Newsletter 11-13

From March 27-29th we went to The Midwest Regional in Chicago, IL!

We took advantage of our last regional before the championship to play with some incredible teams from around the world. Our record for the tournament was 5-7-0, and we played into the semi-finals as the first pick of team 5847 Ironclad along with fellow Wisconsin team, 6574 Ferradermis. Not only were we able to play with some of the best teams from all over the US and world, but we helped teams in the pits through our initiative BEAR Bytes, made friends, and were even able to give outreach advice as a newly-nominated “FIRST Impact team.”

With Houston just one week away, we have begun preparation for the finale of the 2024 competition season:

The Electro-Mechanical team has been tuning up the robot to improve the shooter for worlds, the CAD team made some intake adjustments, and the Fabrication team worked to replace the battery plate with aluminum and CNC-ed the radio mount.

The Programming team worked with the Strategy team to create new, complex autonomous paths in order to be compatible with other high-level teams. We also updated the Limelight cameras with data from testing to make image processing and shooting more accurate.

The Business team helped out the rookie team 9676, Hub City Steam by making 100 buttons for them. We've also edited videos for our social media and been fundraising for Houston.

The Strategy team has been making a plan for champs! After a successful season of participating in a scouting alliance with other Wisconsin teams, we've been collaborating with our partners to plan for scouting at the FIRST Championship which hosts 600 teams! FIRST will soon announce which of the 8 divisions we will be a part of, so make sure to watch our social media for more information.

One of the most notable parts of this year is that we get to compete for the FIRST Impact Award for the first time in the history of Team 930! This is the most prestigious award of FIRST, and our Impact team has been preparing for judging by creating new presentation boards, documenting more of our outreach, and practicing!

We would love to invite everyone to watch us compete among 600 of the best teams in the world! The Twitch Stream will be posted on the link below and running April 17-20th, and we will be posting updates through our Instagram and Facebook.

Link to Blue Alliance and Twitch Streams

Newsletter 9-10

At the 2024 Wisconsin Regional held at the UW-Panther Arena in Milwaukee, WI, our team achieved the trifecta, or "true blue," meaning the team won all three awards in the same regional that are presented! This is only the 23rd time in FIRST history that this has been achieved.

Our first blue banner was won when our amazing mentor, Brian Scharles Jr., through hard work and dedication to the FIRST and our team, received the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. This award honors a mentor who leads, inspires, and empowers students, and Brian has been nominated for the WFA at the Houston Championship!

Following this award, the team finished qualification matches with a 9-1 record, ranking 7th. We then joined Alliance #4 with teams 1732 Hilltoppers and 4786 Nicolet FEAR, going undefeated in the playoffs to bring home our second blue banner as Regional Winners. This is the first time 930 has ever won the Wisconsin Regional!

To top off those amazing two wins, Team 930’s outreach and programs in the FIRST community were rewarded with our third blue banner by winning the FIRST Impact Award, the highest honor in FIRST. This was our first time winning this award, and we are so proud of the amazing work our team has put in, inspiring our community and beyond!

After double qualifying, the team is four weeks away from competing at the FIRST World Championship in Houston, TX. Our budget for this trip is estimated to be around $25,000, which includes registration, food, transportation and hotel costs. It will take a substantial amount of funding to get our 45 members, robot, and tools down to Texas to compete on the world stage. Any support is extremely appreciated, and if you would like to help sponsor our trip to champs, please check out our Classmunity funding page. 

You can also join us at the Mukwonago Qdoba on April 10 from 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM. 25% of the sales will be donated to the team. It will be a great community night. We hope to see you there.

We are looking forward to our next competition, the Midwest Regional in Chicago, IL March 29-30, and the team has been working hard to prepare! 

Electro-Mechanical:

The CAD team completed design reviews and worked to perfect the intake, pivot, and drivetrain.

The Fabrication team did maintenance on the robot after its run in Milwaukee, touching up the drivetrain and turret, as well as making extra parts that we or another team may need at the competition. The Electrical team fine-tuned the wiring, reworked the CAN map, and remounted the radio in preparation for the Midwest Regional. 

Programming:

The Programming team has been refining code for our amp shooter to help amplify points at competition and testing new autonomous paths on the field. We've also been doing routine updates and code cleaning in order to get ready for competition. 

Strategy:

The Strategy team has been reviewing data from previous competitions, retraining scouters, communicating with our scouting alliance, and pre-scouting teams that will be at the Midwest Regional. 

FIRST Impact:

Winning the FIRST Impact Award at the Wisconsin Regional qualified the team for the ability to compete for the award at the Championship in Houston! We've been polishing our outreach presentation and documentation, as well as inviting our friends from 4786 Nicolet FEAR to our shop to collaborate on FIRST Impact ideas for next season. Our winning essay has also been published on FIRST's official website which you can read here!

Business:

Lastly, the Business team has been fundraising for our trip to Houston, making social media posts for our Instagram, as well as publishing our winning FIRST Impact Award video which you can watch here or on our YouTube channel. We’re also preparing for the Midwest Regional by making lots of buttons and updating the competition pit displays. We would love to see you there at the Midwest Regional at the Credit Union 1 Center in Chicago, IL from March 28th-30th. You can also watch virtually on Twitch. Matches run from 8:00am and end around 6:00 pm.

THANK YOU!!  To all sponsors, mentors, and parents who have helped contribute to our success this season! 

