Team Structure 2019-2020 Season

Overview

The Space RAIDers a team of student volunteers who share an interest in Business and STEM. Students collaborate to create robots, participate in competitions, and help the community foster and develop future STEM leaders. The students are supported by a group of volunteer mentors and faculty who are interested in helping the students learn and succeed. We are here to have some fun and learn / develop new skills.

At the broad level, the team is organized into four disciplines or subteams: operations, mechanical, electrical and software.

• Operations team handles funding, developing business plans, writing grant proposals, preparing the team for an award, outreach, etc. They also take care of the website, Facebook, YouTube, and all the team’s other mediums of social media.

• Mechanical team focuses on the physical manifestation of the robot, the development of the individual mechanisms and such. They look into the possible designs for each mechanism and collaborate with Control Systems to make the robot functional and successful.

• Electrical team works on sensors, wiring of the robot, and many other important parts of the robot.

• Software team works on developing the software that controls the robot and the various mechanisms. Software is also responsible for the running of the robot during the autonomous mode and helps the driver control the robot during the teleop mode.

All students will be part of one of the above disciplines. Each of the disciplines is vital to the team and the team's success is dependent on all four units being successful and working together. We all succeed or fail as a team. Each of these disciplines are further organized into smaller groups to focus and accomplish specific tasks.

Apart from the main disciplines above, there are many teams that are cross-functional. These cross-functional teams are vital to the overall success of the team and the season. Some of these include: drive team, scouting, strategy, integration…

We are a student-led, mentor-enabled team. Every member in the team is a leader in their own rights. That said, for the smooth running of a season there are a lot of behind the scenes tasks that need to get done. A well defined team organization is very important so that we can work together to achieve our goals.

For the 2019-20 season the team has decided to go with a hierarchical team structure, led by the captain, co-captains, and subteam leads. Together they form the team’s primary leadership. Beyond that, the leads of the divisions within the subteams will handle more specialized tasks.

Captains

Team Captain – Rohan Uttamsingh (overarching robot)

• Understand the needs of the team

• Set the team’s direction and agenda

• Communicate overarching goals

• Collect feedback from the team as a whole and make the hard or important decisions as they arise

• Hold all leads accountable for their responsibilities, address and work towards a solution with leads who aren’t completing their job

• Resolve dispute and provide final decisions when needed

• Maintain contact and good relations with other teams

• Open and close meetings

• Keep motivation high

Co-Captain – Jessica Wu (overarching team)

• Plan major events specific and non-specific to the robot

• Handle overarching events and plans for the team

• Resolve disputes, helps provides final decisions when needed

• Maintain necessary team operations that are not related to the engineering aspects of the robot

• Prepare the team for competition and season as a whole

• Make team announcements

• Assists captain in deciding overarching goals, direction of the team, and major deadlines

• Assist in managing leadership roles

• Open and close meetings

• Keep motivation high

Major Leads

Mechanical Lead – Benjamin Guo

• Robot Design

  • Work with strategy/delegates/integration team to identify the best robot design

  • Finalize/choose major mechanical design decisions

  • Work with Mechanism Leads to ensure functional design and fabrication of all mechanisms, and take a more hands-on approach to assist whenever applicable

  • Work with CAD Lead and Mechanism Leads in allocating space and weight for each mechanism

  • Communicate the physical constraints of each mechanism and electrical board to the respective teams

• Integration of mechanisms

  • Help the mechanism leads communicate with each other to ensure a cohesive mechanical design

• CAD

  • Ensure that all mechanisms groups CAD before building

  • Assist all mechanism groups throughout the season in developing their CAD

• Help guide members who look like they aren’t working on something to their mechanism lead ask them how they can help

• Most importantly: encourage and engage all members, help people find things to help with and make people feel welcome and needed.

Mechanical Co-Lead – CAD Lead – Shyam Pillai

• Ensure that all mechanisms groups CAD before building

• Assist all mechanism groups throughout the season in developing their CAD

• Identify any flaws in the CADs and help groups fix issues

• Track BoM and weight and space budgets

• Communicate with Mechanism Leads and the Mechanical Integrations Lead to ensure that mechanisms fit within their constraints

• Communicate with the Software Lead and Electrical Lead to ensure that sensors and all electrical boards are accounted for in designs

• Synthesize all mechanisms into a single, full-robot CAD and keep that CAD updated as the season progresses

Mechanical Co-Lead – Mechanical Integrations Lead – Angela Voo

• Work with CAD Lead and Mechanism Leads to outline space and weight constraints for each mechanism

• Ensure that the mechanisms effectively work in conjunction with each other

• Help the Mechanism Leads communicate with each other to ensure a cohesive mechanical design

• Work with the Electrical Lead to ensure all necessary sensors are considered in advance and mounted on the robot

Project Manager – Kinsley Wargo

• Work with every team to create a reasonable build-season schedule (deadlines for CADs, prototypes, final designs, time for deliverables, etc.) and update/adapt - this schedule as the season progresses

• Ensure every group follows their schedule and help adjust schedule when necessary

• Schedule time with the robot for each subteam (mech, electrical, software testing, drive team)

• Help the subteam leads create physical to-do lists and ensure those lists are consistently updated

• Assist mechanisms leads in ordering parts (teach them to use the order form and talk to mentors) and work towards creating a better system for ordering parts

• Anticipate the need of general supplies and tools and order them in advance

• Encourage active participation: ensure every member is working on a task at all times, feels comfortable doing it, and knows who to ask for help

