Eastlake Robotics

Technologies Used: Java, OnShape, WPI Lib

Summary:

For my four years of high school, I was a member of the school's FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team. FRC is a competitive robotics organization where teams of around 20-40 members come together to build a 100+ pound robot to compete in an annual game. The game changes every year and is played on a field around as large as a basketball court. Teams design, fabricate, wire, and program their robots in around 6 weeks and take them to competitions.

First Year

During my freshman year, I learned how robotics worked. I hopped between the programming and design/manufacturing sub-teams to learn more about each and help out with their tasks. We didn't make it very far that year, but I learned about the control system, programming system, and design concepts. I applied to be a part of the team's executive board for my sophomore year and was elected by the team.

Second Year

During my second year, I spent most of my time on the programming sub-team. I was also a member of the executive board this year. I helped plan our meetings, competition logistics, and community outreach events. I also created the team's build season recap, and it is currently on the team's YouTube channel here: 2019 Build Season Recap - Top Gun Robotics - YouTube. Not only did I gain more technical experience this year, but I learned about management and the logistics of running a large team.

Third Year

In my junior year, I got a lot more involved with the technical side of things. I switched to the mechanical and design sub-team and worked more heavily here. I was also reelected to be a part of the executive board this year as well. I learned about CAD, machining, and the engineering design process. I put together my own task team and lead the design of our robot's climbing mechanism for that year. I was also working with my other robotics team at the same time. Unfortunately, our season got cut short by the pandemic.

Fourth Year

For my senior year, I applied to be the team's project manager. The project manager is in charge of technical logistics for the team. They plan the building timeline, plan building meeting agendas, overlook all sub-teams, and plan pre-season training. I got the role in April of 2020. This year was fully remote, so as project manager, I spent the summer with the sub-team leads working on completely remote training programs for new and returning members. We launched it in the fall of that year, where we held meetings to train all students using these newly developed programs. I also worked to make changes to our design process, creating a more solidified design/CAD team, and emphasizing the design process in our training programs. This year's games were remote. FRC offered 3 games, and I was primarily in charge of one of them, Infinite Recharge at Home. We created presentations to the judges of our previous year's robot and walked them through our design process. Our team was awarded with the Excellence in Engineering award that year.