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Aragon Robotics
March 2024 Newsletter

FRC 840 is going to Worlds!!

FRC 840 and Outreach’s amazing work at the 2024 Central Valley Regional has won us the Engineering Inspiration Award, qualifying us for the 2024 FIRST World Championship in Houston, Texas from Apr. 17-20! Read more about our accomplishments at Central Valley Regional below.

Upcoming Events

March 30: Second Merch Drop for FRC 840 Worlds!! Check Discord announcements, emails, and our social media for updates on the link!

April 17-20: FIRST World Championships @ Houston, TX

April 21: Robots on Ice @ Yerba Buena Ice Skating Center

May 4: MATE ROV Monterey Bay Regional

May 20: Aragon Robotics Spring Community Night @ AHS

Please check our social media for any updates on these events!

FRC 840: Central Valley Regional 2024

At the Central Valley Regional (CVR) on the weekend of March 23, Aragon Robotics won the Engineering Inspiration Award (EI) for the second consecutive time and finished as Finalists in the playoffs out of 40 teams.

“We ranked fifth in qualifications, so we were the third Alliance captain,” said co-captain Jake Sakamoto. “We got to pick our own teammates, which was a first. … [When we made it to Finalists], I was really overjoyed. It’s been tough these past couple of years … [The team morale] hasn't been that high. However, after this regional and going to Worlds again with a pretty good robot, it feels really good.”

Sakamoto attributes the success of the FRC robot on their decisive approach to the design.

“Early on, we decided that we were gonna stick to one archetype for a robot,” Sakamoto said. “From there, we kept iterating on our designs, [focusing on] iterating our shooter. … I'm most proud of the amount of work the team has put into the robot.”

Alongside the success on the technical side, the community impact of Outreach won Aragon Robotics the Engineering Inspiration award, the only award that receives a NASA sponsorship to go to Worlds.

“[Winning the same award again] makes this very exciting,” said Outreach Captain Ashley Vincent. “We feel very proud about it because it's very rare for a team to win the same award at the same regional two years in a row.”

To compete for the award, the FRC Awards subteam led by Aanvi Gupta wrote and submitted a series of long and short essays, and the Impact Presentation team comprised of Ashley Vincent, Aayushi Kothari and Anish Dara presented and answered questions live in front of a panel of judges. In addition to this formal presentation, during the regionals, the team presented more of our work in the Pits to the judges.

“[This year], we're really proud of the way we set up our pit. We had our trifold, but we also had a monitor where pictures of all the Outreach events looped,” Vincent said. “We also had props for our presentations. As opposed to previous years where we would talk to the judges about our impact, we actually had things to show the judges.”

Vincent describes what she looks forward to following Aragon Robotics’ success.

“As seniors, we're excited,” Vincent said. “[It’s like] our sign off at the end of our robotics journey. For everyone who went last year, we're excited to do some things that we did last year … [In particular], the venue is crazy and huge. We’re looking forward to meeting all these teams from across the world.”

These successes at CVR have been uplifting for the team, who have put in a lot of work into the technological development of the robot and the promotion of robotics in the community. Now, the team plans for its competition at Worlds in Houston, TX.

Aragon Robotics wins Engineering Inspiration at Central Valley Regional 2024

Aragon Robotics wins the Engineering Inspiration Award at Central Valley Regional, qualifying for World Championships 2024

Marketing Graphic Design Workshop

On Monday, March 4, former marketing captain and college sophomore Elle Grey presented on graphic design, their major at Oregon State University.

“Elle was my captain during my first year of marketing,” said marketing vice captain Ethan Deng. “They walked us through the basics of graphic design, the different uses of different programs, their applications, and the typical projects they're used on, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.”

After getting a sense of what graphic design is, marketing members following the presentation by Grey on Zoom went on to practice what they learned on Adobe Illustrator.

“Elle asked for input on what kinds of topics we wanted to cover,” said marketing capitan Momoka Dhanuwidjaja. “We said Adobe Illustrator would be best for robotics marketing because we do merchandise designs and bigger projects with it.”

Deng describes his experience practicing the application during the workshop.

“We got hands-on experience with Illustrator, talking about the design process, the different steps in creating a design, to help streamline it to make it faster and more efficient, and ultimately, to make the design better at the end,” Deng said. “We got to learn the various tools/functions that we could use, [and] the ins and outs of it.”

Deng describes how this workshop helped him learn how to approach graphic design.

“When I've previously tried designing, I go head straight into making a design from scratch” Deng said. “Elle’s teaching helped me have a better, less frustrating approach to graphic design, which ultimately made the experience a lot more enjoyable.”

According to Dhanuwidjaja, only a few of the marketing members had experience using Adobe Illustrator, so this was a wonderful opportunity for marketing members to expand new skills.

“I previously used Photoshop, which ends up being very inefficient and quite inflexible for a lot of the graphic design that we are looking to do on Aragon robotics,” Deng said. “Learning Illustrator helped me get a good start in terms of the technical knowledge that I will be using for graphic design projects from here on out.”

The leads of Aragon Robotics are looking to hold more MasterClasses from alumni and parents to help Aragon teach its members more crucial skills that will serve them in and beyond their time at Aragon Robotics.

INTERESTED IN TEACHING A MASTERCLASS? CLICK HERE!

FRC 840: San Francisco Regional 2024

At the San Francisco Regional competition that took place from Friday, March 8 to Sunday, March 10 at St. Ignatius College Preparatory, FRC 840 placed 13th out of 43 in the qualifiers and their alliance finished 3rd in the competition.

“This year, our robot was running pretty smoothly,” said FRC co-captain Jake Sakamoto. “We did have a couple of issues with our electrical drawing a lot of current so that did cause the robot to [sometimes] stop, but overall, I think we were getting some pretty good cycles in.”

Sakamoto describes the experience of the members who aren’t directly driving the robot.

“We had our members working on scouting, which is collecting data on other teams,” Sakamoto said. “We were able to use that data to make a pick list, which basically describes what teams we would like to have in our alliances if we're in the top eight.”

Marketing vice captain Ethan Deng watched the playoffs on Sunday and he describes his experience.

“In competition, marketing doesn’t play too large a role,” Deng said. “I was by the pits, talking to one of the judges … It was really cool being there, first walking into the pits and getting a sense for how many people there are.”

He describes the atmosphere of the games.

“It was very energetic, with a lot of hustle and bustle and moving parts,” Deng said. “You get to see it all fit together. It’s really fun, a very electric environment. In the stands, also, … you get a very strong sense of camaraderie with the rest of the team, as well as with the other people in your Alliance.”

Deng describes why he went, even though he did not play a direct role in the competition.

“Sunday [for FRC competition] is typically the most exciting day because of the playoffs,” Deng said. ”They’re very high stakes matches … I went to Worlds last year and the environment there was also amazing and so I knew it'd be a good time.”

Sakamoto pinpoints what FRC 840 is currently working on improving.

“Mechanically, [we’re working on] fixing our current draw issue,” Sakamoto said. “We have more improvements we make on the robot in terms of programming. We're trying to give programming as much time as possible for this next competition. [Besides that], [we’re still improving our] communication with the other members.”

FRC continues to improve their performance, even earning Event Finalist at their Week 4 competition Central Valley Regional on the weekend of March 22 to 24. To learn more, read our article on Central Valley Regional 2024!