|  | Aragon Robotics
September 2023 Newsletter | IN THIS ISSUELearn about what Aragon Robotics’ six subteams: FTC, FRC, MATE ROV, Outreach, Marketing, Finance, as well as the Directors are up to this year. Additionally, find out what we accomplished at the Airport Expo in San Jose last week! |
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| |  | FTC’s New Challenge: CENTERSTAGE℠The FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) team is one of the two technical teams for Aragon Robotics that focuses on land-based robotics, mainly competing in the FIRST organization. With FTC’s competition season starting earlier in the school year compared to the other two technical teams, this year’s game, CENTERSTAGE℠ was revealed early this month on September 9th. Since then, FTC has begun implementing a few changes to their approach to the ongoing build season.
“We are doing leagues again, which we hope will give us a better chance at qualifying for regionals,” said FTC Mechanical Lead Stuti Goel. “But because of that we have a very compact schedule. We have four [competitions] within a month of each other.”
The set up for teams within FTC has also been rearranged to encourage new members to contribute more equally to the project.
“Last year, … there was a veteran with each newer person [in the hopes that] they could learn from each other,” said FTC Captain Jessica Li. “[However, we noticed] when there's tight deadlines … [and people worked] overtime, that often means the veteran is doing the majority of the work.”
Noticing this problem, Li describes a new approach for pairing members, focusing away from experience and more towards compatibility when working together.
“[We’re] pairing up friends and people who have worked really well together … [That way] both of them are always in the loop.”
She describes that it is especially crucial now that, with more divisions than usual, everyone only has one other person working with them.
“[This year] I'm feeling pretty good about [the team],” said Goel. “I was a little worried going into it because we lost a lot of seniors this year…, but we're actually doing really well, and I will say that our communication this year is a lot better.”
In the approaching year, the team is enthusiastic to collaborate on a robot that they can be proud of, striving to perform well in the coming competitive season. | |
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| | | FRC 840
The FIRST Robotics Competition team (FRC) is the largest technical team in Aragon Robotics, consisting of over 25 members who build the largest robot. Last year, the team successfully entered the world competition with the effort of the Outreach team, flying their robot to Houston to compete with the best teams from across the globe. |
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| This year, the team was more strict in the interview process, only accepting half as many members as last year.
“I think that was the right choice. We definitely chose candidates that were good for our team. And I don't think we had to cut anyone that we really wanted on the team.”
This change in procedure reflects the desire to have a smaller team, which the captains hope will encourage members to develop better experiences and dedication towards the project.
“Last year we had a problem with attendance and people not being trained well by the build season. By having more members, we weren't able to get as much stuff done on the robot. This year, we're trying to increase our members’ individual skill and the team retention rate.”
In addition to focusing on team cohesion and proficiency, FRC is also focusing on improving their programming section.
“This year we have more programming experience,” said co-captain junior Marco Strassia. “We had never actually used image sensors before on a robot. We're trying to implement those this year.”
The knowledge and technical skills developed in FRC can be applied to most automation-related things like drones, cars, and small bots.The team teaches skills that will be necessary for future careers that require mechanical skills. This year’s FRC game won’t be announced until January, but the team will be competing in off-season competitions, their first being CalGames in Oct. 6 to 8. | | MATE ROV | | The Marine Advanced Technology Education Remotely Operated Vehicle (MATE ROV) Team is reorganizing their operations for the upcoming season. It is the only underwater robotics subteam within Aragon Robotics. The team builds robots capable of aquatic maneuvers, with competitions revolving around aquamarine environment protection and other practical underwater usages.
“We're trying to be way more active compared to last year,” said MATE ROV Captain Vishal Dandamudi. “[Last year,] we had a lot of problems [because] we were passive, waiting around [and] we ended up wasting lots of meetings, even months, on the simplest of things. [This year,] we're trying to … get our work done rather than waiting around for deadlines.” In regards to the state of the current competitive season, the team is thinking of solutions to set up a better design for their robot.
“We haven't gotten our competition manual yet,” said Mechanical Lead Zen Yoshikawa. “[However,] we're looking at the mechanical design of the ROV itself, [and we’re thinking of making] a lot of different changes for the frame, [such as in its material composition].”
Both Dandamudi and Yoshikawa are enthusiastic about their new goals and team members.
“I'm just so excited for this year,” Yoshikawa said. “Our new members are so capable, and I love them so much. We're going to do great things this year.”
Their goal for this upcoming year, after a majority vote, is to be top 10 at Worlds. | | Outreach | At Aragon Robotics, we care not only for our team members within the organization, but the entire community as a whole. The Outreach Team is dedicated to planning and hosting events to connect with the community.
Due to an extended group and network, Aragon Robotics’ Outreach Team is taking on more initiatives than ever.
“We’re a bigger team this year because we networked and created more initiatives last year,” said Outreach Captain Ashley Vincent. “Some examples include IncluSTEM, a workshop for kids with disabilities, ACCESS, an online international workshop series, and [First Lego League, FLL] workshops, workshops that train middle and elementary schoolers to start their own FLL teams.”
