Team activities

Each year, the team engages in various activities and the students organize to ensure that one or more students assumes responsibility for each activity. These student roles may overlap and can vary with the time of season. For example, during the Fall/Training season, students must

• Get students registered (collect forms, membership fees, communication platforms, etc.)

• Train new students and mentors

• Train returning students

• Prepare for off-season activities

• etc.

Fall/Training

• Recruiting (students, mentors, faculty)

  • New Student Orientation (students, mentors)

  • Back to School Night (students, mentors)

  • Related ​AHS clubs and programs (women in engineering, PLTW, etc.)

  • Feeder middle-schools and community FTC teams (students)

  • Regular parent outreach (email, Facebook?)

  • RaiderFest (Spring) (students)

• Admin/Registrations

  • Take attendance each meeting

  • Collect AHS/HCPSS Release/Waiver, Emergency Contact forms

  • Register team with FIRST (work with Lead Mentor)

  • Work with IT/infrastructure lead to update tools access

  • FIRST Chesapeake registration (Roster) and online Consent and Release (Nov)

• IT Infrastructure

  • Team website, facebook, twitter, etc. (not necessarily content)

  • Team Google account, drive, groups,

  • Maintain team cloud server (e.g. regular security updates)

  • Maintain team laptops (OS updates, software, hardware maintenance)

  • Update tools access: Canvas, Wiki, TeamSnap, Slack, Google Drive, Git, (add new students, mentors, remove students no longer on team)

  • Update driver station software

  • Update firmware (radios, roboRIOs)

• Off Season Competitions

  • Register team and pay for off season events (BoB, IROC) (work with Boosters/Faculty/Lead Mentors do this during the Summer)

    • Ask Boosters/Faculty Adviser to complete and submit ​HCPSS Request for Student Field Trip form

    • Reserve bus transportation (usually from Mellor's Bus Service for local events: 410-531-6033)

  • Inform students and mentors about dates, costs, rules, forms (September)

    • New students must and new mentors should attend at least one off season event

    • Students attending/participating in the field trip must ride the bus.

    • Students cannot drive themselves.

    • Students cannot ride with parents other than their own (or anyone else).

    • Students whose parents drive them are not on the field trip but are simply members of the public attending the event; parents must stay with the student for the entire competition (parent is fully responsible for student) and students cannot participate other than as member of the public (i.e. cannot work in pits, drive robot, represent the school, etc.)

  • Identify parent volunteers to chaperone (at least 1 per 20 students) (September)

  • Identify and make robot enhancements

  • Distribute, Nag, Collect, and Track ​required HCPSS forms from students (permission, release, health, emergency, etc.) (October)

  • Nag, Collect, and Track student fees (covers bus) (October)

  • Prepare checklists

  • Assemble and pack needed materials (work with quartermaster)

  • Reserve transportation for robot/driver station and pit/gear (e.g. rent a trailer, organize loading/unloading)

  • Train pit and safety leads

  • Brief students and mentors on the event (at meeting)

  • Ensure all materials returned to closet (work with quartermaster)

  • Charm school

  • Game/Strategy

    • Select, train students on scouting

    • Collect/crunch scouting data

    • Alliance selection/negotiation

    • Driver team

    • Pit/maintenance plan

    • Awards plan

• Season Competitions

  • Select and register for 2 district events (the local events fill up quickly so Lead Mentor must do this as soon as registration opens)

    • Bethesda (Greater DC) at Walt Whitman HS

    • Edgewater (Central Maryland) at South River HS

  • Arrange buses (Mellor's or Dillon's depending on distance)

  • Arrange robot/pit transportation (rent trailer, organize loading/unloading)

• Quartermaster

  • Closet/shed organization

  • Work with training lead(s) and Boosters to identify, budget, and purchase (through lead mentors) materials required for training and off-season competitions

  • Work with off-season competition lead(s) to prepare checklists and coordinate gathering/return of materials to/from off-season events

  • Work with outreach lead(s) to prepare checklists and coordinate gathering/return of materials for outreach events

• Marketing

  • Outreach to existing sponsors

  • Outreach to parents/volunteers for company/individual sponsorship

  • Grant identification, applications

  • Outreach to new sponsors (local businesses, technology employers, etc.)

  • Prepare/update marketing materials (printed, video, web)

  • Sponsor logos on shirts, website, and robot

  • Press releases

  • Media outreach (e.g. local newspapers)

  • Graphic design

  • Videography

  • Social media updates

  • Website updates

STEM outreach

• Identify events (​GirlPower, STEM Festival, Maple Lawn/Hackground? Festival, etc.)

• Create events (e.g. outreach to feeder elementary and middle schools)

• Organize and track volunteers (all students must and mentors should attend at least one event)

• Materials development by age level (paper, programs, robots, etc.)

• Team building

  • Big brothers/sisters for new students and mentors

  • Team-building events (laser tag, picnics, etc.)

  • Technology outings (ask parents/mentors to facilitate: NASA, Tech museum, industry events)

  • Yearbook?

