Sessions

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Opening and Closing will take place in the Learning Commons in Manley Hall.

From Manual to Meta: Developing Strategy from Day 1

Aidan Ferrer, FRC 1967 Co-Director

Learn how to have a game plan for your events, and develop a deep understanding of how setting good limits in Build Season can get you far into your event.

Hands-on segments: Some review of older game manuals to interpret how a game might play out.

Intended for students and mentors who will have an active role in leading their team's design, or are curious to learn more about strategy. Bring a laptop or other note-taking device.

Getting Started with Git and PRs

Ruth Nuttall, FRC 1967 Mentor

Just going over how to use GIthub on VSCode and terminal and then how to utilize the pull request system.

Hands-on segments: I recommend everyone come with a laptop and a GitHub account, and we can have everyone submit a PR to a GitHub repo.

Intended for programming students or leadership, or people interested in programming. Come with a laptop and Github account.

Let's CAD a Drivetrain!

Nick Gellrich, FRC 100 Alumnus

Drivetrains are essential, but they don't have to be difficult to design. In this session, we'll use Solidworks to CAD a drivetrain, from a basic sketch to completed rails and gussets with drive modules attached. Topics will include use of sketches and blocks, importing COTS parts from manufacturers, and - time allowing - how to make drawings.

Hands-on segments: Attendees will CAD a drivetrain.

Intended for those who know basic CAD skills but are interested in more advanced usage. Bring a laptop, three-button mouse, charger, your applicable CAD software (Solidworks recommended, but other software likely can be easily adapted), and perhaps some pencil/paper.

Outreach Presentation Techniques

Ameya Saund, Outreach Lead; Samvrith Bandi, Outreach Sublead; Saachi Jain, Manufacturing Lead - FRC 649

We will be covering presentation techniques for the Impact Award and tips on how to tackle Q&A!

Hands-on segments: None

Intended for teams who want to compete for the Impact Award in FRC.

Printer Dissection

Adam Richter, Design Lead; George Tao, Design Lead; Marco Strassia, Co-Captain; Jake Sakamoto, Co-Captain; Anish Dara, Fabrication Member - FRC 840

Allows participants to have a hands-on opportunity to explore different components and mechanisms that make printers work by "dissecting" them, exploring how some aspects can be incorporated into FRC.

Hands-on segments: Teardown and examination of various printers.

Intended for students who want to explore real life mechanical examples. Optionally, bring something to take notes with.

Automatic Coffee Purchasing - Scaling Autonomy

Tony Pratkanis, Robotics Software Consultant

We will review the process of getting the PR2 mobile robot to autonomously purchase a beverage from a real coffee shop and bring it back to an office. We will work through the techniques and software tricks deployed to create the program and how some of those might apply to teams' robots.

Hands-on segments: Interactive walk-through of the development process of the project. Basically, field suggestions from the group as we describe the development process.

Intended for people with some programming/autonomous mode experience who want to learn new techniques. Bring something to take notes with if you want.

Introduction to Robot Subsystems: Electrical & Pneumatics

Aravind Arivudainambi, Webmaster; Vyaas Baskar, Test and Drive Lead; Sophia Chen, Design Lead; Arnav Kamatala, Public Relations Officer; Amogh Rao, Member - FRC 846

Find tips on how to make secure electrical connections, set up a pneumatics system, and measure the force of a pneumatic cylinder. This overview is intended to give rookie to intermediate students a solid start in building and understanding FIRST robots.

Hands-on segments: None

Intended for beginning to intermediate FRC students. No prior electrical or pneumatics experience needed.

Machining by the Numbers - Quantitative Rules of Thumb and the Reasons Behind Them

Rich Klopp, FRC 100 Mentor

I will explain some quantitative rules of thumb for machining and the reasons behind them. Along the way I'll explain techniques and safe practices for increasing success and reducing frustration.

Hands-on segments: I will bring some tooling and parts to pass around.

Intended for students and mentors who want to make good robot parts safely and efficiently. Bring a notepad and writing instrument.

Introduction to 3D Printing

Alvin Cheng, FRC 1967 Mentor

An introduction to 3D printing for FRC, with focus on what 3D printing is, common materials, printers, printing attributes to make a strong print, and how to get from a solid model to a ready to print Gcode file. Will also discuss considerations for teams shopping for a printer.

Hands-on segments: None

No prerequisites or materials needed.

Women in STEM Town Hall

Ashley Vincent, Outreach Captain; Adrienne Fung, Outreach Vice Captain - FRC 840

A discussion to create a safe space for women to share their experiences of being on robotics and being involved in STEM in general. We were hoping to sit together, discuss our challenges, and brainstorm solutions to create a more inclusive environment for everyone in robotics.

Hands-on segments: Open discussion and dialogue

No supplies needed.

