2023-2024 Outreach
Hands-on prototyping and building for boy scout Invention Merit Badge Requirements 6 & 7
During this workshop, four Boy Scouts participated in the meeting. We explained the concepts of the design and prototyping process. We guided the scouts as they worked on prototypes using cardboard and 3D parts. We then tested the functionality of the prototypes to ensure they met the intended criteria. Additionally, the scouts had the opportunity to practice driving the Aluminator 'PowerPlay' robot as part of their hands-on experience.
Stanley Black & Decker
Headquarter visit
During this visit, three members—Bernie, Eric, and Tushaar—attended the SBD tour led by Kathy Weber. Kathy showcased SBD's prototyping area, featuring an SLS 3D printer for plastic and metals and a 5-axial CNC machine. She presented numerous prototyped parts produced by these machines.
Dr. Weber elaborated on the comprehensive reliability tests when prototyping new tool models. She provided insights into the mechanisms of these tests and showcased various testing equipment and laboratories dedicated to ensuring product reliability.
Helping our sister team train new members during the summer season
During this workshop, we assisted a rookie team in generating a potential design for their robot. We also played a role in addressing questions related to the FTC season and robot design. Additionally, we provided advice and tips to the rookie members to help kickstart their FTC journey.
Online Hardware Training
NewT hosted 3, 1 hour online sessions on hardware basics, engineering process, drivetrain, intake and detailed mechanisms with Q&A.​
Meeting with Dr. Ma from WeRide
Dr. Ma has a Master of Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Robotics. He researched and developed robotics over the years in his career. In this meeting, he presented his work, including data gloves, robot soccer player, versatile robot mover/scooter, etc. We presented the CenterStage game, game strategies, our robotic design, and subsystems. Dr. Ma answered our questions about his work and brought up questions and feedback to our robot design for CenterStage.
Robot driving & demo at KicksKarate
We reached out to Kick Karate and offered to demonstrate robotics at their year-end belt promotion event. Many of the karate kids (kindergarteners to middle schoolers), their siblings, and parents were very interested in our robot, the team, and how to start in robotics. In total, up to 80 kids tried to drive our robot. A total of 162 kids were interested. Many parents took our flyer and want to be connected with local youth robotics teams.
Robotics Merit Badge Hand-On Session
Three scouts from Troop 1449 attended the robotics merit badge hands-on session. We designed a game and guided the scouts in building and coding Lego bots. We then let the three Lego bots compete in a minigame. The three scouts were intrigued at the beginning but very excited at the end for being able to build and code Lego bots by themselves.
FLL Lucky Legos’ visit
We had the FLL team Luck Legos visit our basement on Jan 7, 2023. The energetic boys in Lucky Legos are interested in how to initiate an FTC team, what the season was like, what custom building involves, and the tools needed. We explained to them how we handled a season and built/coded a robot, as well as demonstrated the PowerPlay and CenterStage robots. The three FLL boys were excited to drive our robots.
