Crash Course

Our Robot-Photo by Michael Leonffu

Crashing

The goal of this year, in the robot game, is to launch small whiffle balls into an elevated goal with unknown orientation. So far the team has not made a successful launcher. The only prototype, which took weeks to build, doesn't work. I'm in AP Physics and personally I've been applying it, even so, theories and plans don't build robots.

Game Elements
Goals are the big red and blue thing-Photo by Michael Leonffu

So the crash in crash course? It's not the typical course where you'd learn content. This literally is a crash course, the current course we're on is crashing. With only four weeks left, no robot, no plan, no parts coming in our team is set to crash. This reminds me of last year, when I was captain, although I'd spend countless hours on my free time just building robots which we'd use and we'd win. I don't want that this year. Our wake up call? It was just a simple email received one morning like any other email: the parts we're ordering is out of stock. Our main parts, the ones that run the whole robot, is out of stock and at four weeks left that means no robot.

Test Robot for Software
Photo by Michael Leonffu

Course

Our team captain is a good guy; our team is a good team; our best are the very best; our skill and passion are above all others; but it's not enough. It's difficult. So this is my plan: we recap everything and treat this as a crash course again. There are finer details such as: dividing hardware into two groups one focusing on a different method, assuming that our parts will never arrive on time, of shooting projectiles and the other group making the other stuff on the robot. Personally I can build this whole robot, I just don't want to. I don't want to build this whole robot and neglect rookies. In the end it's not about the score we get but it's about how many people we've inspired. 

Changing Course

Preliminary Title Page by Michael Leonffu

Alone...

When I started this project over a year ago with my friend and group of colleagues that all believed in the same idea: Lets make robotics better. Slowly it has faded. Everyone left, including my partner and friend. Now I'm alone doing this project, one vs all, one member on the board vs all other members, the minority, the last one standing. I'm used to it but thats not the point; the point is how is robotics going to get better now since I'm all alone and this task is more than what one person, let alone me who has lots of other work to do, complete this whole project.

Testing Robot made for Software; Teach Rookies to Program.
Photo by Michael Leonffu

So I'm changing course...

It all occurred to me, though mentors and close friends, maybe it's not impossible to do this alone. Instead of trying to get the assistance and approval of the other members of a board that is broken and non-exsistant I should just make the documents on my own and have them look at them and agree or disagree. It's my last choice. I've already set up many meetings for them, the other board members and mentors, and all that has happened is nothing(Other than the harsh emails in reply). 

So my mentor tells me(since my mentor and I both lack the experience): why not just email out a document and have people talk about it. It'll end in either two ways: one, all people either agree or abstain; two, a person disagrees and emails get exchanged and then I can call a meeting in person. Either way I get my plan across. 

Botcats Software Division. Photo by Michael Leonffu

My partner says otherwise...

And I agree with him, so I'm doing both his idea and my mentors. The thing is no matter how much planning I do it's no good without the actual application of the plan. So my friend tells me I should just do my plans on my own team, in hope that, eventually the other teams will follow and realize that the planning I've made is a correct concept.

Personally I think he's right, I get to test run my plans while also making my team and all of robotics better! I find it funny and in total agreement with my mentor: in engineering building a robot is super easy, building a team and solving people problems is the impossible task. The problem in engineering is not the robot it's the people making the robot. 

Rookies Planning and Building the Launcher Device.
 Photo by Michael Leonffu

The plan...

My plan mostly revolves around keeping robotics alive and teaching rookies while keeping a structure and a clear focused set of ideals we all follow together to inspire STEM and robotics in the community. It's all written in the manifesto but I've been applying it to my team so far. I'm making sure the veterans give rookies their time to learn and catch up and be able to do robotics, from planning/designing to programming/building and everything in between.

Danylo D and Thomas L Working on 3D Printed Parts.
Photo by Michael Leonffu

Finally...

Although in all the struggle and all the time I'm spending on this project -- like the last 6 hours I've been making and cleaning documents despite all my schoolwork -- I believe I'm doing this for a good cause, and I also believe it is good practice and experience. I don't see any way I'm walking out of this and saying "wow that was a waste of time". Even if my plans don't work or they get ignored at least I was able to make them and learn from them and in the end if they were truly useful if another person, like me, shows up one day he or she can pick up theses documents and make robotics better.