Week 7-8 Recap - Lake Superior Regional

These past two weeks Team 930 has been working hard to prepare for the Lake Superior Regional located in Duluth, MN. The competition included 54 other teams from across The Midwest. After 2 days of qualifying matches, we made it to the quarter-finals. We ended the regional ranked 10th and had a record of 7-3-2. We were awarded the “Biggest Help!” award from team 3418 RoboRiot for providing assistance to their team. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see our Duluth recap video for more information, regarding the experience, our ranking, and more, coming soon this week. (https://www.youtube.com/@FRCTeam930). 

The Electrical subteam prepared spare motors for Duluth and tested batteries to ensure they were not faulty. Our CAD subteam designed a new intake and retrofitted the drivetrain to fit the new intake design. The fabrication subteam fabricated last minute parts and replacement parts for the robot in the event that something breaks at competitions. Overall, our Electromechanical team has been very hard at work ensuring a successful time at competitions.

Programming worked to tune the pivot, elevator and shooter of our robot before we headed to Duluth. They also documented autonomous paths for the pit documentation and they fixed issues with rotation during the path by tuning PIDs.

The Business team had a very eventful week. They worked on our Sussex recap video and a Drive Team Reveal video and then posted to YouTube. Subscribe to us on YouTube using this link to never miss out on our future posts (https://www.youtube.com/@FRCTeam930). Business students also made an Instagram post regarding STEM night at the Admirals game on March 9th at 6:00pm. If you follow our instagram (instagram.com/team930) we keep our followers updated with the outcome of the matches that we participate in at our regional events. Our Regionals that we will be attending include: the Lake Superior Regional in Duluth (2/28/24 - 3/2/24), the Wisconsin Regional in Milwaukee (3/14/24 - 3/17/24), and the Midwest Regional in Chicago (3/27/24 - 3/30/24).

This year, our Strategy team is combining forces with team 6421, WarriorBots, and team 6574, Ferradermis, to create a scouting alliance that will help all of our teams acquire more accurate data at the competitions. This week they had a meeting to finalize our scouting alliance plans for Duluth. They reviewed the Sussex data and worked with that data in SQL. Our Strategy students created a schedule for Duluth that allows some students to scout from the stands and some students to be working on the robot that allows team members to get some experience in all parts of the competition. Scouting is collecting data about other robots that will help us determine who we want to partner with in the finals to be in our alliance.

This week our FIRST Impact team ordered and made the FIRST Impact boards that we used to present to judges. Along with that, they also printed out informational pamphlets for judges to show how much community outreach our team provides. Beyond team judging, during our Duluth regional, our FIRST Impact team presented the presentation that they have worked on for many weeks. This presentation focuses on our outreach in the community and spreading the word of FIRST.

We are so thankful to all of our sponsors who allow us to attend competitions and help make our program successful and our team thrive. Make sure to check out our YouTube and social media for our next upcoming regional and any future updates!

Week 4-6 Recap

Throughout the past few weeks, Team 930 has been working hard to put the finishing touches on the competition robot and preparing for the Sussex Scrimmage. The Sussex Scrimmage is a series of practice matches, early on in the season that gives teams practice before actual competitions. Look out for our video regarding the Sussex Scrimmage with this link (Team 930 - YouTube) that will be uploaded to YouTube soon.

The electromechanical team has been hard at work designing and building the robot. The CAD sub-team has been iterating on the robot using OnShape, creating version 2 and version 3 of our shooter and version 4 of our intake. They also finalized the camera mounts for the robot. The fabrication sub-team sanded and painted different steel plates for the turret and elevator. They also started on getting extra parts made for the upcoming regionals. The electrical subteam assisted in assembly and modification of competition robots and added the Limelights. They also added wires to our Kraken motors and fixed CAN errors as well as ethernet issues for the shooter prototype.

After 3 weeks of hard work, the FIRST Impact team has worked to make sure the FIRST Impact video, essay, and the executive summaries have been finished and submitted. The FIRST Impact Award which is awarded to the team that creates the most impact on their community while also spreading the message of FIRST. We are so proud of all the hard work our FIRST impact team has put in this year, and we wish the best of luck with presenting at competitions! 

The programming team started to configure the cameras for the competition robot. They created commands for the subsystems and tested and tuned PIDs. To prepare for our upcoming competition, students reviewed the code then simplified and standardized it. Along with that, programmers also created and ran bug tests to fix any code issues. Programmers have worked on various new robot functions including getting the turret working in simulation and programming a button to automatically intake notes. They also implemented autonomous code to increase our accuracy on the field.

Our strategy team has been working to make sure we are able to collect the data we need from future competitions and ensure our match strategy is at its best. In doing so we’ve been working closely with our neighboring teams 6421, The WarriorBOTS, from Muskego High School and 6574, Ferradermis, from Whitewater High School to make a scouting alliance to share competition data. They also worked on making and finishing the SSIS package within the programming language SQL. This package allows our scouting data to be easily transferred between databases and allows us to analyze it. Strategy also trained all of our students to become allstar scouters by preparing them for competition and training them using practice matches.

The business team has been working on our weekly update videos, which can also be found on our YouTube channel. The 4 and 5 week recap videos have been finished and uploaded, while the week 6 recap video segments have been placed into the Sussex Scrimmage recap video which will be released sometime later this week. The business team have also worked to create around 11 button designs that have been printed and produced. These buttons provide a cool and comedic collectible to students and mentors alike. These buttons can be collected at competitions. The business team also finalized the sponsor banner and ordered it. The sponsor banner gets displayed in the pit during competitions and helps other teams identify us and our sponsors.

