Girls of Steel FTC 9820, 9821, and 9981: 2020-2021 Update #1 Introductions

We started off the Ultimate Goal season knowing that we would be meeting virtually at least through December 2020 and for the foreseeable future after that. Our first meeting was an introduction to Canvas and Zoom. Canvas is Carnegie Mellon’s online learning platform. We log in to the Girls of Steel Robotics course on Canvas and then find our Zoom meetings on the calendar. We work with 4 fabulous mentors: Maggie and Somadatta, FRC girls who are the FTC Liaisons, along with Michelle, a senior in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon and Sarah, a software engineer.

We started to get to know each other at our first meeting – we are 14 new girls. Some of us were on the Girls of Steel FLL teams and some of us attended Girls of Steel summer camps this year. Here’s a fun fact: one of our members has been a Girl of Steel since she was on FLL Explore (FLL Jr) in 2nd grade! Read on to find out who it is.

Hypatia FTC 9820

Emily F.
Hi! My name is Emily and this is my first year of FTC. I am 13 years old at Providence Heights Alpha School. I learned about Girls of Steel from my school. I have wanted to take part in the program since I was in 1st grade. A fun fact about me is that I dance and run cross country.

Emily S.
Hi. My name is Emily S. and this is my first year of FTC. I go to Carson Middle School and currently am in 8th grade. I wanted to join FTC as I wanted to gain more experience in engineering and robotics for the future and interact with new people. A fun fact about me is that I play tennis and the piano.

Hannah Y.
Hi! My name is Hannah Y., and I am new to FTC this year. I am currently a student in Carson Middle School. I joined FTC because I heard it was a great opportunity, and I wanted to take the chance to expand my knowledge in engineering. A fun fact about me is that I got elected for student council president this year.

Jessie L.
Hi, my name is Jessie L. and this is my first year of FTC. I am 14 years old and I heard about FTC from one of my friends who has taken part in this program for a few years. I joined to learn more about robotics and design and after a few people told me about its incredible opportunities. I hope to get to know everyone in this team and earn good knowledge for the STEM field. A fun fact about me is that I play field hockey and the clarinet!

Madison E.
Hi. My name is Madison E. and this is my 3rd year of being part of Girls of Steel! I currently go to Carson Middle School. I was on the Girls of Steel FLL team, CM Blues, for 2 years. I joined FTC because I had lots of fun with FLL and I wanted to take it to the next level. Fun fact about me is that I play soccer, and figure skate!

Hopper FTC 9821

Dusty R.
Hi! My name is Dusty R. This is my first year of FTC. I am 13 years old and I go to PA cyber. Fun Fact about me is I am a dancer. I have been dancing for 10 years. I also love to play the violin. I joined FTC because I wanted to expand my knowledge in engineering and to make some new friends. I got moved up after 2 years of FLL and it was an amazing opportunity.

Kelly T.
Hey! My name Kelly T. , and I am a new member of FTC this year. I am 13 years old, and I go to NACA, although I would normally attend Marshall Middle School if not for the pandemic. I joined FTC this year because I thought it would be a good opportunity to meet new people, especially since it is a lot harder nowadays. A fun fact about me is I love to draw, and I love pigs!

你好，我的名字叫乐然，我今年四三岁。我在 Marshall Middle School 上学，但是经年因为有行管病毒，我就去 NACA 上学。我今年产假 FTC 因为我认为是一个很好的机会可以交新的朋友。我特别爱画画，然后我也特别爱猪！

Rayna H.
Hello! My name is Rayna H., and this year is my first year of FTC. I am 13 years old and an eighth grader at Dorseyville Middle School. The reason why I joined FTC was because one of my mom’s friends recommended me to join. Since I am interested in robotics and engineering, I decided to try it out. One fun fact about me is that I like to watch animations.

Shree B.
Hey! My name is Shree B., and this is my first year of FTC. I am 13 years old and am an eighth grader at Moon Area Middle School. I joined FTC because I had heard about the program at my school and thought it would be interesting and fun to do. One fun fact about me is that I play piano and I also run cross-country.

Maeve D.
Hi! My name is Maeve D., and this is my first year of doing FTC. I have done FLL for the past 4 years, and I did FLL Jr. for the 2 years before I did FLL. I go to Winchester Thurston School in Shadyside. I joined FTC because I wanted to do something different from FLL, and I wanted to do something with more of the robotics aspect to it. Some fun facts about me are that I play soccer, basketball, and golf.

Lovelace FTC 9981

Amy J.
Hi, I’m Amy J. I am 13 years old and this is my first year of FTC. I am in 8th grade and I go to Winchester Thurston.

Mahika S.
Hi! My name is Mahika S., and this is my first year of FTC. I joined FTC because I wanted to make new friends and learn more about robots. I am 13 years old and I attend South Fayette Middle School. A fun fact about me is that I have been playing the piano for 4 years and I do CrossFit. I moved up from 4 years of Girls of Steel FLL to FTC and I am excited to get more involved in engineering.

Pavithra D.
Hi! My name is Pavithra D., and this is my first time taking part in the Girls of Steel program. I am currently in 8th grade at South Fayette Middle School. I joined FTC after learning about my friend’s wonderful experiences and opportunities that she obtained through attending this program. I also joined because I was very interested in the world of engineering and robotics. I believe that this program will help me expand my knowledge in the STEM field and help me make some great new friends! A fun fact about me is that I love listening to music!

Srishti S.
Hello! My name is Srishti S., and this is my first year in FTC and Girls of Steel! I’m an eighth grader at South Fayette Middle School. I joined FTC after hearing about the great opportunities managed by GoS Robotics from a friend; I joined to explore the concepts of robotics, engineering, and design — three streams I’m interested in. I think that participating in the First Tech Challenge with a team of new friends would be a great way to start my journey in such fields. A fun fact about me is that I love to play violin and write poems!

Summary of our first six meetings

Week 0, 9/20/20: We met on Zoom for introductions. We started with the typical name, grade, school, current situation (virtual, in-person, or hybrid), and then we had to respond to “If you had to be a piece of furniture, what would you be?”

Week 1, 9/22/20: Each Tuesday meeting begins with an All Hands meeting for the mentors, FRC girls, andFTC girls. In our first all Hands meeting we learned all about the FRC subteams and the girls who lead them, as well as the new Discord server for team communications. Then for the FTC meeting we continued to watch more videos about the 2020 robot challenges, etc. Here’s the Ultimate Goal challenge video.

Week 2, 9/29/20: At all hands this week we heard the usual updates and had our first team bonding activity – we played 2 truths and a lie in various breakout rooms. In the FTC meeting we went over point values for Ultimate Goal and brainstormed bases for the robots and brainstormed some ideas for what we could also attach to the robots.

Week 3, 10/6/20: After all-hands we had our first Big/Little activity where we each met our bigs in breakout rooms. Then we went to the FTC breakout room where we went over the different structures of robots, and we brainstormed the pros and cons of each type of structure.

Week 4, 10/13/20: During all-hands each team presented a slide about our team meeting the prior week. We will do this each week from now on. During the FTC meeting we discussed the different parts of a robot and went over how to document our meetings in the engineering notebook.

Week 5, 10/20/20: This week we had a Halloween theme on our all hands slides and we had our first guest speaker who did FIRST in elementary and high school and now works at a robotics company in Pittsburgh. During the FTC meeting we played a fun scavenger hunt in the beginning. We also got introduced to Onshape, and we experimented with our teams to try to build a robot.