Our blog
Irvington Library Outreach
12/25/21
In the Ninjabots, we have always strived to share our knowledge on STEM to the community that we grew up in. Fortunately, through FIRST, we were able to do that. Not only able to, but encouraged to.
In Late December, we organized an outreach at Irvington Library, with the help of Christopher Kyauk, the manager at Irvington Library. During our 1h time slot, we covered two main things: a presentation, and a live demo. During the presentation portion we covered topics such as:
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What is FTC?
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This years robot game
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Benefits of FTC
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How to form a Team
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Our Team
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Our Engineering Process
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Brainstorming
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Programming
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During the live demo of our robot at the time, we did a plethora of various things. For example, we started off showcasing our robot moves forward and back. We also showed the various mechanisms on our robot, and how each of them functions. We also described the different versions of each mechanism, and how it came to be what it is today. Finally, at the end of the live demo, we showed our robot intaking some of the game elements. We unfortunately could not showcase the robot dropping off those game elements into the shipping hub as our cradle (our dropping mechanism) was not finished.
To end off the outreach, our team also hosted a quick Q&A Session. Though only estimated to be 10 minutes long, at max, the Q&A spanned over 20 minutes. Many members of the community who came and tuned in to the live presentation were very curious on what else FIRST had to offer, and on our team’s journey. Infact, after the outreach session, one parent even contacted us to see if we would be interested in mentoring his team that he was creating. Though we could not accept the role as our competition was coming up, we gave him advice on what it takes to run a successful team, and we told him we would be glad to accept the position in our off season where we will focus solely on outreach.
Mentoring Outreach
11/2/21
During the summer, where many members of the team were full of free time, we all decided to take on a mentoring job of an FLL team. Through some simple advertising, and with the large social media following we have accumulated over the past 3 years, we were able to grab an upcoming FLL team, and mentor them and prepare them for their upcoming season.
We mentored Futurebots #48048, where we went to their garage and hosted 2 weekly sessions, each about a couple hours. During these sessions, we would go through our agenda we had planned out for them the days before. For example, with the first meetings, we decided to spend a majority of our time on core values, a key part of the FLL game. We would host activities and games that would help assist in the bonding of the team members. Our reasoning behind this was that if we could develop a strong team bond at the start of the season, that would show useful in the future months where we teach them how to build the robot and just work as a team.
During the later sessions, as we approached the start of the FLL season, we would begin to teach them how to program with the EV3 software, as well as get them ready for the season beginning by hosting some quick interview sessions. As a new team, the futurebots had little to no knowledge on how FLL competitions work, so we stepped up and explained the whole process not only to the parents and coaches, but to the kids as well.
We continued these semiweekly meetings with the Futurebots for almost 3 months. Unfortunately, we did have to end it as school started and so did our own season. However, our contact with them is still not over. We still check in every few weeks to see how the team is doing and if they need any help. Fortunately, our efforts in the season did prove worthwhile as they are now scoring over 250 points in their respective tournaments. We are proud to say that we mentored the team and helped them get to where they are today.
We look forward to continuing the mentoring in the summer, and even undertake new opportunities we have been offered these past few months. We aim to teach and assist all FLL teams that come to our day, and we one day hope to be mentoring over 30 kids in a variety of different teams.
About the Team
10/15/21
Hi everyone, we are the Ninjabots, a fourth year FIRST Team and a second year FTC team. We have competed/are competing in:
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FTC Freight Frenzy 2021-22
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FTC Ultimate Goal 2020 - 21
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FLL City Shapers 2019-20
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FLL Into Orbit 2018-19
Our team consists of 7 team members: Adit, Anay, Aum, Maurya, Sharva, Shubaan, & Vasu. We have all been friends for over a decade, and that has really been a key contributor to our team's successes.
We have spent countless hours in the FIRST Organization, and have won a wide range of awards such as the Best Robot Design and Robot Performance. However, we still aim to continue working on our flaws and win even more awards in the future.
Lets take a look at the roles on our team:
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Adit is the Head of Outreach, and a key contributor to the Portfolio
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Shubaan is one of the two programmers on our team, and also contributes to the design of the portfolio
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Anay is the Head of the Programming, and assists the Mechanical Team if needed
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Vasu is the Head of the Mechanical team and makes decisions that directly control how we do in the robot game
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Aum is another Mechanical helper on the team, but his main role lies as the Inventory Manager and Driver #1
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Sharva is incharge of the Engineering Notebook, and assists the Mechanical Team if his help is required
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Maurya, like Aum, is another Mechanical helper, and his main role is being Driver #2
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And Ofcourse, we can’t forget the robot, which I guess is the Head of the Team?
Although we have been friends for such a long time, each of us have developed our own personalities and preferences, which really contribute to the success of the team as well. We are able to share our various ideas on a problem in an environment which we are extremely familiar with.
Overall, as the Robot season continues, our team is working hard towards our goal of qualifying for regionals and continuing our passion and love for the robotics game. We look forward to mentoring other teams and continuously sharing our knowledge to the public, and especially, our community.