Thank you to all of our sponsors for supporting and helping us to succeed as a team. Everything written in this newsletter would not be possible without your contributions.

Week 2-3 Recap

Throughout the last 2 weeks, Team 930 has been working hard to complete the competition robot. Something we have been doing differently this season is releasing recap videos for the last few weeks, with some of our videos getting over 2,000 views. We encourage everyone to check out our youtube channel with this link to view some clips of our students in action (Team 930 - YouTube). Our drive team has been practicing various game scoring strategies, to give an example they’ve been shooting into the amp with our Kitbot. Overall, our sub-teams have been hard at work to complete the robot these last 2 weeks. 

The electromechanical team has been fabricating most of the parts at our facility and at the high school. They used the lathe to make different hex shafts. They also used the CNC machine to make different plates for the turret carriage. They painted steel plates for the turret and elevator. We fixed errors and ethernet issues for the shooter prototype.

The programming team has been focusing on various functions in the past couple of weeks. We are getting ourselves ready to test our completed robot in a few weeks. We have been working to update our codebase with new tools for the 2024 season. We have also been working on implementing April Tag tracking as well as game piece detection.

These past few weeks, the business team has been kept busy. Since new businesses have agreed to partner with us, we have updated our sponsor banner. The sponsor banner gets displayed in the pit during competitions and helps other teams identify us and our sponsors. The business team has also been working on the weekly update videos for the youtube channel, which can be viewed with the link above. We have updated the website with our new sponsors and made thank you and update posts to our social media accounts.  

Our FIRST impact team has been working hard partnering with the business team to work on our FIRST Impact video showing how we have impacted our community with our various outreach events. Along with that, we’ve revised our writing materials for our FIRST impact script and various elements needed for our video. 

The strategy sub-team has been working on our scouting app and where it stores the data. They put our scouting app BEAR scouts on all of the tablets. We got our test data into databases and got google sheets set up for all the competitions. We organized the strategy bin and worked on making the SSIS package.

2023 Offseason Recap and 2024 Kickoff!

Since the 2023 Championship, Team 930 has worked hard throughout the offseason to expand our outreach in the FRC community and begin to train new generations of Team 930 for the upcoming 2024 season.

Our offseason kicked off with the Indiana Robotics Invitational, also known as IRI. This competition has been known for years as one of the most prestigious off-season events in the Midwest. Competing in this event allowed our team to expand our connections with tons of high-class teams from around the world and we were honored to be invited. While our weekend ended with a deep playoff run, we were so proud of every member of the team and we look forward to coming back for years to come.

After IRI Team 930 came back home to host its own off-season event, the Mukwonago Robotics Offseason Competition, also known as MROC, our annual off-season competition held here at the Mukwonago High School. This event would bring together 21 teams from across the Midwest. Following our impact in FRC and an offseason victory, we went over to Muskego, WI for TWIST was hosted by #6421 Warriors, which promoted women in STEM with an all-girls drive team. In the end, we would win the event, providing learning opportunities for all members of the team.

While this marked the end of our FRC off season competitions for the year, tons of members apart of Team 930 shifted gears to inspiring younger generations of FIRST with our various FLL initiatives. We started by hosting various FLL Summer Camps, one basic and one advanced, that teaches the younger students skills and prepares them to continue with FIRST and join one of our FLL teams that we support/mentor. From September to December various Team 930 students were working as FLL mentors on FLL teams preparing them for competitions come December. Also, in December Team 930 would continue to host our longest tradition, The Mukwonago FLL Regional! Along with the regional we hosted a Mukwonago Sectional as well for various FLL teams around Wisconsin that made it to the 2nd level of play. In the end we were thrilled to have so many students in attendance and are so happy we were able to provide such an impactful event. 

With the end of FLL in the books for another year, Team 930 settled down and focused on preparing for the FRC kickoff which would come in a few weeks. On January 6th, Team 930 hosted our annual kickoff event with #1714 More Robotics, #5148 New Berlin Blitz, #6421 WarriorBots, #6574 Ferradermis, #8701 Graffiti, #9535 Knack, #9760 Cristo Rey Jesuit Trailblazers. Together we all watched the 2024 game animation reveal here and conversed on strategy ideas and possible robot designs. The theme of this year's game follows more of the arts side of STEAM, specifically music. The game follows 3 on 3 robot action with robots each alliance starting in their designated area. The first 15 seconds of the match where the robots will run by themselves without the human drivers is known as the autonomous period. After Autonomous the robots are able to be controlled by the human drivers to score as much as possible. Robots grab foam rings (notes) from an area across the field called the source and bring them back to their side (wing) to score in a tall chute called the speaker. Robots are also able to score 2 notes into a slot near the side of the speaker called the amp makes scoring worth more points for 10 seconds after hitting the desired requirements. Scoring more points gets teams closer to a ranking point that allows the alliance (group of three teams) to move up in ranking in the competition. In the last 20 seconds of the match teams climb on a chain called the stage near the center of the field and are able score another note into a trap for more points. Human players can score more points by throwing a note onto a pole called the microphone on top of the stage for more points if a robot has climbed on the designated chain. For more information click on this link to the 2024 game video.            

With the season officially kicked off Team 930 is ecstatic for the next few months. Following our kickoff event our team along with a bunch of parents and students worked to assemble the practice field to assure we could reach our best and be fully prepared for the competition season in March. From CAD to business, all of the students have been starting the new season working hard. Despite a few snow days here and there, our team was able to assemble and program the Kitbot robot to get our rookie students some hands-on experience. The kitbot robot is a starter robot available for all teams, said to be capable of playing the full 2024 game, and is used as a fantastic learning experience for FRC teams around the world. Be sure to stay up to date with our social media and website for any major updates, we look forward to the 2024 season! 

