On Saturday, February 6th we met with Integra, an FRC team from Turkey, to talk about our team’s progress so far in the season. We discussed the new challenges introduced in the FRC competition such as the skills challenge and the game design challenge. In addition, we shared our thoughts about re-evaluating our Chairman's Award Submission this year due to the pandemic. The meeting was a great way for our team to catch up with Integra.
What Are Our Sub-teams Up To ?
Technical
The mechanical team made immense progress on the game design challenge and has started working on the writing pieces of the challenge. On the other side, the team started to assist the Innovation Challenge team with technical advice and guidance on creating prototypes.
"As our team moves forward we are looking forward to some shop time and being able to focus on other aspects of the team we wouldn't be able to during a busy build season such as helping non-tech with their projects, " explained William Sullivan, our mechanical lead.
The programming team has been working on updating the robot code to be as modern and organized as possible. This process involves revamping the path following and vision processing code from last year to be more advanced and easier to utilize. The team has also started focusing on creating trajectories and determining new strategies for the various skills challenges. Hence, once the subteam has access to the robot, the programming team will be ready to test immediately.
“We have been making a lot of great progress on writing code even though we don’t have a way to test it yet, which shows how ready everybody is to work despite it being a lot more difficult this year,” said Nick Tarallo, our programming co-lead.
The electrical team is working closely with the Innovation Challenge team to design and prototype an electronic device to re-innovate “ the walker”. They are utilizing an Arduino to make the handles of the walker vibrate and allow a laser to point towards the ground to aid individuals who suffer from Parkisnons’s disease.
The design team has continued working on the game design challenge with the mechanical subteam. They improved their game element designs and are now working alongside electrical and mechanical to CAD their final designs. The design team handled the CAD as the other technical subteams gave suggestions which created a productive atmosphere for teamwork.
Non-technical
The media team created a presentation for kids with incarcerated parents, showcasing the different elements of MORT, including what each subteam does and what build/ competition season means for each team member. Also, the sub-team They constantly post on social media platforms to keep people updated on MORT's fundraisers, blog posts, and press releases. Additionally, this week the media team helped spread the word about the recent Bubbakoos Burrito fundraiser. Lastly, they have reached out to families whose children have special needs to gain a better understanding of how COVID has impacted them.
The business team reached out to Mount Olive Bagels and Ginza's and are awaiting a response for future fundraising nights. They have also presented to the MORT sponsored coding camp where 5-8th grade students are introduced to principles of coding. This presentation displayed what the business team does on a daily basis. In addition, the business team has been working on the innovation challenge towards the deadline.
The chairman’s team has been working on the Chairman’s Award Submission including the essay and the short answers to meet the deadline on February 25th. Also, the team presented to the coding camp about the chairman’s subteam role on the robotics team. For instance, the team went over how blog posts and press releases are drafted and shared ideas about future projects.
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