🗺️ Welcome to the Team!

Welcome to the team! These learning paths are designed to help you build the core skills you need to dive into hands-on robotics.

In FRC, what you get out of this experience depends entirely on what you put into it. We highly encourage and expect self-driven learning; the most impactful contributors and future student leaders on this team are those who take the initiative to learn on their own time.

Veterans and mentors are here to guide you, but they won't feed you information or magically pass down skills during team meetings. Mastery happens on your own time. Remember, taking shortcuts to your learning is only cheating yourself. The goal isn't just to cross a finish line or get a certificate—it is to actually master the skills so you can contribute when the pressure is on.

Use these foundational resources to build your skills, bring something unique to the table, and help us build a competitive robot!

🗺️ Start Here: What is FIRST?

🗺️ Design Principles & Game Strategy

Step 1: Understand Game Principles and Strategy

Prerequisite: You must watch this before unlocking the Mechanical or Programming paths. 

The number one reason FRC teams fail is trying to build a robot that is too complex for their time, budget, and skills. If you don't understand our strategy, you cannot code or design a helpful robot mechanism. 

Before touching any tools or software, watch this legendary crash course. It will completely change how you view an FRC game manual. 

⚙️ Mechanical Track

Step 2: The Building & Fabrication Track 

This path is for anyone who wants to work with their hands, use tools, assemble mechanisms, and learn how a physical robot goes together.

Instead of overwhelming you with textbooks, we use a structured community guide called LearnFRC. Each lesson takes less than 10 minutes and finishes with a quick quiz to test what you learned.

To get your completion certificate and prove you are ready to build, follow these steps:

1. Create an Account: Click the button below and register for a free student account on LearnFRC.

2. Select the Track: Once logged in, go to the Paths tab and select the "Build & Design Track".

3. Take the Quizzes: Each bite-sized lesson takes less than 10 minutes and finishes with a quick quiz.

4. Show Your Progress: Once you clear the track, screenshot your completion certificate and send it to a Team Captain to unlock more advanced assignments!

⚙️ Mechanical Track

🚀 Step 2 Level 2 (Advanced): Robot Design & 3D CAD

Unlocked after completing the basic Build track. Don't start this course before you finish the one above.

Want to take ownership of a major robot mechanism or step into a engineering leadership role? You need to learn how to model our robot in 3D using computer-aided design (CAD).

This is an advanced, independent track using FRCDesign.org. This course takes you from absolute scratch to modeling complex gearboxes, mechanisms, and full drivebases in Onshape.

⚠️ Warning: This track is challenging and requires a lot of self-guided practice. However, if you complete it, you will have the skills required to fully design a top-tier FRC robot mechanism for our team this season.

Complete this track and show your certificate to unlock team lead assignments.

💻 Programming Track

Step 2: Programming Fundamentals

Prerequisite: Start here if you have never coded before. No robot experience required.

Before you can code a 120-pound robot safely, you need to understand the basic grammar of programming. We use Java to write all of our robot code.

👉 Your Goal: Create a free account, search for the master "Learn Java" course, and complete only these 5 modules in this exact order:

1. Module 1: Hello World (Complete this — covers basic program setup)

2. Module 2: Variables (Complete this — covers storing data types like decimals and true/false)

3. Module 3: Conditionals and Control Flow (Complete this — teaches the robot how to make basic if/else logic choices)

4. Module 4: Object-Oriented Java (Complete this — teaches classes and methods, which we use to organize our physical robot systems)

5. Module 5: Arrays and ArrayLists (Complete this — teaches how to group list data, like a list of drivetrain motors)

🛑 STOP HERE: You can completely skip Module 6 (Loops) and Module 7 (String Methods)! 

💻 Programming Track

🚀 Step 2 Level 2: FRC Robot Code (WPILib)

Unlocked after you pass your basic Java checklist.

Now that you know the grammar of Java, it is time to learn how to make actual robot hardware move! For this, we use WPILib, the official software toolkit of FIRST Robotics.

The documentation can look overwhelming at first, so you are only responsible for completing these two fundamental steps:

1. Read the "Zero to Robot" Guide: Use the link below to find the "Zero-to-Robot" tutorial. Skim through Step 2 (Installing Software) and read Step 4 (Programming your Robot). This shows you how code actually talks to motor controllers and joysticks.