Greater Pittsburgh Regional Recap!

Week 6 marked Team 930’s final regional before the FIRST Championship down in Houston, TX. Team 930 traveled to Pittsburgh, PA for the Greater Pittsburgh Regional. Starting off Friday, the team went through some intense qualification matches going 9-0-1 at the end and securing the overall #1 seed! 

Friday night, 930 spent our time creating our picklist of teams of potential partners, going through every possible factor from our scouting data. Walking into Saturday, we had a confident picklist and were ready for the upcoming elimination rounds. At the end of alliance selection, Team 930 selected 1591 (Greece Gladiators) and 2656 (Quasics).

Our first match was against the 8th seed alliance which included 1559 (Devil Tech), 3139 (Falco Tech), and 1708 (AMP’D). While the other alliance put up a thrilling fight, Team 930 and the rest of the #1 alliance took the win setting a new regional record of 171 - 73. The next few matches followed the same intense competition, but our match strategy and alliance robot abilities overcame the obstacles. After setting another regional high score of 182, the team found themselves in the final rounds. After an upset in the lower bracket, it would be alliance 1 against alliance 7 featuring 8393 (BrainSTEM), 1781 (Lindblom Electric Eagles) and 2638 (Rebel Robotics). After getting 3 pieces away from a full grid and a complete triple balance in the endgame, the team would win the first finals match 180 - 148. The second match, we would go 3 pieces away from filling up the full grid, though this time we had a bit more of a time crunch and weren’t able to get our full alliance balanced but only engaged. Thankfully, having scored more grid pieces throughout the match we were able to bring home a Finals 2 win 157 - 150 which meant the team had earned their second blue banner of the season! 

After the celebration concluded, the team gathered to hear the judged awards that would be handed out to the amazing participating teams. For the first time in the team’s history, 930 won the Engineering Inspiration Award! This award marks one of the most prestigious awards that can be earned within FRC, as it marks the sustained impact of spreading STEM your team has placed on your community both locally and beyond. This award marked such a substantial milestone for the team and truly rewarded everyone on the team and the hard work they put in everyday with more than just the robot. 

With the conclusion of the final regional, Team 930 finished with 2 regional wins, a Quality Award, the Gracious Professionalism Award and winner of the Engineering Inspiration Award. This marked one of Team 930’s most successful seasons ever and we are ready for the competitiveness that is coming with the FIRST World Championship. The team will be departing to Houston on the April 17th, but beforehand, we have our classmunity page accepting donations till the April 14th.

On April 13th we will be hosting a fundraising night at Mukwonago’s Qdoba to gain additional fundraising for our Championship adventure. We appreciate everyone who has graciously donated towards our trip, the experience gained will benefit all our students in a combination of ways and will truly play an impact throughout their lives. 

Wisconsin Regional Recap

As Week 4 wrapped up, the team reached the halfway point of our competition season. For Team 930, we competed in our local regional in Milwaukee, WI The Wisconsin Regional. Walking into a competitive event with multiple FIRST Championship qualifiers, we were ready for some tough competition. Going through the qualification matches, the team kept up their intense and continuous hard work and was able to secure the overall #1 seed position for the upcoming playoff elimination bracket. Friday night was spent discussing valuable strategy and how to efficiently approach the selection process, discussing various features of teams to ensure the most points scored.

Completing alliance selection, Team 930 with the overall first pick selected 8096 (Cache Money) and 8029 (Steel Bronco Robotics) as their second pick. Walking into the first round of the elimination bracket the team was up for an intense match against the 8th seed alliance. Despite some unfortunate luck of one of our elevator belts coming loose, we still put up a close match but lost 127-133, knocking us down to the lower bracket. With some amazing quick fixes from our pit crew team, we walked into our next match ready for anything. With a hard fought match from the 5th seed alliance, Team 930 along with their amazing partners came out on top setting a playoff high score, winning 152-99. Against the second seed alliance, our alliance was ready for an intense match. However, our alliance partner was hit with an unfortunate break causing them to spend the majority of the match on 3 wheels. The match would result in a loss and the end of our elims run, but the team was so proud of all the amazing progress we made and are very grateful for our alliance partners' continued perseverance!

Team 930 was also able to earn the Gracious Professionalism award, the first team attribute award in the 930 history. This award marks the team's approach at spreading core values of FIRST both on and off the field. The team is so grateful to have won this award, and we are always happy to help any teams in need no matter the task at hand.

With the Wisconsin Regional concluded, 930 looks ahead to Week 6 where our third and final regional takes place over in Pittsburgh, PA. The team is excited for this regional and to meet teams from many different states. Along with that, the team is preparing for the FIRST World Championship down in Houston, TX. While the competition is going to be our toughest yet, the team is diligently preparing assuring the most success possible out of our team. 

With such an intense event a lot of fundraising is required. Our team is accepting donations to help fund our trip to Houston and give our students the greatest experience and further their skills to help become leaders of tomorrow. This fundraiser can be found on our donation page of our website or on our social media (@team930). Whether it’s helping donate funds or just sharing the donation page to friends and family, anything helps and we appreciate all the help! 

Midwest Regional Recap and Beyond!

