Imagine you’re on an FRC team. You’ve just spent 6 long hard weeks building your champion robot and are walking into your first competition ever. Come to find out, you get to the competition and your robot fails inspection – your entire robot frame is too big by two inches! What to do!? No point dwelling on missed rules now, you’ve got only a short amount of time
before your first match of the day to fix the problem. One year, this was exactly what our team this week had to go through.
Of all of the teams that ADI employees mentor, Team 1965 has been around the longest, and now with nearly a decade under their belt, this veteran team has seen many challenges over the years and can offer some solid advice to our newer teams (like make sure you know exactly what is and isn’t allowed in the design of your robot)!
The St Joseph Preparatory High School team was founded by a group of former students in 2006. If you’ve watched some of our videos on analog.com/first you’ll know them as your helpful guides showing you how to use our awesome sensors. Now, more than a decade later, the team is still going strong being led by some of the mentors that started the program with the addition of new mentors like Colm and Lewis whom keep the program going.
The team has two ADI mentors on board: Colm Prendergast and Lewis Malaver. Colm and Lewis both work in the IoT sector of Analog. Colm has been with ADI for 27 years in a wide variety of roles, designing lots of our products including gyros and accelerometers similar to those included in the Kit of Parts this year. Who better to mentor a robotics team than two people on the forefront of the Internet of Things?
The Firebirds have 30 students this year with an amazing 50/50 split boys and girls. The Firebirds are based out of Boston, Massachusetts. I got the chance to ask Colm and several of the Firebirds why they got involved FIRST and what they enjoy most from the experience.
What are some past achievements of the team (awards, etc.)?
What got you involved with FIRST?
Colm: What engineer can pass up an opportunity to work on and play with robots?
Sharon K. ’17: It sounded really different, a lot of other schools didn’t have robotics, and that’s what makes our school unique. The team was also highly recommended from teachers and friends, so I thought “Why not give it a try.”
Brendan B. ’19: Because I thought that it would be interesting. When I first came in, I thought it would be really cool, so I thought that I would try it out. Turns out it’s really fun! My favorite part is having fun, hanging out with friends, and having good food…all while building a robot.
Christopher E. ’16: The second week of sophomore year, the robotics team showed their Frisbee robot at morning gathering. When I saw how accurate it was, I was amazed and decided I wanted to join. I was told to talk to the mentors, who gave me a wrench and a task and I did it. After a while I was able to do more complicated stuff and now I’m one of the team leaders.
What has FIRST done for you?
Colm: Probably the most meaningful aspect of my involvement in FIRST is the opportunity to participate in the education of students in a very tangible and effective way.
Angela N. ’11 (alum): FIRST provides you with a lifetime support system which can help you in many more ways than just providing opportunities for advancement in your career. My mentors have been helping me through both my collegiate and professional lives.
What does "More than Robots" mean to you?
Kelli A. ’18: Developing the skills you need to excel in the future of engineering.
Steve K (mentor): We are learning how to be good problem solvers.
Nam B. ’16 (team captain): We’re a family.
Christopher E. ’16 (team captain): It helps you overcome any trouble you face as a team.
What are some of the biggest challenges your team has faced in the past, and how did you overcome them?
Colm: There are two that come to mind. In 2008 we discovered our robot’s frame was too large and the students had to remove a 2 inch section from the middle of the robot during the competition. Just last year, we discovered that 4 of our motors from an old kick-off kit were no longer legal. The team had to rebuild all of the tote and pool noodle mechanisms on the robot prior to opening ceremonies.
Emily T. ’17: Time management is always a big challenge. This year we overcame it by creating not only a definitive schedule for the group, but also for each subgroup. We’re also making a more conscious effort to abide by our timeline. Now since we have appointed leaders (captains and subcaptains) they are able to monitor it more closely.
Hayley L. ’17: Agreeing on final designs and moving forward on the final robot beyond the prototyping phase has consistently been a struggle that we face even in this build season. This year we established a Game Strategy team that helps us prioritize our efforts and facilitate compromise.
(WOW! Guess what Hayley, that’s a challenge that even us adult engineers face. We like to call it feature creep. My own senior design team fell victim to feature creep on our final project. And even in my career, I’m having to prioritize the different development steps at different times in a project’s lifetime. Determining priorities is one of the best ways to avoid feature creep. Looks like you’re one step ahead of the game!! I think this is a perfect example of how FIRST arms students with the experience they need to succeed in the workplace.)
If you could describe your experience with robotics in one word, what would it be?
Educational
Inspirational
Extraordinary
Supportive
Amazing
Knowledgeable
Rigorous
Challenging
How’s the robot coming along?
Sophia S. ’17 (team captain): Right now the build season is going better than it ever has before. We’re able to get more done than in previous years.
Cali L. ’17: The build season is coming along great! We’re ahead of schedule and we’re really getting things done according to our plan.
Theresa S. ’17: Great! We’re making a lot of progress. We’re working on finalizing ideas for the robot.
Build season is getting exciting! Robots are taking shape and strategies are forming. Before long teams will have robots built and will be training their drivers and practicing for their competitions. It's going to be good!
This blog post is part of a series about FIRST robotics and the impact that ADI has on teams of students across the country and the world. Stay tuned for more posts during the FRC build season and competition season, culminating with coverage of the FIRST World Championships in St Louis in April 2016! Follow the conversation about FIRST with the hashtags omgrobots and morethanrobots on all social media platforms.