  • Year end banquet

• Awards

  • 
    

• Training

  • New Student/Mentor training (overview all topics)

  • Shop safety

  • Ongoing development and enhancement of training materials

  • Fabrication

    • Hand Tools, Fasteners, Adhesives, Materials

    • Power Tools, Polycarbonate Shaping

    • Physics: Torques, Moments, Strength/Forces, etc.

    • Actuators: DC motors, Servos, Solenoids, pneumatics

    • Transmissions: Gears, Chains, Belts, Shafts

    • Drive Systems: Wheels, Mecanum, Omni, Tank, Suspension, Differential

    • Advanced mechanisms: Shooters, Climbers, Manipulators, Precision Control

    • Design Automation: CAD/Solid Modeling CNC, 3D Printing

    • Sources: McMaster-Carr, Andymark, Vex, etc.

  • Control Systems Trainers

    • Programming, Java Basics

    • Electricity and Electronics

    • Electrical Safety and Rules

    • Power: Batteries, breakers, PDP, Fuses, VRs, wiring

    • Controllers: roboRIO, Raspberry Pi

    • Actuator control: DC motor control, Servo control, Relays, pneumatics

    • Sensors: switches, encoders, range finders, position/motion sensors

    • Driver Station: configuration, settings, cameras, targeting, testing, debug output, logging

    • WPILib

    • Advanced control: PID/control loops, smart motor controllers

    • Autonomous: vision systems, path navigation

  • Game/Strategy: BoB, IRoC

  • Driver Training

    • New driver identification (all students should try driving)

    • New driver training

    • Work with control systems on control enhancements

  • Scouting tool training

  • Planning/scheduling tool training

  • Test/Validation techniques

  • Create proforma schedule for season - fill in details after kickoff

  • Train students/mentors on and prepare communication tools

Kickoff

• Study other team’s successful processes (e.g. Chief Delphi)

• Plan Kickoff

  • location (e.g. cafeteria) and backup location (snow)

  • food

  • design process and activities (e.g. game simulations)

  • gather materials (pens/notebooks/cards/cardboard/game pieces/dollys/chairs/etc.)

  • train design team leaders/mentors/facilitators

  • Prepare design guidelines, checklists, feedback forms

Build Season

• Project Management

  • Scheduling

  • Resource allocation

  • Calls and runs status meetings

  • Risk assessment and mitigation

  • Coordinates communication between teams (with Systems Eng.)

  • Focus on openness and accountability

  • Communicates status back to team

• Strategy

  • Game analysis, pick strategy

  • Continuous strategy research and reporting (RiD, Ri3D, Chief Delphi, etc.)

  • Scouting app development

  • Scouting team training

  • Event Planning

  • Event management and reporting results

• Game

  • Human Player Practice

  • Build practice field

  • Work w/CS on driveability/control

• Systems

  • Checklists

  • Develop/maintain Space, Power,Weight, Cost Budgets

  • Coordinates between teams

  • Continuous technology research and reporting (RiD, Ri3D, CD, etc.)

  • Pit/Safety? Planning, operational checklists

  • White-papers, documentation

  • Cost tracking (work with quartermaster)

• Mechanical

  • Build 2 identical robots + spare parts

  • Drivetrain

  • Mechanisms 1..4

  • Co-design w/CS

  • Fast design/build/test cycles

  • CAD/Documentation

  • Ordering/purchasing (coordinate with/cost tracking)

• Control Systems

  • Build 2 electrical boards + vision systems + spare parts

  • Wiring power, actuators, sensors

  • Co-Design mechanisms and control/sensing w/Mech, Game

  • Low-Level Team: actuator and sensor programming and testing

  • Teleop/Drive (driver station, mechanisms, control)

  • Autonomous (vision, navigation, manipulation)

  • White-papers/documentation

• Operations

  • Booth/Pit Planning (materials, give-aways, video, decoration)

  • Approach for team spirit

  • Sponsor logos (booth, robot)

  • Targeted awards pursuit

  • Sponsor updates and press releases

  • Business Plan

  • Charm School

  • Website updates

  • Social media updates

Game Season

The team will typically participate in 2 district competitions and if qualified, the district championship. If the team qualifies, it may also attend the World Championship.

• Event Planning (see off-season event details)

• Driver practice using 2nd robot

• Organize practice scrimmages at STEMAction

• Strategy:

  • study competitions and refine strategy

  • Refine strategy based on scouting feedback

• Game: Build relationships, Negotiate alliances

• Mech/CS

  • Maintain robot at competitions

  • Test/Fix/Enhance functionality (esp. CS) using 2nd robot

• Systems:

  • Refine processes/checklists based on feedback from events

Post Season/Summer

• Surveys/gather student feedback

• Sponsor thank yous

• Banquet organization (May)

• Closet/shed Clean-up

• Capital purchases (based on funds remaining)

• Add/refine/purchase training materials (based on feedback, experience)