections between the Gatorbotics team and our community, through other ways besides sponsorship. She says that the Entrepreneurship team has taken huge steps to achieve this goal in the 2016-2017 year, but it may take a couple of years to solidify their relationships with new sponsors and mentors. She explains that the newsletter initiative and the remaking of the Gatorbotics website are both actions which are geared towards engaging the community in Gatorbotics throughout the year. Ria Sonecha: Community Outreach Lead and Co-Lead of Strategy and Scouting Ria’s first goal was to strategically decide the robot's priorities so that the team could build a robot that will perform well at competitions. Ria explains that having a plan for the points analysis and using that to determine the robot's priorities really helped them think about their approach to the challenge critically and ensure that we were making conscious decisions about the robot's functions. Her second goal was to ensure that all members (new and returning) feel that they made a significant contribution to the robot, really understand how it works, and learned something this season. She says that having lots of pre-season workshops made it so that all members had a solid foundation. Ria also explains that the fact that the team worked on two robots allowed everyone to have a job and work on something if they wished to. She says one of the biggest challenges was having the time to test all of the mechanisms and perfect them before ship. The team still has some work to do before competition, but she thinks they are in a good place now. Ria believes it was easier than she had anticipated to make two robots. She was worried that they wouldn't have enough time to finish, but it ended up not being a big issue. Arushi Gupta: Mechanical Co-Lead Arushi’s goal for this season was to build a robot the entire team was proud of, and one that everyone felt they contributed to and understood. She also hoped to learn more technical skills personally as well as improve the collective knowledge of the team. Throughout the season, she says she was continuously surprised by the level of knowledge of new members and their enthusiasm to learn and do more. When comparing their comfort with using tools and sharing ideas during workshops to their contributions in the last few weeks, she says she definitely saw a difference. Arushi expresses that the biggest change this year was the number of required workshops and other requirements to join the team. Her hope was that members would be better prepared for the season and feel ready to jump in. During the season itself, she tried to give new members as many opportunities as possible to work on that day's task and allow them to learn by doing, as she has been lucky enough to do over the past two years. Arushi says that trying to keep every member of team engaged, especially as they reached the end of the season was difficult, as there weren't always enough tasks for everyone. Before the season, she was apprehensive about the daunting task of designing and building a robot in six weeks, and making sure everyone was learning and enjoying themselves while we did it. However, she says that the incredibly capable and kind people on the team, as well as our mentors, made it much easier to work through the six weeks one day and one decision at a time. Katie Mishra: Co-Lead of Strategy and Scouting Katie's goal for the build season was to incorporate a working vision system into the robot, and to foster a cohesive environment for the programming team. She was successful in both goals; although the vision system has a few remaining bugs, it is completed for the most part. The programming team has bonded really fast, due to its small size, and they have had lots of fun together. To realize her goals, she and the programming team broke up the programming for the vision system into many steps; she says, “First, we worked on the basic math of driving forward, turning to an angle, and driving to a peg. Many steps turned out to more complicated than we thought, so we had to go back and rework or tune many aspects…A majority of our time was devoted to testing as there were many variables we had to tune to make vision work properly.” As usual with programming, there were many bugs to combat, but Katie was determined. She said that her goals were easier to accomplish than she expected as creating vision on last year’s robot was a “race post-season and at competitions,” but the increased time they spent on the system paid off and made the process easier. Outreach With Building Futures Now As part of the Outreach program, members of Team 1700 have been working with a small group of 8th grade girls at Building Futures Now, an organization that provides education opportunities for students in East Palo Alto. During weekly meetings with the girls at Building Futures Now, Gatorbotics members have been introducing them to the FIRST Lego League competition and teaching them the basics of coding and engineering. Projects over the last several weeks have included building the game pieces for this year's FIRST challenge, "Animal Allies," learning how to program the Lego Mindstorm robot to move in specific sequences, and using sensors to compete tasks. The long-term goal is to help prepare the girls to have a competitive FIRST Lego League team next year. “It’s been a lot of fun watching the girls engage with the project, work out problems in their code, and help each other understand new concepts,” says Ria Sonecha, one of the Gatorbotics members leading this program. “They seem to be having a lot of fun and it is so inspiring to see how excited they are about learning new things. I hope that this experience will motivate them to continue pursuing STEM both in and out of school.” Meet the Mentors and Coaches! Hal Rucker