With Week 2 wrapping up, multiple competitive events took place throughout the world of FIRST. For Team 930, the team traveled down to Chicago, IL to participate in the first of our three events, the Midwest Regional! At the Credit Union One Arena, 930 competed with some difficult matchups in our schedule. Overall, we ended Qualification matches going 6-5-0 (win-losses-ties). During alliance selection, 930 was chosen first by the #2 seeded alliance featuring captain FRC Team 111, Wildstang. After some deliberate strategy work, the teams decided to choose FRC Team 7460, Avi and Friends as their third pick to take on the elimination playoff bracket. 

Going into the elimination bracket, the team kept their confidence despite the tough matches coming up including facing the #1 Alliance with Team 5934, Crowbotics and #3 Alliance with captain Team 2451, PWANGE. After progressing through the playoff bracket, our alliance made it to the finals against #4 Alliance featuring FRC Team 694, StuyPulse. The first finals match had both alliances with high scoring in all aspects of the game. By the end of that match the score would end in our favor 135 - 122. Going into the second finals match, our alliance was ready to push our limits. Then, for the first time in 19 years, Team 930 went on to win the Midwest Regional and set a high score at the regional of 150 - 140. 

The outcome would not have been the same without our amazing alliance partners Wildstang and Avi and Friends! The hard work put into all 3 teams finally paid off and we are so proud to display this blue banner! Along with the remarkable outcome of the event, 930 also walked away winning the Quality Award, showing off all the amazing work that came from the team along with the dedication that every member put to help us succeed.

The Midwest Regional has kicked off the amazing competition season 930 has coming up. Over the next 4 weeks the team competes in two more events around the United States, one in Week 4 in our hometown at the Wisconsin Regional in Milwaukee, WI. Our final event takes place in Pittsburgh, PA for the Greater Pittsburgh Regional. Both of these events are going to be some competitive environments and we can’t wait to see how the team grows and succeeds! 

Having won the Midwest Regional, Team 930 qualified for the FIRST Championship in Houston, TX on April 19th to 22nd. The team has a lot of preparation for this major event, with the biggest one being funding. On Team 930 we strive to give everyone the most opportunities possible to further their leadership and social skills for their upcoming futures. With that, we strive for everyone on our team to go to the FIRST Championship as it marks a notable time in the team's history.

As we hash out final details, pay attention to the team’s socials (@team930) for these various events, including a fundraiser through local businesses like Culver’s and Qdoba. 930 soon will have a Go Fund Me Page for any amazing supporters wanting to donate to the team. We want to thank all of our supporters again for the countless hours put into the success of this team and can’t wait for Houston!

Week 6 & Regional Prep

With the build season quickly coming to end, Team 930 has been working hard to finish up last minute details and prepare our robot and team for the Midwest Regional in week 2. For starters, on February 19th the team went up to Sussex, WI to compete in the annual scrimmage held by FRC Team 537. Following Sussex, Team 930 also went to Milwaukee on the 25th to compete in the MRA scrimmage for some further practice with driving and match strategy. Both of these competitions served as beneficial milestones in our progress towards the season assuring that our team is fully prepared for Midwest. 

Back at our workshop, the team has been progressing efficiently improving mechanics on our robot, finalizing software changes, practicing judging, and the FIRST Impact presentation. The team has our competition robot finalized and ready, in the hands of programming for autonomous paths, mechanism testing, and sensors. 

With week 1 competitions wrapping up, our strategy team has been busy analyzing matches and determining effective strategies to become a competitive robot in the Midwest Regional. Congratulations to all teams who competed this weekend and we are super excited for everything that is to come with the season. 

Along with that, with our regional only being 1 week out we are encouraging all fans and sponsors to join us either virtually or physically to cheer us on and see all the amazing work that our students have put in for this robot. As the day of competition approaches a more in depth schedule will be posted on our social media, so be on the lookout.  

Week 4 & 5 Update

As 930 has passed our half way point on our build season, we have been making substantial progress on all aspects of our team. We have been ensuring the best for our upcoming regional, the Midwest Regional, in Chicago on March 8th!

Electromechanical has been working hard CADing, fabricating, and wiring the physical components of our robot to assure it’s ready for the competitive environment that is to come. From confirming the technicalities of the elevator to managing logistics behind our swerve, our electromechanical students have been playing a vital role in the team’s success. 

Our programming team started a new chapter in their BEAR Bytes initiative by hosting bi-weekly live streams on YouTube. Here, they answer questions about various programming topics sent in from viewers or members part of the Discord or live chat. Programming has been working hard with the software elements of our robot to ensure the most effective success in our future competitions. They have been working with the robots ability to auto balance in both auto and teleop, as well as continue to work with the usage of April Tags in our match strategy. 

Team 930’s other sub teams have also been hard at work completing critical achievements towards our team's success. For starters, our strategy team has been working on their scouting app and match database, preparing it for the upcoming competitions. This proper work and data analysis ensures 930 is ready for an accurate pick list and match strategy. 

Our business team continued to work our logistics regarding our sponsors and apparel. They worked on confirming details with sponsors to assure proper funding is provided to teaching our students notable skills and experience towards their futures. Apparel progress was also continued as team shirt designs were finalized with a decal on the back, thanking all our generous sponsors. 

Next, our FIRST Impact team has had a busy and productive week. They have been working on finalizing and submitting our essay and executive summaries after weeks of hard work put into perfecting them. They have also been consistently practicing their performance for the FIRST Impact presentation, ensuring all materials are prepared for judging. 

Along with the submission of FIRST Impact, the team submitted our Woodie Flowers essay nominating our fantastic and dedicated head mentor, Brian Scharles Jr. 930 also nominated two of our electromechanical students Matt C. and Ealen W. for the Dean’s List award. This award allows us to recognize students for their dedication and incredible work towards the team’s success.  