Preliminary Action

Robotics Club Flyers Made and Photographed by Michael Leonffu

Recruitment

James M is in charge of recruitment; but that doesn't mean I can't help him out. So I made some paper posters to put in classrooms and around campus, not quite sure if they worked. Either ways there is club rush this Wednesday and I'm hoping to distribute these around during that time. I just got on terminal, an application on mac, and made these flyers to show to James and he picked the one he liked the most.

And it's not like I'm just doing whatever and remembering and moving on. I didn't just make a flyer and give it to James and hang them up. I'm learning form this. I record all my actions and put in into a project file; the purpose of this is so that we can avoid mistakes and review and learn what happened years after. 

Story

Friday meeting, Teaching Rookies how to Build a Robot
photo by Michael Leonffu

I've encountered several problems, nothing went according to plan. The idea was: talk to James; make a flyer and give it to James for approval; post flyer. What really happened: talk to James and learn he doesn't know what or how to do flyer; ask people that do know what to put on flyer; try to meet up with James to design flyer; learn some news about robotics and ask again about what to put on flyer; actually make flyer concept (picture above); present it to James and get his approval; make more copies; distribute flyers; learn that those flyers are wrong; remake flyers; reprint; and repost again.

The point is if there was communication or documentation I could have just red a document with all the resources I needed rather than go and find people; this recruitment should have taken only 3-4 days but it took 1-2 weeks. Imagine all the people that could have seen the poster sooner and have joined robotics. Problems like these is what I intend to solve and fix with the board.

Communication

Danylo D waiting outside until 3:00PM
photo by Michael Leonffu

Ironically it seems all our problems are just communication. For instance Thursday all robotics members get an email that the meeting on Friday has been moved to 3:00PM to 4:30PM then an email is sent from there saying that the meeting is 2:30PM to 4:00PM; and once we're in the meeting we pack at 4:00PM and are told it ends at 4:30PM. 

We took out our laptops and worked on robotics stuff while waited. 

Solution?

The board. Imagine if we all were working together and not separately. Or if we all used a standard method of organization for coherence and transparency. So Danylo, the other advocator for the board, and I set up a meeting for Monday. No one but Ryan N, that is also a supporter of the board, showed up; for any board meeting there needs to be enough people to make decisions officially so we just stayed there and talked about robotics. Though since no one else showed up we wasted our time.

The Meeting Agenda; Format from Mr.Fieberg
by Michael Leonffu

When I think back I notice three big problems: we didn't tell everyone about the meeting soon enough ; the meeting purpose was unclear; and the board idea has a bad rap to it even if it already exists. Some good things about the meeting: it was at a public library not at a house; we had a set time and day; an agenda was sent out; and some people showed up; ALSO THERE WAS A WHITE BOARD! I plan to make send out the meeting agenda and meeting announcement a lot sooner for next time like a day or two in advance. There is a lot to talk about and this meeting is very important I felt very sad that the other members of the board, meaning people who are extremely passionate and want to make robotics better, could not attend.

I still believe I can make the board happen. 

Generating Resources

SCHS Room: 5104; Meeting: "Full Inventory" Photo by: Brianna Doan

In every situation, program, and organization there is always a type of initialization then generating of resources. In SCHS Robotics we've done the same thing; in the past two weeks on Wednesdays we had meetings, our initialization, and from there we've set up this "Full Inventory" meeting on 9/16/2016.

I've made so many plans and generated so many ideas for the SCHS Robotics Board, though it seems no one liked the idea that I made that. After initialization all of robotics decided on officials and I was  voted as treasurer which has three major and very intensive essential responsibilities: Record and maintain budget for whole club(includes all teams), regulate orders(robotics shopping) for all of robotics, and maintaining inventory that includes knowing what parts are in what team and who takes what parts out of the club. It's a lot of work.

Anyways the point is I've tried really hard to get the board to work and now something they call robotics council with all the officials has been made; which, let me remind you, is the same thing as the SCHS Robotics board just very primitive. Personally I've had this same reoccurring problem where I can't make something from scratch I have to pick up someone else project and it always becomes my own. 

"Full Inventory" Meeting planning By: Michael Leonffu

So I revised my strategy, now I'm going to help out in the council as the mentors have envisioned. I'll be generating resources and documents and transfer them over to the board when the time is right. 