This year, Gatorbotics welcomed the newest addition to the build coaching team, founder of Neuma Innovations and Battlebots contestant Hal Rucker. Gatorbotics Entrepreneurship Team (GET): Why did you decide to become a coach for the Gatorbotics team? Hal Rucker (HR): I have a daughter who started the sixth grade [at Castilleja] this year, and she and I have been building robots since she was six years old. I also have an interest in teaching kids how to build robots. GET: Can you talk a little bit about what you do outside of coaching Gatorbotics? HR: I’m a full time inventor. I have a workshop in San Carlos. I come up with ideas for products and I build prototypes of them. Then, I try and sell the ideas. I also, for fun, build robots. I participate in competitions like Battlebots, the TV show. My daughter and I were on the show last season on ABC. GET: How does your robot-building outside of Castilleja carry over to Gatorbotics? HR: Being my first season with the team and also keeping in mind that I’ve never been to a First Robotics Competition, I couldn’t help very much with things having to do with first robotics. There was a lot I could help with like giving tips on how to build things, how to do certain things in CAD, and where to buy things that you need for your robot. Gatorbotics really is a student-driven team, so I have to confess that I don’t think I had much to do with the actual design or building of the robot. I just helped with keeping the tools running and giving tips here and there. GET: Did anything about Gatorbotics that surprised you? HR: I was a little surprised at how 100% driven they were to do it themselves without any outside help. That was a little frustrating for me, but also extremely impressive that they managed to build the robot that they did without any outside help. I guess I was surprised by how little I helped and how great it turned out without any of my help. GET: Can you describe your experience as a coach of Gatorbotics? HR: The biggest thing I learned was to stay out of the way and let them do their thing, while at the same time, keeping my eye open for small teachable moments when I could show somebody how to do something in a slightly different and better way or put alternative ideas out there for them to consider. Ultimately, it was their decision as to whether it was a good decision or not. Chris Cruise Gatorbotics mentor, Chris Cruise, has been coaching the Gatorbotics team for two years, and is sadly leaving this summer to start a job in Detroit. Cruise has been a part of robotics clubs since his own high school years and has many fond memories of First Robotics as well as Gatorbotics. Gatorbotics Entrepreneurship Team (GET) : Why did you decide to become a coach for the Gatorbotics team? Chris Cruise: A long time ago, I did First Robotics in High School. I’m originally from Florida, so I was on a team in Jacksonville and when I went to college at the University of Florida, I got involved in mentoring a robotics team. I had done four years of mentoring before joining Gatorbotics, so when I moved out to California to do graduate school at Stanford, I was already looking for teams to join up again. GET: What do you enjoy about coaching the team? CC: I like coaching because First Robotics and the mentors I had in high school played a big role in getting me interested in engineering and pursuing a clear that ultimately was the field of robotics. Part of it is just trying to pay it back for the mentoring that I got in high school. Day to day, what I like about it is first the very powerful program. It’s probably the hardest high school club to be a part of: to design and build this robot in six weeks is a task that if you took to a engineering company, they would laugh at you because it’s not the time scale they work on, but somehow we manage to do it every year. GET: What is your favorite thing to do while coaching? CC: My favorite thing to do while coaching is always trying to challenge the students: always forcing them to evaluate their ideas, come up with new ideas. They think I’m a tough mentor, I guess, because I never let them have anything, [but they are] some of the smartest high schoolers I’ve met so...just forcing them to never accept good enough...can be a point of contention at times...but I find it enjoyable. GET: Is there anything I haven’t touched upon that you would like me to include? CC: I’m very happy to have been a part of this team...all of the kids are destined for greatness: the amount of hours and work they put into this is just really incredible. Some of the leads are there 40 or 50 hours a week, and, when I was in high school, I was one of the leaders on my team..., and we were there max 12-16 hours a week. The amount of dedication that some of these students have is really impressive, especially with all the other things [they] have going on. 