Girls of Steel Hypatia FTC 9820
Though our regional competition had unfortunately been cancelled and then postponed, we were excited to know that we had some extra time to work on our robot before the next competition on February 24, 2019, at Upper St. Clair High School. We used this time to add some new mechanisms to our robot, such as a hook for latching, and plastic blockers next to our wheels so that minerals didn’t get stuck in them. Since we now had a latch, we were able to add much more to our autonomous program. Around the same time, the FTC girls started shadowing the FRC team. We each chose three different sub-teams to shadow, such as programming, mechanical: collector or chassis, or electronics. By shadowing the FRC girls, we were able to see the different tasks and opportunities we would have next year when we joined the FRC team. This helped us to form ideas about what we were interested in, and what we would most like to do next year in FRC.
The competition was an amazing experience for all the girls, and we learned a lot about teamwork, especially when things didn’t turn out how we wanted. In the end we got 20th place, which isn’t the what we were hoping for, but we had an amazing learning experience. Our robot broke multiple times, and we were really struggling with latching for end game, but in the end we pulled through and we were able to latch almost every round. The hardest part for us was fixing the robot in between each round because the rounds were very close together, but we managed to work together, and we are just proud of how much of an improvement we made since the last competition. Overall, this season had provided so many opportunities for us, and we are all so grateful for all the things we learned from competing. I know we are all looking forward to coming back next year!
Girls of Steel Hopper FTC 9821
We had some extra time after our competition was canceled for our team. We were all very excited to spend more time as a team and get more time to work on our robot. Unfortunately, sometimes we struggled with attendance because we had prior commitments. As the meetings went on, we all became good friends and enjoyed each other’s company. I think almost everyone on our team did FRC shadowing to also help us decide our mechanical sub teams for next year when we get to join the FRC team.
The competition however did not go as well as we had hoped. Our controllers were really acting up and did not work until 10 seconds into the match usually. We ended up in 23rd place which was not our dream for the competition but it was still very fun.We also enjoyed presenting to the judges because we are a social team.
Our team had a great season and learned a lot about teamwork and how much effort it actually takes to build a robot. Overall, we are all grateful about this experience at FTC members and we can’t wait until next year!
Girls of Steel Lovelace FTC 9981
After our regional competition at Upper St. Clair was cancelled in mid January, we received some extra time to work on our robot. In this time we focused on improving our latching mechanism and our autonomous. Around this time FRC shadowing also started. We had the opportunity to shadow a FRC girl at their meetings. We had the option to shadow programming, electronics, mechanical: chassis or collector. Through these shadowing sessions our team saw how FRC worked, and formulated an opinion on what sub team we would like to join next year.
The competition on February 24 in Upper St. Clair turned out to be a success. Our team’ judging time turned out to be quite good. We improved our enthusiasm and our knowledge on the subject we were talking about. Once the matches started, we sadly lost our first match, but we were able to pull through and win the next four matches. Finally, we ended in the 3rd place spot, making us an alliance captain in the semifinals. As a team we made a list of potential teams to pick for our alliance. As a team representative, we sent Somdatta up to choose our alliance members. Our team chose Sharon High Robotics and the Terabytes as our alliance members. Although we didn’t advance past semi-finals, our team gained valuable knowledge on how semifinals and the alliance captain position work at the FTC competitions. Overall, the later part of our season turned out to be a huge success for our team!