Our first regional is a little over 3 weeks away (March 8th) we encourage all sponsors and fans to cheer us on virtually or in person at the Midwest Regional down in Chicago Illinois!

Moving Day, Week 2 & 3

Moving 

Throughout the past 2 weeks, Team 930 has been working hard in preparation for our ultimate goal of moving into our new facility. These past few weeks have been filled with organizing and planning in order to efficiently complete our move. While some logistics are still being worked out, as of the 28th we are proud to say we have officially moved. Team 930 wants to give a huge thanks to our sponsor Instrument Development Co. and the Mukwonago Area School District for all of the help and support along the way. We appreciate everything they are doing to support our success with this building. 

Our new building gives us access to enough room for a complete field, which betters our success as a team and allows us to be more prepared for the competition season. The new building also allows us to give each subteam their own dedicated space to assure the most efficient work can be done. With the building housing only our team, we are able to keep ourselves organized and avoid the interference of other activities that may have previously affected us at the High School.

Robot Progress 

Despite the moving process we’ve still been working hard on our robot progress. With the new challenge of the cones the team has been coming up with multiple solutions on how to effectively score and cycle throughout the match. While we prefer to keep most details confidential for the time being, we are excited to show off our swerve elevator robot later in the competition season.

Sponsors

Since sponsors play such an impactful role throughout our robotics season, we wanted to give a big thanks to them. From funding our materials and competition for the season to overall giving our students skills for the future, we are grateful for everything they do. Coming competition season, we invite all of our sponsors to come to our events including the Midwest Regional in Chicago IL, Wisconsin Regional in Milwaukee WI, & Greater Pittsburgh Regional in Pittsburgh PA. We would love it if they would come and see what all their generous funding is going towards and to meet up with the team of students whose futures they’ve inspired.

2023 Kickoff and Week 1

After holding MROC, Team 930 further attended 2 other offseason competitions. The first, Indy RAGE, promoted women in STEM with an all-girls drive team. We ended up winning the event, providing learning opportunities for all members of the team. The final offseason competition, Roboteer Rumble, was a bonding opportunity for new and veteran team members to compete in an intense event. With our offseason robot, 9930, playing critical defense we also won the event! Following the completion of our preseason, we received our new game for the 2023 season, CHARGED UP, and are extremely excited to get to work!

On January 7th, Team 930 hosted a Kickoff event with teams #5418 New Berlin Blitz, #6421 Warriorbots, #6574 Ferradermis, and #8701 Graffiti. Here we watched the game reveal animation for the 2023 season, CHARGED UP. 

The purpose of this year’s game is to create as many links as possible through placing of cones and cubes in their alliance grid. Robots will start in their alliance areas, also called communities, and have 15 seconds to run their autonomous path, uncontrolled by their human drivers. Following that 15 seconds, robots will be in the teleoperated period with the robots drivers aiming to score cones and cubes from on the field or from their substations where human players stand. Scoring more cones and cubes power the teams’ communities, gaining more points in the match. Having 3 cones or cubes in a row creates a link, getting teams closer to achieving a rank point. 

In the last 30 seconds of the match, robots drive to their designated Charge Station in attempts to balance and engage to earn points. 

For further information, click here to watch the official game animation for the 2023 season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zpflsYc4PA

Prototyping 

A big part of our first week was spent prototyping various robot mechanics to complete set tasks within the game. A major focus followed how to pick up each game piece and the different orientations that would present. We experimented all over from claw intakes to roller intakes to figure out our big issue of how to orientate tipped cones.

While the prototyping has just begun it has given our new members a great opportunity to experience what the planning process is like. These prototypes have also helped us narrow down what our final mechanism will be like for our competition robot. The team will continue brainstorming within the next few weeks, but are already deciding on specific ideas, such as an angled elevator. While the ideas continue to grow, other aspects of the robot have made huge progress like our drivetrain. We can’t wait to show off the progress in the upcoming weeks!

Offseason Events Newsletter

Team 930 has been hard at work with preseason meetings starting up in the past few weeks! We have had a ton of new members for each one of our subteams (Electromechanical, Programming, Business, Strategy, FIRST Impact) and welcome anyone that is still interested to come to a meeting. Meetings are on Tuesday and Thursday from 6:30 - 9:00 PM in Room 42 in Mukwonago High School.

Following the FIRST Championship in Houston, our CAD team immediately began designing our new robot, 9930, for the summer and fall off-season. Our summer would be action-packed filled with outreach events along with off-season competitions. 

Our first off-season event was the Lakeshore Offseason Invitational. This would be the first offseason event for our team members along with the first event without our 2022 seniors. This event ultimately proved to be a success as the team ended up winning the event with our alliance partners 6574 Ferradermis and 7768 Iron Hill Automations. This event was a big kickoff for what was to come for Team 930’s exciting offseason. 

Team 930 also gained the inspiration in the Spring to hold the first annual Mukwonago Robotics Offseason Competition or MROC. The day prior, a team social was held along with numerous unique workshops for any FRC team to develop and improve their own team. The next day, 20 teams from across the Midwest attended the event for an action packed day of competition. Team 930 also held a donation drive for food pantries across Wisconsin and had over 17 backpacks and bins of school supplies donated. The team was also proud to have two news stations come and provide coverage of our event! Our own team ended up as finalists at MROC with our off-season robot, 9930. We congratulate teams 6574 Ferradermis, 2202 BEAST Robotics, and 1792 Round Table Robotics for winning the event. We also thank all of our sponsors for the event which can be found here. With MROC being a success, we cannot wait until next year's event with more teams! 