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. Keep an eye out for more newsletters from us, particularly as we continue building our robot and holding outreach events throughout January and February. Go Gators! Kickoff 2017!Gatorbotics has been hard at work since Kickoff on January 7. After receiving this year’s FIRST Steamworks challenge, the Gatorbotics team spent the day brainstorming a list of priorities and possible robot designs, according to build team co-lead Kathleen Mhatre ’17. This year’s 2017 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) challenges teams to build a robot that scores balls, called “fuels,” in boilers to create “steam pressure.” Throughout the race, robots may also deliver gears to the “airship,” a tall building with four rotors and missing gears. Additional points are earned for the number of turning gears by the end of the match, as well as the amount of steam pressure built. Programming member, Vanessa Woo ’18, said that for the programming team, this year’s challenge is less difficult than last year’s; “It’s a lot easier than last year’s just because of the approach that we are taking,” said Woo. “We made different strategy decisions, so we're taking a different route this year.” According to Woo, the programming team’s efficiency has allowed them to try out a new system called Vision. This section of code enables a camera on the robot to identify the goals, so the robots can automatically drive up to them. In addition to the programming team’s productivity, Woo mentioned the inclusivity fostered within the team. “We’re actually on schedule in terms of programming, which has never happened,” said Woo. “I think we are making a bigger effort to include new members. All of the robot code was written with the new members… Everything except Vision is theirs, and right now they are shadowing us on Vision while we try to figure things out.” Like Woo, Mhatre said the build team is ahead of schedule, allowing them to build a practice robot before FRC. According to Mhatre, the main reason for the team’s timeliness is the entire team’s use of Computer Aided Design (CAD), rather than a single “CADer” like in previous years. “OnShape, the CAD software we are using, is basically like the Google Drive of CAD, so multiple people can work on one document at once,” said Mhatre. “I think it is really helpful for giving everyone a better understanding of our robot and giving everyone a chance to work on the design.” The Castilleja Robotics team has bonded and become a strong, cohesive group, according to new build member Sophia Nesamoney ’19. “I’m having a great time on the team,” said Nesamoney. “Everyone is really welcoming, and [older members] have taught me so many new skills, such as soldering and using different tools and saws.” New build member, Alexandra Saffold ’20, said that all the returning members have encouraged her participation in the building process. “I’ve helped with figuring out how big we want the robot to be, brainstorming ideas for climbing, and also with building the parts on the gear slot... There’s always something different to do!” As a whole, the team looks forward to completing the robot and seeing their work in action at competitions! Big Gator and Little Gator Program This season, Gatorbotics started the Big Gator/Little Gator program to connect new team members to returning ones, helping them connect with experienced upperclassmen. The Big Gator/Little Gator pairs met three times in the fall and whenever needed during the season. We hope that this profile of a Big Gator/Little Gator pair, Katie Mishra '18 and Olivia Danner '20 gives you an idea of the program! Katie Mishra is a junior who has been on Gatorbotics for three years. She is the Strategies and Scouting lead as well as the Research and Development lead. She originally joined Gatorbotics because she needed a green t-shirt for spirit day (green is the freshman class color) and Gatorbotics was giving them out to everyone who signed up. She ended up really enjoying the whole robotics experience and continued in the following years! Katie volunteered to be a Big Gator because she understands the struggles freshmen face as new members on the team. She can answer her Little Gator's questions about logistics, offer advice, and connect with the underclassmen. Olivia Danner is a freshman who is new to Gatorbotics this year. She joined the programming team to learn about programming. She is extremely excited to attend competitions during the year and to participate in robotics as much as possible. She is glad to have a Big Gator who can answer all her questions and help out with any problems as they are both on the programming team. This season, she hopes to actively contribute to the team and learn more about robotics. Build UpdatesThe build team is currently working on CAD-ing various parts of the robot. Sara Bell ’17 says that it’s important to CAD to ensure that all the dimensions of the parts will work before beginning the physical build process and to prevent future struggles. Ella Henn ’19 and Riona Yoshida ’19 were trying to help prototype so another group of members could CAD their successful designs. As two members who don’t yet know how to CAD, it is extremely helpful that they can rely on other members to help them.
Cat Raanes ’17, Rashi Bose ’18, and Natalie Dean ’17 have prototyped an effective gear mechanism for the robot. All three agreed that the design process involves “thinking of strange designs and then being able to prototype them.” They also discussed the general process that they have already completed with regards to the robot. The team begins by analyzing a game strategy and thinking about what they want to accomplish with their robot. The whole team then thinks of and visualize their designs using CAD. Later, the team will build prototypes in trying to choose a final design; careful consideration and analysis of these prototypes help the team eliminate or develop certain ideas. The rest of the season is then used for building and fixing the robot. 