As of right now the resources I've generated are all in this category I've called "matrix" including a people, ordering, inventory, attendance, and budget matrix. I believe that by gathering and analyzing all these different statistical data points we, the board, can form a better longer lasting robotics program at SCHS. I've also organized our Full Inventory meeting which was to organize and record all of our parts we have in storage. 

Though everyone else believes that all we need is the officials and some written responsibilities, but I want to take it a step further and be able to explain our robotics club with numbers as well. Stuff like we've gained an increases of x members this year, and from that we can figure out how to get more members. There's also other important statistics such as members retained, because even if we gain lots of members we need to keep them in the club.

I see that this is important and hopefully everyone else would see the same. 

Re-Initialization

2016 FIRST in St.Louis

Imagine a modern sport where teams of high school students compete with their minds. A sport of the mind that still includes teamwork, practice, and competition. That any student K-12 can be a part of so in the end their perception and knowledge of the world has expanded all while having lots of fun. A sport that’ll let any student compete regardless of race, gender, and physical ability so any student can be on a team with any other student equally.

FIRST:

That’s not my genius project; there is already a program extablished that encompassess all those ideals. The organization is called FIRST, an acronym meaning For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, composed of four different levels for different age groups K-12: FLL JR, FLL, FTC, FRC. Though our focus is on FTC and FRC, the high school level. Students are to create robots to compete in a competition with other teams of the same level. Students can practice all of STEM, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, while getting guidance and experience from their mentors.

Ultrasonic Sensor

Though it’s more than just just robots and STEM. Teams must do their own fundraising, business, and marketing. This isn’t your everyday purchase a kit of parts and read the instructions. Teams build robots from scratch. They learn to fabrication metal and other materials as well as 3D print custom parts for themselves using 3D modeling technology and careful planning. Teams program their robots from scratch as well; using IDEs such as Android Studio students learn and create programs that can use sensors such as cameras and ultrasonic sensors to input values into an elaborate algorithm to output as a motor response.

Every year a new game is announced and this year its called Velocity Vortex.

Background:

My project is to create a system that’ll ensure the survival of this amazing program at Sage Creek high school. Being a senior I want to leave this system I call “Sage Creek Robotics Board” as my legacy so years from now the program can expand larger and have a stronger impact on the community. Simply I just want everyone to be able to feel this amazing experience I’ve had with FTC and robotics.

Being in robotics since middle school I’ve been inspired and now want to pursue a STEM related career. My passion for this project isn’t just because I love STEM but also because I want to share it. And I’m not just some amateur that dreams of doing big things; I’ve made it as a finalist for the Dean’s List award, highest possible award given to a student in FIRST for inspiring and following FIRST ideals, only one hundred get finalist of this award every year of thousands.

Project:

Even if this is my second post (first post) I’ve already complete a lot of work for this project. I’ve half created a Sage Creek Robotics Manifesto and I’ve set up several formal meetings for Sage Creek Robotics Board. I thank my amazing mentor, Mr.Feiberg, for helping me organize and set up these meetings. Regardless there have been setbacks.

There is no support for the board anymore. Either everyone didn’t like the idea, they don’t care, or aren't interested obviously. I didn’t do the best job being a temp board chair and that is why there is no support. I still see it valuable to have a board and everyone does but the name and idea when I say it is never approved by the population of members.

The board is meant to resolve problems that all teams have. It’s meant to be above all teams but every team is equally represented in the board. For instance Sage Creek Robotics wants to create an FRC team, then the board can organize the logistics and see if the funding is possible ect. Or perhaps a member of the robotics team wants to buy parts for their robot using robotics funds then the board will have a orderly and effective procedure to make sure that part is in our inventory, price effective, and recorded it on a global budget.

There is no way these roles will be left unattended in such even if it’s not called there’ll be the same people and same roles and same situations and same everything. It’s only a matter of time before the board appears once again.

Broken voltage regulator 

Conclusion:

By June 2016 everything was looking great, other than the fact we got rejected by our sponsors due to a lack of resources we’ve generated. But now in September 2016 most of the board has abandon ship and are taking matters into their own hands. I find my best option is to work on this group project along or with another partner until the time is right to re install the board into robotics.