We got a lot done today, we took new team photos, came up with some great outreach ideas, introduced new group members to the rest of the team, came up with weekly meeting times, discussed out partnership with BadgerBOTS, and updated some things on the website. NEW GROUP MEMBERS This meeting marks the entrance of Simon Kissel and Ceci Cohen onto the team. Isaac Schmidt decided he did not want to be on the team anymore due to other conflicts. – AD 9/1/2018 MEETING SCHEDULE Instead of impromptu meetings, we wanted to create a schedule for weekly meetings. Three was the decided number of meetings per week but each member would only have to attend two due to scheduling issues. The current meeting days are Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning, and Thursday after school. In the process of deciding when these days are, we made a spread sheet of the days that people are and are not available to meet. See figure 1. – AD 9/1/2018 TEAM PICTURES We took new photos of the team members for the website and Team section of the Engineering Notebook – AD 9/1/2018 BADGERBOTS DISCUSSION Lately I (Aidan) have been in close contact with BadgerBOTS about using their facility and becoming a BadgerBOTS affiliated team. After many emails we discovered that the entry fee would be $500 per person which would in turn allow the facility to provide us with all the tools and supplies that we need. Since we have 6 team members, this would amount to $3,000. Instead of having each team member pay $500, we thought that we would have the sponsorship money pay that off because it supplies us with all the parts we would need. – AD 9/1/2018 E-STORM PARTNERSHIP? With most of the team being former E-STORM team members we thought we’d reach out to our old team to see if we could have a close partnership over the season. This would include a few practices or matches together, sharing some resources and knowledge, and helping each other through the season with robot issues, etc. – GS 9/1/2018 SATURDAY SCIENCE OUTREACH We brainstormed multiple ideas for outreach possibilities. We applied for a Science Saturday event at the UW on December 1st focused on Robotics. We formulated a question and ideas to work with during this Saturday event. We thought this would be a good way to reach out to younger kids and get them interested in STEM. With BadgerBOTs having lots of the Lego robots, we thought we would approach them and see if we can use them for the “ball game.” The “ball game” is where you have a pre-programed robot that goes forward in a straight line and a ball on a tire next to it. The kid then has to build an arm to stick off the robot and knock the ball off the tire. – SK 9/1/2018 LUSSIER CENTER OUTREACH We also found a contact for the Lussier Center and brainstormed ideas for how to work with the kids at the Lussier Center. – SK 9/1/2018 NEW BUDGET After looking over our budget, we realized that a lot of the things we had previously budgeted for are covered by our partnership with badgerBOTS. I have now created a revised version. – RA 9/1/2018 WEBSITE UPDATE Ananya and I (Ceci) worked on the website. We added photos of the new team members to the website and created a join page – this included a basic introduction to the team, as well as a team policy which we discussed during the general meeting. This team policy included trying to attend 2 out of the three weekly meetings. We also came up with a suggested donation amount while joining the team. – AK 9/1/2018
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ADDED MOTORS AND WHEELS TO 3D ROBOT DESIGN I added the wheels and motors onto the robot to complete the 3D rendering – RA 8/2/2018
PHONE SETUP Ananya and I set up our phones and added custom Gemini Robotics backgrounds to the phones. We made sure that the two different phones were labelled for the robot and driver control station. We also downloaded the FTC apps. – AD 7/20/2018 PART UNPACKING We unpacked the robot controllers, cords, and a part organizer. – AD 7/20/2018 FTC MANUAL PART 1 READ THROUGH We read through the newly released game manual part 1 to refresh ourselves on the specifics of the tournaments and introduced Ananya to such rules. – AD 7/20/2018 DESIGNING IN CAD I tried to make the aluminum channels more realistic to avoid any complications. After a hour of trying to make the realistic channel, I decided that my channels were already very realistic and did not need any touches. The team did want to change somethings and after making those changes, I realized that I messed up with dimensions and had to create a new bracket so that the side channels could support the REV mount -RA