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. Keep an eye out for more newsletters from us, particularly as we head into build and competition season in January. Go Gators! CalGames 2016From October 7 to October 8, Castilleja Gatorbotics participated in the 2016 Cal Games at Fremont High School. The team’s main goal was to expose new members to the many different facets of a robotics competition, such as the large scale of robotics competitions and the different robot designs , according to Gatorbotics lead Katherine Greatwood ’17. According to Greatwood, the team managed to gel immediately and work with efficiency throughout the two day event. “Cal Games was a lot of fun this year… ,” Greatwood said. “With a brand new leads team who’s never gone through a competition before, everything ran so smoothly,” Greatwood said. “I was really happy with the leads especially and with everyone that was there for cooperating and listening.” Greatwood also noted that the 2016 Cal Games was a competition of many firsts, including a completely new leads team and the incorporation of new members into the driving team. “We tried something new, which was having a new person drive for each match,” Greatwood said. “We just wanted to open it up for the whole team. Cal Games is kind of the beginning of that, and I think it was a lot of fun for a lot of people. A lot of people got to drive that have never touched the controls before, and I really liked that.” Gatorbotics members Olivia Danner ’20 and Lauren Traum ’19 were two of several new members that attended Cal Games and were able to partake in the driving team. Danner was a human player, while Traum was a driver. Although both agreed that participating in the matches was slightly stressful, they thoroughly enjoyed being immersed in the competition. “It’s really incredible,” said Traum. “I just have never seen so many robots and so many people working on robots in one place or people cheering on the robots like it was a sports game. It completely caught me off guard. It was really cool how spirited the whole event was.” Traum was also grateful for the lengths the returning members of Gatorbotics went through in order to integrate the new members into the team and help accustom them to the robotics culture. “The older members of the team are so helpful,” said Traum. “Just the fact that they go to Cal Games and work all day at Cal Games for the newbies to learn how to handle the robot and learn what a competition is like is really incredible.” After getting a glimpse of Gatorbotics, both Traum and Danner are excited for the upcoming robotics season. “I got to see the whole playing field and get a feel for how crazy it’s gonna be and how many robots there’s going to be… ,” said Danner. “I’m excited to do a competition with the robot that we get to build [in the future].” Meet this Year's Leads! Katherine Greatwood: Team Captain Katherine Greatwood is the Gatorbotics team captain. She is a senior and has been a part of Gatorbotics for four years, and did robotics in middle school. She is most excited about having so many new members this season because it makes everyone more enthusiastic. Gatorbotics increased new enrollment from 4 new members last year to 21 this season. Although Katherine says the biggest challenge so far is keeping track of 41 members and making sure everyone is aware of what is going on, she is excited that so many people are interested in STEM. The most interesting thing she has learned from Gatorbotics is that engineering is cool! Without robotics, she would not have discovered her passion for mechanical engineering – in fact, she plans to major in mechanical engineering in college. Katherine likes the idea that what she has learned a lot over the past three years, she can now teach people who don’t have as much experience. Because she has just gone through the “I don’t know anything” years, it is easier to explain concepts to people. Seeing the connections build across the whole team is the best part for her. This season, the goals for the team are to get everyone really involved because the team is almost entirely student led. Preparing the technical team to begin the season with more background knowledge is important for maximum efficiency and engagement. It’s also important that everyone feels comfortable in the lab, so everyone can get the most out of the season. Katherine also wants to get everyone comfortable with computer aided design (CAD), which is 3D modeling on a computer. She thinks it's a valuable tool because it is widely used in the engineering world. Kathleen Mhatre: Mechanical Co-Lead Senior Kathleen Mhatre is co-leading the build team in her 3rd year of Gatorbotics. She is looking forward to building an awesome robot this season, and getting to see what Gatorbotics comes up with. This season, Kathleen says the biggest challenge she will face is finding members who will devote their time to the team. The most interesting thing she has learned doing Gatorbotics is pneumatics – there are so many pieces! This season she wanted to be lead because she found that last season, the more you contributed, the more rewarding the experience was. Kathleen says the coolest things about Gatorbotics are prototyping, designing, and building. A fun fact about Kathleen: she has 3 younger brothers; Brian, Adam and David, the three make up the BAD brothers. Kathleen compares her sense of humor to “an eleven year old boy’s.” Arushi Gupta: Mechanical Co-Lead Arushi Gupta, a mechanical co-lead, is a junior and has been in Gatorbotics for three years. She is excited to meet the new members of the team! It’s her first year doing mechanics, and she thinks that the coolest thing about mechanics is the difference between the concepts about how parts will interact and how they interact in real life.The most interesting thing Gatorbotics has taught her is that you need to mess up many times before you find something that works. A fun fact about Arushi: She lived in India for seven years. Christine Cho: Programming and Electronics Lead Senior Christine Cho is the Programming and Electronics lead. This season she is excited to take on a new challenge