Robotics
I am a member of the Homestead Robotics Team 670 where I have served in different roles as Robot builder in Mech team, and as a Business Lead in the Business and Outreach team. The team activities run all year around and my work with the team ranges from 30 to 40 weeks during the school year. Junior and Freshman year were much more busy
My first year in Team 670 as Freshman
Awards
Regional Finalists (6 of 54) Utah Regionals for Robotics in 2020
FIRST Innovation in Control Award at Utah Regionals 2020
My total number of hours spent are :
Fall off season :
Weekly workshops + online courses : 6 hrs/weekly x 20 weeks = 120 hrs
Build season : 20 hrs/weekly x 8 weeks = 160 hrs
Post season (zoom team meetings during lockdown) : 1 hr/weekly x 10 weeks = 10 hrs
Total hours = 270 hours
In the Fall of my Freshman year, I attended all the lunch meetings and participated in the workshops for a few sub-teams Mechanical, Software, Business & Media
Having participated in Jr FLL and FLL since 4th grade and gaining the expertise of building and programming robots, I was a natural fit for the Mech Team. And I was also excited to learn AutoDesk 360 as well as Programming Libraries used in Robots
To complement my learning at the workshops I took online courses on Udemy on
Introduction to CAD: Learn Autodesk Fusion 360
Introduction to Solidworks
The above courses and workshops sessions in the Robotics lab helped me become an effective contributor and builder to the Mech team during the build season in winter of 2020.
Build season in 2020 was very memorable as I was spending 20 hours every week for 8 weeks in the Robotics lab participating in the Robot construction helping with the camera part. Build season ended right before the covid-19 hit. Although I was not a part of the team that traveled to Utah for the regional competition it was exciting to learn our robot had performed well and our Team 760 returned with a few awards
My second year in Team 670 as a Sophomore
In my second year with the Robotics team, I spent the Fall semester while school was online I spent my time
Attending team general meetings
Attending workshops for Competition, Hardware, Business and Media
Refreshing online course on AutoDesk Fusion 360
Attending speaker events
Attending virtual team social events
During the Spring semester I wanted to expand my experience in the business field and making using of the workshops I had attended, I joined the Business team and helped in
Writing grants & fundraising
Outreach
Applying for leadership position
Interviewing
Attending general meetings
The average number of hours I spent every week is about 3 to 4 hours for the entire school year. The number of hours spent every week is not uniform and this is just an average.
My third year in Team 670 as a Junior
In my third year with Robotics, I was selected as a Business lead which required me to do more work during the Fall semester. This worked out nicely as
I spent more hours per week during the Fall semester doing the following:
Attending leadership meetings
Attending general meetings
Organizing business workshops
Presenting and training new recruits in the business team
Organizing and hosting Open House for impact to community and out-reach
Start process of writing grants with business team
Social events - making snacks for the team
During the winter months, most of my time was spent in :
Working with outreach team to make slides/videos for presentations on community outreach
Leading presentation for community outreach at San Francisco Regionals Mar 18th - 20th 2022
Sole presenter at San Jose qualifications competitions Apr 9th - Apr 10th 2022
Attending leadership and general meetings
Fall total hours = 5 x 20 weeks = 100 hrs
Winter/Spring = 3 x 20 weeks = 60
Total = ~ 160 hours
My fourth year in Team 670 as a Senior
Due to my increasing responsibilities as the President of Culinary club and working on a science project for Regeneron Science Talent Search during the Fall, I am planning to attend the meetings and workshops till Dec and spend more in during the build season as a member of the Mech or Software teams