Electrical Lead – Gabrielle Moomaw

• Make major electrical design decisions

• As part of the integration team, work with Software, Mechanical, and Strategy leads to identify requirements and create a cohesive robot

• Works heavily with software and drive team in determining necessary sensors, and works to ensure those sensors are well integrated into the robot

• Ensure functional design and fabrication of all electrical systems

• Track power budget during build season

• Ensure schematics are documented

• Manages the design and construction of all electrical components of the competition bot

• Create a list of all supplies and tools needed to be packed for competitions

• Ensures all necessary parts are ordered in advance while ensuring the team stays in budget

• Oversees the inclusion and installation of sensors

• Delegate tasks and responsibilities to members and assign responsibilities as they see fit

• Most important: encourage and engage all members, help people find things to help with and make people feel welcome and needed

Software Lead – Eileen Wang

• Ensure that all software members feel that their ideas are heard and that their contributions are important

• Make major software design decisions

• As part of the integration team, work with Mechanical, Electrical, and Strategy leads to identify requirements and create a cohesive robot and continue this communication throughout Build Season

• Ensure software functions as intended

• Ensure software is documented for debugging and testing and maintained on GitHub?

• Oversee the development of all robot code

• Work with the drive team about interface with the drivers

• Delegates different aspects of robot code to software development groups

Drive Team Lead – Rohan Uttamsingh

• Develop levels of strategy requirements for the robot and ensure these are satisfied by consistently following up with each major lead

• Serve as Drive Coach, select Drive Team, and ensure drive team practices often

• Be an expert on the rulebook

Operations Lead – Divija Sadula

• Ensure development and following of business plan

• Keep current sponsors satisfied and identify and pursue new sponsors

• Identify and pursue awards

• Apply for grants

• Choose and prep individuals to stay in the pit to talk to judges during competitions

• Manage the budget

• Communicate with other leads about their respective portion of the budget

Outreach Lead – Jessica Wu

• Finds and organizes outreach events

• Maintains contact with current sponsors

• Writes and edits newsletter to current sponsors

• Works with operations lead to pursue new sponsors

• Prepare essays and materials for competition awards

• Prepare materials for pits during competition

• Plans at least one outreach large event at school each year

Additional Leads

Mechanism Leads

Intake - Emma Brown & Zach Bott

Control panel spinner - Nina Nebesh

Climb/hang - Angela Voo

Shooter - Sonia Albert & Shyam Pillai

Drivetrain - Kolya Cochran

• Help your team develop an optimized mechanism with contributions from all members

• Work side-by-side with a co-lead (two leads per mechanism)

• Responsible for design and fabrication of a single mechanism

• Work with other mechanism leads and mechanical lead to ensure mechanism seamlessly integrates with the bot as a whole

• Work with software, electrical, strategy, and drive team in both design and fabrication to ensure mechanism meets all requirements

• Keep mechanism on schedule and update project manager every meeting on the status of schedule

• Engage all members and delegate tasks across all members, making everyone feel responsible for some part of the fabrication

• Assist members when they are unsure about something, such as clarifying a direction, showing them how to fabricate complicated parts, helping them find tools in the closet, etc

• Order all necessary parts (using the order form after talking to a mentor) in advance

• Create a physical to-do list that is frequently updated and available to all members of the mechanism team

• Create a packing list of all supplies and tools the group needs for competitions and work with mechanism team to pack

Autonomous Software Lead – Daniel Fu

• Break down autonomous responsibilities and delegate them to autonomous software groups

• Ensure that all autonomous members are given the opportunity to contribute

• Work with strategy and drive team to determine parts of the game that can be automated

• Work with mechanical, electrical, and software leads to ensure that autonomous requirements are met in design and fabrication

Media Lead – Gavin Osborn?

• In charge of taking pictures and videos during meetings, competitions, and outreach events

• Uploads photos in a timely manner to the Google Drive folder

• Edits the video footage for YouTube videos, outreach presentations, or to display in the pit during competitions

• Recruits and works with other media members

Pit Lead – Kinsley Wargo

• Direct pit set-up before competitions

• Designs the pit layout and orders any necessary parts

• Assign roles in the pit during competitions

• Keep the number of members in the pit to a minimum

• Directs judges to award representatives

• Talk with other FRC teams if they visit our pit and ensure our team visits other pits

Organization Lead – Zach Bott

• Creates and enforces an organizational system in the closet and shop

• Creates detailed list of all supplies, tools, and stock needed for competitions

• Restock the tool carts

• Recruit members to assist with general packing

• Ensure mechanism leads create their own packing lists and pack their specific tools and supplies

• Ensure subteam leads (software, electrical) create their own packing lists and pack their specific tools and supplies

• Responsible if something isn’t brought to competitions

Strategy Council

• Assist in the development of the season strategy during kickoff

Scouting Lead – Marvin Chen (tentative depending on attendance)

• Determine metrics to scout and develop/improve upon a scouting system

• Ensure Drive Coach receives pre-match breakdown before every match

• Arrive to competitions with data on every team that has already competed

• Develop a scouting schedule and ensure scouts arrive and provide accurate data

• Prep team members on expectations during competition and the importance of scouting

Testing Lead – Daniel Osheroff

• Ensure that all software is merged onto a single Git branch

• Through testing, ensure functionality and identify bugs

• Develop test cases to run at competitions to ensure full robot functionality

• Ensure field pieces are developed to correct specifications for accurate testing