I was able to use my skills in coding and “openSCAD” and apply them to a real-world scenario. I also worked on my problem-solving skills to defeat any obstacles that were in my path. BASE DESIGN Today I designed the base using the software “openSCAD”. I had made one in the past, but it was very rudimentary. Today, I decided to create a realistic 3D design by recreating the pieces in 3D with the correct dimensions. During this time, I came across some complications (in my notes) but they were relatively easy to fix. If we were to just begin building without this 3D design, we may have run into problems that could have been avoided. An example of a problem we avoided was when I realized that the 13.5” Aluminum Channel was too large and was not able to support the 9” x 12” plate. This led me to use the 12” Aluminum Channel as a replacement of the 13.5” Channel. If we were to have done this in real life, we could have easily have lost an hour of practice time which would put us behind schedule. I also made sure that this design was in regulation by creating a 18” sizing cube in 3D as a reference. The scale was 1 unit=1 inch-RA 7/19/18
INTRODUCE ANANYA TO THE TEAM AND FTC I was met with an impressive presentation and felt very welcomed. Information was clear and concise, and I learned about how the FTC competition works, what we need to accomplish, and how we plan to do so. See Figure 1 – AK 7/17/2018
PRESENT TIMELINE AND MODULES Today I presented the timeline for the robotics team this summer. I did this by creating separate modules that we will be working on throughout this summer. The separate modules are below. I gave a specific amount of time for each module, but it is important to remember that this is a rough estimation and is not set in stone. -R.A. 7/17/18 EXPLAIN ENGINEERING NOTEBOOK I explained how the Engineering Notebook works to Ananya and how important it is to our team’s success. We talked about how each team member must contribute to it and how the number one question that the judges ask is if they could build the robot just by reading our engineering notebook. That is why it is so important to document everything in the notebook. We planned to have a pen and paper near the builders and coders at all times so that they can take notes of what they are doing which can be transferred to the engineering notebook. – AD 7/17/2018zLast week we met with Mr. Affeldt, the former principal of Memorial High School on how to start up a new robotics team. He recommended that we meet/talk with Mr. Senson who is the connection between the school and BadgerBOTS which is a local space that currently has 2-3 FTC robotics team. We really want our team to be a part of BadgerBOTS because then we would be able to have a tight relationship with the other teams in the facility and have access to the plentiful resources. These resources include mentors, the school, space, full arena, and much more. At first a few members of the team wanted to have the email filled with a lot of questions for him such as how it would work, where we would store the money, etc. We all quickly agreed that it would be appropriate to ask only one question, which would be if it is possibly to create another team under the BadgerBOTS name. We emphasized how far we have already and come and the progress that we made. Using the term the “cart before the horse,” we explained that we all got really excited and paid the team registration, bought the control and communications set 2, and have been promised over 6k in sponsorship money. To see the email, see figure 1. – AD 7/17/2018
COMPOSE EMAIL TO MR. SENSON Last week we met with Mr. Affeldt, the former principal of Memorial High School on how to start up a new robotics team. He recommended that we meet/talk with Mr. Senson who is the connection between the school and BadgerBOTS which is a local space that currently has 2-3 FTC robotics team. We really want our team to be a part of BadgerBOTS because then we would be able to have a tight relationship with the other teams in the facility and have access to the plentiful resources. These resources include mentors, the school, space, full arena, and much more. At first a few members of the team wanted to have the email filled with a lot of questions for him such as how it would work, where we would store the money, etc. We all quickly agreed that it would be appropriate to ask only one question, which would be if it is possibly to create another team under the BadgerBOTS name. We emphasized how far we have already and come and the progress that we made. Using the term the “cart before the horse,” we explained that we all got really excited and paid the team registration, bought the control and communications set 2, and have been promised over 6k in sponsorship money. To see the email, see figure 2. – AD 7/17/2018
TEAM COMMUNICATION TALK / ISSUES There has been some team “drama” lately with team member Griff Snellman. His dad’s company has thankfully agreed to provide us with around 5k in sponsorship money. After our meeting with Jay Affeldt, a few team members wanted to open up a team bank account, so we could store that sponsorship money along with the big 5k sponsorship. Griff however strongly voiced his disagreement with he bank account saying that “No money will be spend or acquired until we have figured out our relationship with BadgerBOTS…” In his big text on our team communication app, Slack, he said that opening a bank account would encourage premature spending and that if we spend stuff we could figure out that BadgerBOTS has the ability to provide us with these supplies. Promptly after texting this long paragraph