Entry 3

• Contacting various organizations for a possible sponsorship or charitable donations.

• Submitting a proposal for our team to Nintendo.

• Submitting a REV Robotics Sponsorship Application.

• Communicating with the Director of Health and Safety from Clean Earth (A Harsco Company) for a charitable donation.

  • • This connection was made possible by one of our new members, Ria.

• Reaching out to GoBilda's Sales Department for a possible negotiation on the price of our order.

  • • Utilizing our budget came in clutch!

• Establishing virtual FTC meetings for FLL youth to view in our communities as JCPS schools have cancelled this event due to COVID-19.

• In order to secure enough funding for our robotics team, it is imperative we find a successful organization or company. After accumulating a budget of what our team needs and finalizing a proposal letter, Hooryah, the head of outreach, begins reaching out to different potential partners with Murtaza's help.

  • • Murtaza and Hooryah are able to contact GoBilda's Sales Department, and through negotiating a mutual price, an agreement is made to get a discount on their FTC Master Kit for this year.

    • Additionally, through one of our new members, Ria Gray, she was able to get our team in touch with Clean Earth – a Harsco Company.

      • • After Ahmed and our science coordinator, Ms. Manisha Shah, have a meeting with Ria's mother, a director at the company, it is acknowledged the company is willing to donate $5,000.00.

          • • Evidently, this is extremely good news for our team as it may resolve our financial troubles. However, our school must first approve this transfer of funds, and without JCPS schools reopening, this approval is not yet possible.

  • Not to mention, our team is currently looking for different sponsorship and partner opportunities.

    • • Ahmed is able to seek out a REV Robotics Sponsorship Application, and Murtaza and Hooryah help prepare the requirements (e.g. last year's Engineering Notebook and photos of our team from last year's Skystone Season).

      • Additionally, we reach out to Nintendo, a company we hope to establish partner relationships with.

• Evidently, while our team is seeking new ways to reach out to different partners interested in supporting our team, it is crucial that we try to establish a connection with our community as well to promote STEM and Robotics.

  • • Given that JCPS district has cut the budget to FLL Robotics Teams due to COVID-19 financial restrictions, these teams are forced to dissolve for the following year.

      • • Murtaza and Hooryah, whose brother was going to participate in FLL this year, think that our FTC team could provide a glimpse of what it's like to be part of a FTC team.

        • Ahmed, in accordance with Ms. Shah, our science supervisor, agree we could hold remote workshops on Zoom for middle-schoolers (e.g. Academy I and Middle School #4) to view our sessions live along with anyone else interested in our communities.

          • • That way, not only will we promote the passion they hold for Robotics and STEM, but they can be more productive with their time and participate in more meaningful activities.

• Finish working on the chassis of our robot design by attaching the left and right segments together.

• Although the chassis is finished, it lacks nuts, bolts, or screws to hold it together on OnShape using the Kit of Parts (KOP).

• Under the head of hardware, Amanpreet, the hardware team finish their motor assemblies, finding the correct parts as needed. They also have find some of the parts needed for the Mecanum wheel assembly.

  • • A minor difficulty some members of the hardware team face at first is getting approval for the Kit of Parts from FTC. Fortunately, Ahmed is able to format a sample email they can send, and within a timely manner, a majority of them are able to access the KOP.

• Next meeting ,they are going to add these parts if the rest of the Mecanum wheel drive is completed.

  • • To finish the design, they need to finish all four motor assemblies and attach them to the chassis. They also need to build the Mecanum wheel assemblies.

• Our communication improves compared to the last meeting; it makes the building aspect a lot faster.

  • • The downside is that we have technical difficulties: one of our team members is unable to communicate with us throughout most of the meeting.

      • • This creates a struggle for our team when building; our teammate is unable to actively work because of the lack of communication.

          • • In order to combat communication issues due to technical difficulties, Ahmed makes a group robotics chat in which anyone will be able to provide their input and give feedback to one another.

As you can see above, our two programming co-captains, Ahmed and Manyata, are explaining to members who have joined about the ins and outs of coding JAVA on Android Studio. The three new members to our team, Shaurya, Ria, and Abrahim, have prior experience, which is why Ahmed and Manyata wish to help them cultivate their skills on a higher level. That way, not only are they promoting sustainability, but they are providing them the means to provide tutelage to their other peers who may come across struggles with Android Studio at first.

Looks like our new members are on beat because they definitely have the right "algo-rhythm"!

• The programming team is tasked to program a robot on Android Studio using a simulator to rotate in a square to return back to their initial position.

• The new members from the programming team come to the decision of changing the angle of the right turn on Android Studio.

  • • They see that their right turns are not on course as none of them turned 90 degrees. Ultimately, they decide that to perfect the turning code, they have to increase the milliseconds that specific part of the code runs for. They also decide to keep the power at 0.5 for the motors.

      • • Eventually, they come to this decision to compensate for the miscalculated angle of the right turn by increasing the millisecond for that part of the code.

        • Their decision impacts their understanding of the robot as to how nothing always plays out in a technical manner. It is always imperative, Manyata and Ahmed emphasize, that external factors like mass and inertia are variables we cannot control all the time – and that is it okay. Our goal is to practice and gain experience with our robot to see what works best.

          • • They learn that trial and error is effective, but can take a lot of time to perfect. Their decision of keeping the motor power to 0.5 helps make their communication easier.

            • The decision of the amount of time for the 90-degree turn they determine is beneficial to us in the future. They won’t need to have to figure out how to make the robot turn 90-degrees in the future.

• In an effort to make the programming team realize how to hone their skills more efficiently, we talk about what they can do better.

  • • To improve their programs in the future, we suggest to notice what was wrong with their programs when they ran it and figure out what their mistake is.

      • • In most of their cases, they set the time too short, which leads to the 2-wheeled robot going around 120°, instead of the intended 90°. Upon, increasing time on their software codes, we can see a much closer result.

          • • Ahmed also emphasize how rather than using time, a variable we cannot always rely on for the performance of our robot, using degrees is much more feasible as it is more concrete.

        • They learn that their task is to increase the time so that the robot can do what it’s intended to do. Power is another essential component that affects the movement of the robot; thus, they have to focus on the power of the robot as well in the future.