By Jessica Rosenfeld

At our first all-team meeting, we introduced what the year ahead would look like being online, as well as the team in general. We also gave subteam presentations to make pitches to Spartronics student members about each subteam. From there, we told everyone to expect to go into break-out rooms at the next meeting so they could learn more about each subteam.

At our second all-team “Zoom” meeting, we did just that. We made sure that everyone was well-informed on each of the subteams, and answered all questions. At the beginning of our meeting, one of our team captains, Darwin, gave a presentation about FIRST so the new members could become familiarized with FIRST Robotics.

FIRST
FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. Its mission is “to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering, and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.”

Our team, Spartronics, wants to help FIRST spread this message and it all starts within each of our subteams: Electronics/Pneumatics, Programming, Fabrication, Design/CAD, and Business/Marketing.

In our last few meetings, we broke off into official subteams and got to work immediately, but before doing so, we did talk a little as a whole team about the take-home kits, which students were provided with in order to get some hands-on experience.

In Electronics and Pneumatics, they looked at real-world jobs involving the field and gave a brief overview of what the season is going to look like this year.

Programming checked in with the students’ interests and prior experience in programming. A few icebreakers were done in the meeting so new students could become familiar with old team members and mentors.

Fabrication gave instructions about how to safely pick up the take-home kits and did some ice-breakers to get to know new team members.

Design/CAD switched CAD software from Fusion 360 to Onshape because of COVID difficulties. They started teaching the new students the CAD software so they will be prepared and ready to use it.

Business and marketing gave a quick introduction to business and marketing for the new members and did a few icebreakers. They also started dividing the work up by interest of each member and began brainstorming new ideas, one of which includes our go-to first assignment: Sponsor the Sponsors.