2023 Season – Regional Engineering Inspiration, WFFA for 1816 alum/Business mentor Rachel Margolis, Girls in the Workshop
Team 1816 began the 2023 Season “Charged Up” eager to get back to in-person meetings, workshop sessions, and competitions. From winning the Engineering Inspiration Award, to having an autonomous program execute with 100% success rate, to being an alliance captain at two regional competitions, “The Green Machine” met many teamwide goals during the 2023 season.
Over the summer of 2022, team members learned SolidWorks which became extremely valuable during the six weeks allotted to building a robot. For the first time in our team’s history, we put the drivetrain, parts, and mechanisms into CAD before building the robot. This was a huge step for “The Green Machine” to take our design process and robot to the next level in terms of fabrication and machining. Additionally, fall offseason competitions, both team and personal goal setting, and a mock-kickoff prepared both new and returning members for the 2023 Season.
Our 2023 robot, “ZERO”, included a 4 stage telescoping arm with a collector on the end that could pick up both cones and cubes, all on a 26” by 26” swerve drive train. This robot was designed, built, and programmed completely differently than it had been in years past. We began kickoff by identifying all the scoring opportunities and game strategies a team could have and then going through the pros and cons of each one. After kickoff, we allocated about one week of prototyping and all team design reviews. Students would present their ideas in front of all members and mentors to go through the pros and cons of their design. This was efficient and helped us narrow down to the one or two mechanisms that we would continue CADing and prototyping. We built a chassis early on for the programmers to begin coding autonomous. We continued CADing until the beginning of week four when we put “ZERO” together in about three days. This allotted time for coding and driver practice. This was the first time in a long time our robot was completely coded before our first regional competition.
At the Lake Superior Regional, Team 1816 ranked 9th and 6th alliance captain alongside Team 2530 Inconceivable and Team 4741 WingNuts. We won the Engineering Inspiration Award for our year-round advocacy work with state legislatures; community outreach, including our Girls in the Workshop events to attract and retain more girls into STEM; and creation and implementation of a professional design process that included both daily SCRUM and weekly design reviews supervised by mentors from HID, one of our sponsors. These achievements both on and off the competition field together qualified 1816 for the 2023 Minnesota High School League State Robotics Championship. The Lake Superior Regional showed us how much CADing the robot before commencing a full robot build paid off, because there were no major fixes throughout the competition. The one part of the robot that did have difficulties was the collector, which continually broke. Despite it being an easy fix, we changed the collector design and changed it on the robot before the next competition. The Lake Superior Regional was an encouraging way to kick off the competition season!
At the Minnesota 10,000 Lakes Regional presented by Medtronic, “The Green Machine”was ranked 3rd and 2nd alliance captain alongside 2470 Team BJORG and Team 2549 Millerbots. With our new collector, there were no mechanical fixes throughout the competition which allowed us to focus on game strategy. Our business subteam mentor, 1816 alum Rachel Margolis, won the Minnesota 10,000 Lakes Regional Woodie Flowers Finalist Award for 1) creating an alumni mentoring program to help students move from team member to mentor; 2) her persistent support and guidance for our Girls in the Workshop program, and 3) continuous improvement to strengthen our team culture, organization, advocacy, and business efforts.
At the World Championships, Team 1816 was ranked 36th in the Newton division. After being ranked 8th through Thursday, this competition served as motivation and a sign that our changes to the design process are moving us in the right direction. Team members and mentors volunteered in various roles, including robot inspections, pit admin, on-the-field, as well as safety glasses. Several members also helped with FIRST LEGO League’s World Festival, a special assignment that they were especially excited to fill.
“The Green Machine ” continued its outreach efforts this season by bringing STEM activities and experiences to Minnesota Children’s Hospital’s in-house TV show Star Studio, demonstrating our 2022 season robot at the Minnesota State Fair, Minnesota Lynx STEM Night, and Mt. Olivet Camp for students with autism. We continued our Girls in the Workshop program by inviting Edina FTC girls and girls enrolled in Project Lead the Way classes to solder Bluetooth speakers with us, an activity that helps strengthen relationships and make girls feel welcome in STEM. The three Team captains (Adele, Kaylie, Venna) gave a TedXEdina talk, “Our Turn in Tech, and FRC Team 1816 also testified before the Minnesota State Legislature to get a $3 million bill for high school STEM internships and funding for competitive robotics teams passed. Our very own George R. testified before committees in both the House and the Senate to support the passing of this bill.
Our outreach drives success within and outside our team. We look forward to bringing the lessons of “Charged Up” to the 2024 competition, “Crescendo”!