Our most recent off-season event that we attended was Indy RAGE, an event that promotes women in STEM. For the event, the drive team and pit were all girls encouraging hands-on learning for all girls at the event. Many of the girls on Team 930 were able to participate in the event, creating an exciting and action-filled day. After being ranked 2nd overall at the event, the team was chosen by the first-ranked team to be on the first alliance. Moving into single elimination playoffs, we progressed from semi-finals to finals, ultimately winning the event. We are proud of all of the girls on the team that put their full effort into the event and everyone on the team that came to support!

This weekend, Team 930 will attend its final off-season competition, Roboteer Rumble in Tremont, IL. The team has many of its new team members in attendance for the event, providing a learning experience for everyone involved. We are excited about the upcoming event and cannot wait to see all the teams there!

Off-Season Projects

With our end-of season banquet recently coming to a close, Team 930 has been working towards developing and promoting our offseason projects! Our most upcoming event is an Open House for members of the community. We will be hosting the event on June 2nd from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. All families are welcome to tour our workspace and look at our 2022 season robot. All tours will be led by our very own students eager to spread robotics and innovation to all. FIRST Lego League Team 31979 T.I.F.I.D.I will also be present at the event promoting the FLL program and showing off their work from the 2021 season! 

A new initiative created by Team 930 is hosting an off-season event called the Mukwonago Robotics Offseason Competition, or MROC, that is being hosted from July 23rd to July 24th. Teams from across the Midwest are invited to Wisconsin’s premiere offseason robotics event. To sign up, check out MROC on our website here. The team will also be hosting seminars for teams attending MROC to spread STEM and development across FRC. These seminars will be about a variety of topics including outreach, programming tips, and mechanical lessons.

Following the success of Team 930’s LEGO Summer Camp the year prior, the team has been eager to engage with more students across in STEM. This year, the team has created two unique LEGO Summer Camp sessions. The first week of our Summer Camp will be the Introductory Camp, hosted from August 1st through 5th and our second week of summer camp will be the Advanced Camp from August 8th through 12th. The camp is for students from 4th grade to 8th grade and anyone interested in STEM or LEGO SPIKE Robots. If you or anyone you know that would be interested in attending the camp, check out our website here!

Seven Rivers Regional Recap

After a successful and an exciting Seven Rivers Regional in La Crosse, Wisconsin, we have reached the end of our competition season! We've persevered for the past three months through the challenges and obstacles of the 2022 Rapid React game to have a rewarding competition season.

Just two days after the Wisconsin Regional, the team confidently headed to the Seven Rivers Regional in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The tireless work team members put into our robot “Benedict Cargohub” allowed the cargo shooter and climber both to work flawlessly. We finished qualifications ranked 4th out of 46 teams, and were the first pick of the #1 alliance. After cruising through playoffs with our alliance partners teams #2451 and #8024, we ultimately fell to the #2 alliance in the finals. However, we didn't walk away empty handed; because of the dedication of the programming subteam, the team earned the Autonomous Award, recognizing the outstanding performance of the robot's autonomous functions. With this addition of this award to our collection, we now join an elite group of less than 70 teams that have won all 6 robot performance awards. 

On top of that, in recognition of her continuous passion and work in FIRST and the community, our program manager, Abby E, won the Dean's List Finalist Award at the Wisconsin Regional and was invited to the world championship in Houston, later this month. We wish her luck as she competes alongside hundreds of other exemplary students for the coveted Dean’s List Award in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  

Thank you to members, mentors, sponsors, parents, and everyone who helped make this season possible and successful! From outreach events and the game reveal, to the mid-season robot design changes and amazing competitions, we've had a spectacular season and are so grateful for these incredible experiences. As this competition season comes to a close, there's no slowing us down as we head straight into our off season outreach events. Stay tuned for information and announcements on our upcoming plans, and thank you again for a great season!

Duluth Recap and Wisconsin Regional Updates

The Northern Lights Regional was a fantastic first showing for Team 930! We ranked 6th overall and capped off the weekend by winning the Innovation in Control Award for our windmill climber design. However, there was no lack of obstacles to overcome along the way. The first day of the event brought with it endgame issues, and the second day of competition brought to light some issues with our intake and Cargo indexer. With these issues fixed by the third day of competition, we were a force to be reckoned with, captaining the 4th seeded alliance and ending the event as Semi-Finalists. 

To make the most of each competition, our team takes a step back and reviews our performance after the event. We categorize aspects of the competition as strengths (pluses) or opportunities for improvement (deltas). After going through this process as a team, we decided our catapult design for scoring cargo wasn’t going to be the most effective in the long run. The next two weeks will be a true test of our adversity as we are planning to completely redesign our cargo shooting mechanism: switching from a catapult design to a two-wheeled shooter.

As we look forward to our next competition, we’re excited to announce the Wisconsin Regional is now open to spectators! Come see Team 930 compete live at the UW Panther Arena on March 25th and 26th. We’ll be competing alongside 43 other local teams for the title of Wisconsin Regional Champions and a ticket to the World Championship in Houston. Each event is the culmination of all of our hard work and the support of our partners, and we’re proud to be able to put it on display at our home regional.

Week 6 & Sussex Mini-Regional

We’ve spent the past two weeks putting the finishing touches on our Week One Robot. After our great success at the Sussex Mini-regional, we're preparing for our first competition of this season: Northern Lights Regional in Duluth!