Basic Electronics

Mike Schmit, WRRF

This session covers electronics for robotics from the ground up. Introduction to the terminology of volts and amps, wire gauges, etc. Beginning theories of electricity, such as Ohm's Law will be covered. Learn about all the power distribution and electronic components in the FIRST kit of parts as well as common mistakes and pitfalls for new teams and new students.

Hands-on segments: Will show electrical components and multimeter use

Intended for first-timers to electronics for FRC. Bring a laptop for slides (paper handouts will be available).

Intermediate/Advanced Design Principles

Anand Rajamani, FRC 115 Mentor

An overview of top-down design in FRC, robot strategy, layout sketches, tons of COTS parts, construction methods, design calculations. Send in your own designs so that we can review them together!

Hands-on segments: Strategic design activity with a past FRC game, quick design reviews.

Intended for mechanical design students with some experience in FRC, and leaders in mechanical design. I recommend you bring a laptop for notes

Team Organization and Sustainability

Maithreyi Bharathi, Management Lead; Manlin Zhang, Member - FTC 6165

Discussion of team management & organization (how to stick to deadlines, delegate work, and use visual management systems). We will hold exercises in creating management spreadsheets and will have a brief Q&A at the end.

Hands-on segments: We will have an activity where we teach workshop attendees how to create and manage a spreadsheet (they will follow along on personal computers).

Intended for high school robotics students in leadership roles or project management. Bring a laptop.

Intermediate Electronics

Mike Schmit, WRRF

A continuation of the Beginning Electronics session, this session continues covering the power distribution and electronic components in the FIRST kit of parts as well as common mistakes and pitfalls for new teams and new students.

Hands-on segments: Use of multimeter

Bring a laptop for slides (paper will be provided).

Introduction to Robot Subsystems: Drivetrain, Sensors, and Electronics

Phoebe Tang, Media Lead; Suzanne Das, Officer; Jessica Lee, Officer; Kush Goel, Officer; Monesh Ponduri, Co-Software Lead; Justin Zhang, Co-Software Lead - FRC 846

Explore the physics of turning a six-wheel "West Coast Drive" robot. See the voltage waveforms of a speed controller that powers DC motors and those of the quadrature encoder that measures distance and speeds.

Hands-on segments: Motors, wheels, and sensors will be passed around.

Intended for intermediate FRC students. Basic understanding of physics, torque, voltage, and current is recommended.

Welcome to the Internet - A Guide to FRC Online

Aidan Ferrer, FRC 1967 Co-Director

Does it feel like the people around you at competition somehow know everything, all of the time? Overwhelmed with where to start? Learn how FRC teams can best understand the rapid-flowing stream of information and what sources we get it from, including The Blue Alliance, Chief Delphi, FRC Blog, and FIRST Updates Now.

Hands-on segments: Attendees will be encouraged to actively participate in online discussions, as well as spend some time browsing on each "stop" along the presentation.

Intended for new students and mentors, who want to take a more active role on their team or have a growing interest in FIRST. Bring a laptop.

Effective Top-Down Design in OnShape for FRC: Mastersketching and KrayonCAD

Vaughn Khouri, FRC 8033 Technical Vice Captain

Learn, explore and practice early-stage design sketching and subsystem blocking in Onshape that leads to a final subsystem or robot architecture that works. We'll cover document structure, various workflows, invaluable community resources and featurescripts, and powerhouse teams worth referencing.

Hands-on segments: After an initial presentation attendees will be able to follow along and create their own layout sketch for a full 2022 robot. They'll start with a template document including a sketch of bumpers and a basic frame, which everyone will make a copy of, and then follow along to build out sketches one element at a time. After everyone has a mastersketch built, we'll go through creating krayonCAD (essentially a 3D mastersketch) to visualize our robots.

Intended for students and mentors interested in hardware and design, especially on teams transitioning to Onshape, or looking for a more effective workflow to standardize. Basic sketching competency in CAD is a prerequisite, some understanding of common FRC subsystems will also be helpful in following, but is not required. Bring a laptop; a mouse is preferred.

Introduction to Controls (PID and Feedforward)

Lewy Seiden, FRC 8033 Robot Software Lead

A talk covering the basics of control theory, or how to make a mechanism do what we tell it to. Features an introduction to PID and feedforward control, and examples of practical applications.

Hands-on segments: May be able to do a simulated controls tuning practice session (TBD)

Intended for students with some familiarity with FRC (have been to an offseason competition or otherwise have seen different FRC mechanisms) and some familiarity with programming for FRC (knows what WPILib is, has worked with robot code before).

Leveraging Advances in AI and Machine Learning for your Robot

Tony Pratkanis, Robotics Consultant

AI has "gone viral" since the release of ChatGPT. We will discuss how Google has applied AI to robotics, the limitations of AI-based approaches, and how to use AI tools in your robots.

Hands-on segments: None.

Intended for programmers and individuals with computer skills who want to learn about how to use AI. Also for anyone who is curious about the capabilities of AI. Optionally, bring something to take notes with.