he warned the team that he will be out of town until the 5th of August, almost a whole month since he sent that. That left the rest of the team in a hard place because we could not resolve the issue for a whole month. Today we sought to resolve that issue and decided to go ahead and purchase the competition set from servo city in just a few days. Griff has always been bad at team communication, which we hope to improve, I texted him through Snapchat saying that, in a respectful manner, if he could provide valid reasoning to not purchase the competition set within the next two days we will not purchase the kit. This really led to the discussion that a large investor cannot change the course of a team or heavily influence its decision unless all the team agrees. As a team, except for Griff, we believe that purchasing a competition set is necessary to reach our goal of having a built base and brain by August 20th. Furthermore, we would be purchasing this kit without his dad’s business’s sponsorship money meaning there should be no problem in spending his dad’s business’s money without his ok. Lastly, even if BadgerBOTS were to supply a competition set (which is highly unlikely), it doesn’t hurt to have a second. Purchasing the kit will allow us to have a head start on this year’s season. -AD 7/17/2018 POSSIBLE SPONSORS In case for any reason our sponsorship with Griff falls through, we decided to have a backup plan. Therefore, we are still fundraising and had the idea for a GoFundMe page would allow friends and family to donate small amounts that would add up to a substantial sponsorship fund. – AD 7/17/2018 RISK MANAGEMENT DOCUMENT After talking about the situation with Griff and his father company, we decided that we needed to make a Risk Management document, so we may analyze the risk of having one giant investor and come up with ways to avoid any complications that may occur. This led us to realize that we needed more sponsorship from other companies as a fail-safe. We looked at companies that we could ask for sponsorship through personal connections and found that we had connections with Google, CUNA Mutual, and Epic. We will also make a GoFundMe, so family members may donate. -RA 7/17/18
On Monday of last week, the Gemini Robotics Team met with the former principal of James Madison Memorial High School on how to go about setting up our team, so we have access to some of the school’s resources and can be affiliated with them. Mr. Affeldt explained how the BadgerBots teams are currently the regional team which is made up of members from high school across the Madison Area. From their we explained our background, with 3/4 of the team members having experience on another successful team – E-STORM Robotics. We then asked the question on how we would go about making an official team. Mr. Affeldt also explained Memorial’s relationship with BadgerBots. Mr. Senson oversees the relations between the school and BadgerBots and is very dedicated to his job. Essentially, Mr. Affeldt gave us three options.
This was an informal meeting where we went over project management ideas, team communication and starting a team bank account. Meeting while at the pool, it was the most productive that it could get. TEAM COMMUNICATION DISCUSSION We talked about how our team needs better communication in terms of when we have meeting and being able to contact each other in a short amount of time. – AD 7/9/2018 PROJECT MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION We discussed our goals for the team and planned on creating a timeline with due dates to finalize when certain part of the robot is going to be done. We also agreed that there are three parts of the robot, the base, the brain, and the accessories. Each person on the team will create different parts of the robot so there is diversity in the building and if something goes wrong one person cannot be put to blame. – RA 7/9/2018 CREATING A TEAM BANK ACCOUNT In need of a place to store our funds we planned on going to a bank and created a team bank account. All members will have to sign a paper before anything is purchased by another. – AD 7/9/2018T SPONSORSHIP We also received a sponsor ship from Dr. Azam for $250. – AD 7/9/2018
Tonight, we mostly went over what we will be talking to Jay Affeldt about tomorrow, discussed coaches and mentors and our team goals. Overall, we were productive with this meeting only lasting a half hour. DISCUSSING TEAM GOALS We thought that discussing our team goals semi-formally would help guide us through the season. So far, this is what we came up with in terms of goals:
CREATING A AGENDA FOR MEETING WITH JAY AFFELDT Tomorrow we have a meeting with Jay Affeldt who is the former principal of James Madison Memorial High School where all the team members will be attending in the fall. Our meeting will start in the Nitty Gritty downtown at 12:30. We scheduled the meeting to discuss our team’s relationship with the school. We would love to be affiliated with the school so that we can recruit more members and have guidance from the school. Not knowing how to go about this, we came up with a few questions for Jay.
