2022-23 FTC Update
This past FTC season, Cupertino Robotics’ four FTC teams–6038, 4950, 7128, and 7610–worked tirelessly to build a robot that represented their team. Each team has grown as a team and has created a robot that fills their visions.
Team 6038, Tino Koalas, started the season with a clear goal: embodying the roles of engineers. Through FIRST, the members of the team got the chance to step into the roles of engineers who made a difference. The team participated in two competitions this season. In the first tournament, the NorCal Google Qualifying Tournament, team 6038 competed against 14 other teams and got the chance to experience a FIRST competition in person for the first time. During the second competition the team ranked 3rd in the qualifying rounds and is incredibly proud of how far they got. Throughout both competitions the team also won the Think award and Innovate award. Other than just their robot, the team also got involved in outreach events such as Project Artemis which is a program that aims to bridge the gender gap in robotis by introducing middle school female and nonbinary identifying students to robotics and STEM.
By incorporating different unique components, Team 4950, the Traffic Cones, has achieved considerable milestones with their robot and within their team. The team’s robot showcases a mecanum chassis, linear slide, and grabber intake. Throughout the season, the team’s hardware and software groups collaborated yet they did run into several hurdles. Some hurdles included miscommunication between hardware and software and miscommunication between subteams. However, by working through these problems, the team became more refined and was able to produce an improved robot. Team 4950 also participated in the NorCal Google Qualifying Tournament in which they qualified for the semifinals and received runner-up for the Think award. Other than the robot, the team participated in fun outreach events including some where they introduced elementary school students to the field of STEM and robotics.
Consisting of six freshmen and six sophomores, Team 7128, Piobots, focused their robotics season on iterative design, providing opportunities for members to learn, and connecting to the STEM community and sharing passion for robotics. The team worked collaboratively to build a successful robot but ran into some issues that they had to find solutions for. These issues revolved around the open chassis design and strafing function. Using a mecanum and open chassis was difficult to stabilize and the space on the chassis was limited. In regards to strafing, the problem was complex and required both hardware and software to work together and find the solution of weighting the font of the robot. A member of the team shared how, “every time we failed over and over again, we managed to find a solution. The sweet success that our code finally worked inspired me to continue working harder and harder.” Using their improved robot, the team competed in two tournaments this season. In the first tournament at Google, they won the Connect award and were the runner up for the Think Award. At the second competition, the team won second place and won the Design award.
The Conequerors, Team 7610, ran through their season with the philosophy that every robot, no matter how good it is, can always be improved. Whenever the team ran into a problem they always modified their thinking process to better their robot even if it meant only a small change occurred. The team participated in the NorCal Google Qualifying Tournament and were runner ups for the Motivate award. They used their sense of coopertition to enhance their use of FIRST values throughout the competition and impressed the judges with their unparalleled positive mindset. The competitions were only one part of the team’s journey. Team 7610 also spent their time giving back to their community through outreach events such as Project Artemis and community festivals. The team attended the Silicon Valley Fun Fest and volunteered to showcase their robot and spread the values of FIRST.