At the Sussex Scrimmage on the 20th we practiced navigating a regulation sized competition field with other teams, as well as showcased our Endgame climb. By the end of the scrimmage, we were consistently scoring 31 to 33 points per match independently. At week 0 competitions, the average alliance was scoring 32 to 34 points. We are working to keep up that momentum and only getting better as our Duluth competition approaches.

All build season we have been working towards the Autonomous Award for our autonomous functions, such as our Endgame and Autonomous Period,  the Entrepreneurship Award for organization and business aspects of the team, and Engineering Inspiration Award for our efforts in community outreach. We recently presented our submissions for these awards and attended our virtual judging period to show off our accomplishments to judges and hopefully be recognized for our season’s achievements and hard work! 

With Duluth only 4 days away, the team is in full swing to finalize our robot before our first competition! We will be posting regularly before and during our competition, so be sure to check out our Instagram and Facebook page for updates and links to watch our matches! Thank you to sponsors, mentors, coaches, and everyone who contributed for all of their hard work and dedication. None of this would be possible with them, and we're excited heading into an awesome competition season!

Week 4 & 5 Update

We just completed Week 5 and are working our ways towards competing in Sussex Scrimmage on February 20th! Within the past two weeks we have been aiming to complete and move towards testing our Week 1 competition robot. 

Following Week 3, members of the Electromechanical subteam have been perfecting the robot. The Cargo catapult was remade to fine-tune the geometry of the trajectory, and we reinforced the climbing aspect of the robot and added some new pneumatics. With the Week 1 competition robot completed with testing underway, the team works to start constructing our Week 4 and 5 competition robot.

The Programming subteam hosted their first Bear Bytes event, where we introduced ourselves and met the other teams participating! Bear Bytes is a discord server that allows FRC teams to collaborate and help each other with programming related projects and questions. We also completed the shuffleboard, worked on 3D/color tracking balls for aiming, and polishing the autonomous functions.

This week, members are finishing up multiple essays and award submissions. The team decided to nominate our outstanding mentor Matt C. for the Woodie Flowers Award for all his dedication and nominated team members Abigail E. and Ryder B. for Dean's List to recognize their incredible work and commitment to the team. In addition to the individual awards, we're competing for the Entrepreneurship Award, submitting an essay that highlights the organizational, sustainability, and outreach aspects of the team, as well as the Engineering Inspiration Award to showcase the effort we've put into outreach and spreading STEM awareness through events and marketing. 

The Strategy subteam finished the Scouting App which organizes data to track other teams during competition and to create powerful alliances. The Pit Scouting App tracks physical robot attributes and analyzes them while the Match Scouting database relates them to robot performance. In the next week, we’ll be working on scouter preparedness training so we’re ready for our first min-competition next Sunday!

Week 2 & 3 Update

Our team finished week 3 of the build season with great progress on our robot! We’ve been working tirelessly through the past few weeks and are continuing to develop a complete competition robot, ready for the upcoming Northern Lights Competition in Duluth, MN on March 3rd.

Electromechanical

One of our targets for Week 1 was to have a drivable robot by the end of the week. After accomplishing this goal with a preliminary drivetrain, members of CAD began to develop the Drivetrain mapping out the electrical control system layout. Being at the heart of our robot’s functionality, getting this part of our robot operational as soon as possible was key. The CAD team was able to assemble and finish the Drivetrain which allowed the Programming subteam to code paths to move. We also held interviews and tryouts for our competition Drive Team which were decided in Week 3. 

Cargo Catapult

In addition to the strides we’ve made with our drivetrain, our Electromechanical subteam continued designing and prototyping a launching mechanism. After measurably testing a variety of designs, the entire team ultimately decided to focus on a catapult shooting mechanism over a wheeled shooter. 

Endgame Climber

We also held a team vote to decide which design to continue exploring for the endgame climbing mechanism. We decided to focus on a “windmill” design and immediately started developing parts for it. Members of the Electromechanical subteam assembled “legs” that allow other pieces to be attached for our endgame. We then attached the “arms” that grasp each rung of the hangar and will be testing this design throughout Week 4.

Programming

With the general design of the robot completed, Programming has been laying the groundwork for each of the subsystems’ code functions. The catapult team finished an auto-aiming system for use in scoring game elements. Cameras on our robot can identify targets on the Hub and position the robot automatically to accurately shoot Cargo, as well as differentiate between the cargo colors. Additionally, our autonomous subteam has been planning different paths to score the most points during the beginning of each match, and the climber team has been programming an automatic climb sequence to control our windmill design during the endgame. 

BEAR Bytes

The programming subteam on Team 930 has recently created a Discord server called BEAR Bytes! BEAR Bytes allows other teams from across the nation to communicate with each other and ask or answer programming-related questions. Questions can be easily answered by team members and mentors on the server. Programming members are holding the first event for BEAR Bytes on February 6th, 2022! If you are interested in joining the server, email team930@gmail.com. 

Business

The Business team has made substantial progress over the past 2 weeks, organizing finances, completing multiple team documents, and making significant developments on the Team 930 2022 Business Plan.  During the past two weeks, two documents were revised in order for the team to run more efficiently and smoothly. The updates to our Student Handbook allow for students and parents to learn and understand the guidelines and expectations of Team 930 members. The second document we’ve updated for the 2022 season was our Brand Standard Document. This document explains all of the imagery standards on the team for apparel, marketing materials, and team appearances.

With our first competition only a month away, we are looking forward to having a fully-functional robot for our drivers by Week 4!