and meet new members of the team. The biggest challenge she has faced this season is encouraging everyone to attend workshops; she hopes that by the beginning of the season everyone will have the skills to contribute to the team. The most interesting thing she has learned from Gatorbotics is computer science. She hopes to be a role model for younger students as older students were role models for her since she joined the team her freshman year. The coolest thing about Programming is that everyone is passionate and excited to learn. One fun fact about Christine: She plays golf! Ria Sonecha: Community Outreach and Strategy & Scouting Lead Ria Sonecha, a junior at Castilleja, is the Gatorbotics lead of community outreach and co-lead of strategy and scouting. She is really excited to get to know the new members and lead new outreach programs. Gatorbotics is trying to create a First Lego League team at Building Futures Now, and working with the younger kids is lots of fun. When she joined robotics in freshman year, Ria was not very interested in engineering, but she later learned that she really enjoys STEM. As an outreach lead, she wants to give back to the team and help younger members the way past leads have helped her. In addition to Gatorbotics, she plays water polo and used to do Indian folk dance. She loves working with the young girls at a local low-income elementary school. Fun fact: She can wiggle her right ear! Katie Mishra: Research & Development and Strategy & Scouting Lead Katie Mishra is the Scouting and Strategy lead and the Research and Development lead this season. She loved going to the FIRST Championships last season and spending time with the team. The biggest challenge she’s faced this season is the increased time commitment, but finds the sacrifices are worth the time. She is very interested in coding and how a short code can direct a robot’s motion. Gatorbotics fostered her love of engineering. She is fascinated by vision tracking, which allows the robot to shoot at a target automatically. According to Katie, at Gatorbotics everyone feels so welcome and learns so much. A fun fact about Katie: She is obsessed with corgis! Aditi Satyavrath: Entrepreneurship Lead Aditi Satyavrath, a member since her freshman year, is now senior at Castilleja and leads the Entrepreneurship team. Entrepreneurship is starting a lot of really interesting initiatives and she is really excited to see where they go. She aims to leave new members a good foundation for next year. Due to past challenges concerning communication with sponsors, Aditi is leading the effort to foster longer lasting relationships. She thinks we are very much like a tech company; what you see on the outside is the hardware and technology. But she thinks what she has learned is what happens behind the scenes is just as important. Aditi enjoys communicating with local sponsors and local businesses as it allows her to understand more of the “behind-the-scenes” aspects of startups. As a student at an all-girls school, Aditi believes that it’s important to bring more girls into STEM field and hopes that her role as the entrepreneurship lead will inspire girls to do so. Fun fact: she is obsessed with sloths and plays the piano. Pre-season Worskhops The Gatorbotics team prepared for the season by attending build, programming, and entrepreneurship workshops. In the Kickoff Workshop, team members watched a video of the 2014 competition. Members set up data like they would build the 2014 robot by predicting the time required to shoot a ball into the basket and the likeliness of the ball landing in the basket. In the Safety Workshop, members received a checklist of items in the Bourn Lab and became acquainted with the items and how to use them safely and effectively. Members created an iPhone stand by using various equipment in the lab such as the band saw and drill press; this project allowed members to apply what they learned about the Bourn Lab tools. New members also attended either the Intro to Build or Intro to Programming workshops to learn the basics of the sub team. Additionally, the Calculus and Controls workshop was also a required prerequisite. “During the Calculus and Controls workshop, we learned about two types of controls: Bang Bang and PID,” Lauren Byunn-Rieder ’20 said. “Bang Bang is essentially going towards your destination at full speed and once you get there [you] stop, if you overshoot, [you] go back at full speed. PID stands for proportional integral derivative, and essentially it's a calculation to say ‘go fast,’ if you're far away but ‘slow down,’ as you get closer, so you don't overshoot.” “From this workshop, I learned a different way of thinking about how to make a robot move, which will be helpful in the season,” Byunn-Rieder added. The workshops served as a helpful review for returning members, but more importantly, they accelerated new members to have a similar toolkit of knowledge as the experienced members. The workshops laid a solid foundation for the official start of the season in February. First Lego League Gatorbotics also sponsors First Lego League (FLL) teams for middle school students interested in robotics. This year’s First Lego League “Animal Allies” Challenge focuses on how to improve interactions between humans and animals through the use of Lego Mindstorms to solve specific missions. Five teams of enthusiastic middle schoolers are currently working on this challenge, identifying problems that arise when people and animals interact and then designing solutions to improve these interactions. Mr. Cortella, a middle school math teacher at Castilleja, mentors these groups during their meetings three times each week.
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