FINDING COACHES AND MENTORS Team Member Rafay Adnan’s mom has become one of our two coaches. She has experience in project management and organization meaning she will really help our team in terms of outreach, sponsorship, and productivity. Although, that is one coach and we need two. That is why we will be asking Jay Affeldt how he recommend use finding a coach. This is currently our top priority. We do have quite a few mentors lined up for the following season. Rafay Adnan has a lot of connections with people in STEM related fields, meaning a lot of those will be able to help us in the season. We do however, need to find a mentor who has a lot of experience in technical and programming fields, those are the two areas that we are lacking mentorship in. – GS 7/8/2018
We made an agenda for future meetings, we made an email that will be sent to potential mentors and decided that we would begin to design and build the base of our robot once the parts come in the mail. ESTABLISHING AN AGENDA We started a new system with role circulations and meeting formats today . There is a meeting leader who leads the meeting, the engineering notebook head, logistical handler, and general notetaker. This system offers a much more structured format that allows discussion and a clear agenda for the meeting. We talked about what needed to get done today, such as sending off an email to potential coaches, and researching proper mecanum wheels. We also presented the idea of the RocketBook Everlast as a required thing for everyone. This will allow people to take detailed notes of what they are doing each meeting so we have a more complete Engineering Notebook things. With 850 dollars’ worth of sponsorship funds, we also got the OK from everyone to buy those items.
LOOKING FOR COACHES Today, we looked for potential coaches through the local High School (Memorial) along with drafting an email that we sent to ***** *******, the engineering teacher. The email explained what we will need as the role of the coach. Because we are creating a new team we described our plans to build our team in addition to our robot, and potential ways that we could try to engage in outreach in the school to get new members. In addition to the school, we contacted ***** **** *****, a family friend of one of our teammates to look for potential coaches in his colleagues from a stem background. FINDING CORRECT MECANUM WHEELS I worked on finding the correct mecanum wheels needed for a robot as we are planning to build a base over the summer. After looking over multiple different variations of the mecanum wheel I was able to find the correct type of wheel which I then shared with the team on our group messaging app, Slack. . BASIC ROBOT DESIGN I made a general basic robot design that we will make this summer, so we can practice before the challenge is released.
The agenda of our meeting consisted of brainstorming team names, talking over funding strategies, delegating tasks for next meeting, and creating a rough budget. BRAINSTORMING TEAM NAMES: We brainstormed team name ideas and decided on Gemini Robotics. This was chosen because one of Gemini’s characteristics of being able to learn quickly and exchange ideas. That is a value that our team holds. FUNDING STRATEGIES: We talked over how to receive donations. As a team with no current funding or mentors, we had to come up with a sufficient plan to get funding. Going into Home Depot and other hardware stores and asking for funding or to donate tools to us was one idea. Another was to make a sort of ‘gift registry’ but with a list of parts that we need. This would allow donors to go directly to our website and buy a part that we need that will be shipped directly to us. Such method would also give each donor reassurance that their money is going to parts. In the end, team member Griff Snellman talked to his dad, and his dad’s business is willing to sponsor our team, giving us all the money we need. Although, this is not finalized. TASK DELEGATION: We delegated tasks to all the team members for the next meeting. Griff is in charge of trying to find mentors and coaches. Rafay and Isaac oversee developing our website. Aidan is in charge of creating sponsorship pitches and finalizing other logistical aspects. ROUGH BUDGET: Creating a budget is needed to be able to know how much we need from sponsors. Today, we created a rough budget, so we know how much money we need to sustain the team throughout the season.
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