On Oct. 21, the team will be creating the EmpowerHer Showdown, an offseason competition that encourages female and nonbinary robotics team members to get the complete experience of an FRC offseason, taking on roles that are often led by men.
“[We] wanted to empower more women in STEM,” said Outreach Vice Captain Adrienne Fung. “[The EmpowerHer Showdown competition has] never been done before here in the west coast. I'm really excited for that.”
As the year goes on, the team will continue to take on more initiatives and extend its reach to our community and beyond. | | | Marketing
The Aragon Robotics Marketing Team manages several aspects of the team’s image, upkeeping the team’s social media, merchandise, website, and producing monthly newsletters for parents and sponsors. The Aragon Robotics Marketing Team is working on organizing past material and photography to make information more accessible and precise.
“Since [Aragon Robotics is] such a large and long standing [organization], it’s been hard to keep track of all of our achievements as well as media materials,” said senior Marketing Captain Momoka Dhanuwidjaja. “We opened a new Google Drive account to organize all the photos of each sub team in folders. We’re also naming each photo, which we never did last year.” |
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| Last year, for the World competition, the Marketing Team designed a specific shirt, which parodied the Sriracha brand. They are also opening a new merchandise store to expand their merchandise accessibility, for both members and fans. “The merchandise shop allows people to get merchandise where it wouldn't have been accessible [before],” Dhanuwidjaja said. “For example, last year’s ordering was only open to a specific group of people within Aragon robotics, so even though I wanted one, the information wasn't disclosed. [The new project will] make it easier for people to get our merchandise.”
The Marketing Team will also expand their current operations.
“We’re planning on expanding our social media presence through the production of short-form content to reach a new audience through unconventional forms of media. We’re planning on uploading YouTube shorts, TikToks, and Instagram reels, which have historically been underutilized by Aragon Robotics and other teams,” said Marketing Vice Captain Ethan Deng.
The team is in the process of creating merch for the 2023-24 season. The main Aragon Robotics website, designed by the team, can be found at the following link: www.aragonrobotics.org. | | | | FinanceAragon Robotics’ Finance Team supports the technical and business teams by building close relationships with companies for sponsorships. In the past, they have received funding from large corporations such as Apple and NASA. |
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| Recently, the team has started to incorporate new members, teaching rookies how to write to companies for grants and sponsorships, as well as how to manage parent donations, establishing budgets and finding money for teams to function.
This year, Finance is restructuring their operations, primarily focusing on streamlining the process in which funds are allocated to each subteam. Starting this year, parent donations will go directly to the budget of their child’s subteam. This allows for parents to see the direct impact their contributions have on their child’s team. Additionally, the distribution of grants to each subteam has been adjusted to provide more impact for the subteams that the grants are directed towards.
Through new approaches to their operations, the Finance team seeks to efficiently serve as the monetary backbone to Aragon Robotics, providing the materials and goods needed for the technical teams to build their robots. | | Directors | The co-directors of Aragon Robotics, seniors Nicole Jin and Gaby Wang, focus on ensuring that the entire organization runs smoothly. They coordinate with captains and mentors, checking in with team leaders and members alike.
In the beginning of this year, they have been successful in finding new mentors, confirming three in the past month. Rather than adhering to past years’ competitive mindset, the directors both describe their renewed attention on organization and a positive work environment.
“We've implemented new sub teams [like Awards that bridges Outreach and FRC, as well as MateROV finance] that bridge the gap between different teams. We are [working on] creating a strong, connected captains team [to make] the whole of Aragon robotics feel more like a family [and less like] estranged half-siblings that have to meet up together every now and then for Thanksgiving.”
Like Wang, Jin describes her goal to make people in Robotics feel connected and valued.
“I wanted to be a director because I wanted to be able to foster a better team environment, a better team culture and foster a safe environment to make Aragon Robotics a safe space for everyone to explore their passion,” Jin said. Wang’s favorite part about being a director is seeing new members grow and improve.
“It's always super exciting to see the new people that join the team every year, watching them grow into integral parts of the team,” Wang said. “Seeing them make all these friends and learn [new] skills [has] always been the most rewarding thing for me as being in leadership.” | | Airport Community Day | At San Jose on Saturday Sept. 23, Aragon Robotics participated in the Reid-Hillview Airport Community Day, a community outreach event, upon receiving an invite from the event organizers.
Twelve Aragon Robotics members, across the Outreach, Marketing, FTC and FRC teams, brought FTC’s robot and Lego robots to the event to give kids as young as toddlers and as old as preteens the opportunity to interact with robotics. Kids decorated red Robotics capes, which the teams brought to build community, and participants received buttons and stickers.
This event was not only an outreach opportunity, but the Outreach Team was able to connect with four potential company sponsors, an unprecedented event as other company sponsors come through the FIRST organization.
In regards to the scope of networking, this event was eye opening for Aragon Robotics, opening new doors for the future. | | | Check out this awesome whiteboard artwork by Aragon Robotics! |  | | | | |
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