Offseason Robotics Competitions

To prepare for the upcoming season, Mass Academy’s FIRST Robotics Competition Team Gompei and the HERD attended two off-season events — N.E.R.D. in Tewksbury, MA and River Rage in Manchester, NH. 

As Senior and Co-Team Captain David Barsoum said “These off-season events are great opportunities for new team members to get a sense of how robotics competitions run."

New member and Junior Kayla Vallecillo agreed, saying, “I found it interesting and really helpful that in FRC we can compete in low-stakes competitions to help new team members learn about the game."

The team also used the off-season competitions as an opportunity to design a new robot, which allowed the new team members to learn important technical skills like CAD, manufacturing, and programming.

It wasn’t just beneficial to new members, as the offseason robot was the first to use swerve drive — a complicated mechanism to build and program — in twelve years. The WPI student mentors used their past experience with a variety of teams to work together with the main mentors to create a working swerve robot. 

Senior and Co-Team Captain Riley Harn said, “The biggest benefit of the offseason competition is that everyone new to the team can try out each position to see if they like it. It's a good way for the team to come together and compete. There’s a lot of team building and teamwork."

Harn was right, as the team had to work together to fix the robot so it was in working condition for each subsequent match. While it was unfortunate parts of the robot broke, it was a great low-stakes example for new members of what happens at a real competition. Vallecillo said, “I also think that the robot’s intake breaking was pretty disappointing, but also really helpful for me in understanding more about how the robot works and how short-term solutions (like zip ties) can help retain its functions."

Alongside the more technical aspects of the competitions, the team dressed up for the Halloween-themed River Rage as a former member’s — Grant Watson's’—- team. The Mass Academy students and mentors showed up in the classic tie-dye designs of TJ2 (FRC Team 88). 

The team continues to work on preparing students for the build season, which will happen in C Term. They will even host a mock kick-off event so all the students are ready when the new game is announced on January 6, 2024.