2. Learn the Command-Based Framework: Look at the left sidebar of the documentation and open "Command-Based Programming". This is the exact architectural framework our team uses. It teaches you how to separate your robot into "Subsystems" (like a Drivetrain or a Shooter) and control them via individual "Commands" (like an Intake command). 

👉 Your Goal: Understand how a joystick button is programmed to trigger a motor movement using a Subsystem and a Command.

👑 Level 3: "What Right Looks Like" (Code Review)

The open-source gold standard. Unlocked after completing Levels 1 & 2.

Want to see how the best in the world write software using the exact same tools we use? This advanced track takes you inside the actual production code of Team 6328 (Mechanical Advantage).

Unlike teams who write highly custom coding architectures, 6328 writes world-class software utilizing the official WPILib Command-Based framework. Their codebase is clean, incredibly organized, and built to be read by students just like you.

👉 Your Mission: Open their public repository below, navigate through the folders, and complete this Code Review Scavenger Hunt to see how professional FRC software is organized.

🕵️‍♂️ Find These 3 Things:

1. The Constants File: Open their recent robot repository. Navigate to src/main/java and find the global Constants.java file. Notice how they never type random numbers directly into their robot logic. Every physical dimension, motor gear ratio, and speed limit is neatly cataloged here.

2. Clean Subsystem Boundaries: Open the subsystems folder. Look at how tidy each file is. Notice how a subsystem (like the intake or elevator) only handles its own hardware and doesn't conflict with other parts of the robot.

3. The AdvantageKit Architecture: 6328 is famous for creating AdvantageKit, a logging framework that records every single sensor reading so they can replay matches in a 3D desktop simulator. Look at how variables are written using an inputs structure to separate real hardware from software logic.

💡 The Takeaway:

We don't expect you to understand their complex mathematical tracking equations yet. We expect you to copy their discipline and cleanliness. When you write code for our team, it should look just as organized, formatted, and strictly structured as 6328's.

💼 Business, Media & Operations Track

Learn how to fund the team, market our brand, manage large engineering deadlines, and submit for major awards.

📂 Choose Your Path:

Pick at least one of these focus tracks based on your interests:

Track A: Money & Management (Business Operations)

• What you will learn: How to manage thousands of dollars in funding, write professional corporate sponsor pitches, draft grant proposals, and track build-season milestones using project management software.

• 👉 Your Goal: Go to LearnFRC, create an account, and enroll in the "Business & Fundraising Guide".

Track B: Creative (Media, Branding & Outreach)

• What you will learn: Graphic design basics for team apparel and merchandise, capturing high-quality photography and videography in the pit shop, and handling social media storytelling.

• 👉 Your Goal: Go to LearnFRC, create an account, and enroll in the "Media, Branding & Outreach" department track.

Track C: Impact (The FIRST Impact Award)

• What you will learn: The Impact Award is FIRST’s most prestigious honor. You will learn how to write detailed executive summaries, compile analytical essays on our community outreach, and build a formal presentation script for judges.

• 👉 Your Goal: Go to LearnFRC, create an account, and enroll in the "The Impact Award" department track.

🏁 "What's Next?"

🛑 Completed a Track? Step Into Leadership!

Your path from learning to running a project.

Our team runs on a Project-Based Leadership model. We have three Team Co-Captains who oversee the entire program, but anyone who takes the initiative to learn can earn a role running a specific project (like building the intake mechanism, managing our sponsor outreach campaign, or writing the autonomous programming logic).

Once you finish your basic modules, complete your tracking quizzes, or earn your completion certificates, here is how you claim a leadership role:

1. Pitch a Co-Captain: Reach out to one of the three Team Co-Captains in the lab or on Slack/Discord.

2. Show Your Proof: Show them your certificates, notes, or basic code modules to prove you have mastered the foundational skills.

3. Get Assigned a Project: The Co-Captains will work with you to assign you an open project. You will become the Project Manager for that specific task—taking ownership of its design, execution, and success.

Your level of leadership on this team is completely defined by your own initiative. Finish a track, step up, and lead a project!