Week 6 Update
Hello everyone! This is the AZTECH Robotics Outreach Director, Diana Spellman, and Spirit Lead, Jarem Bailey. We are so thrilled to recognize all of the incredible achievements that the business team has made throughout these past six weeks in this blog post! We’ll be discussing past and upcoming outreach events as well as the bumpers for our robot this season.
Outreach
In the past few weeks, our entire robotics team has been hard at work to both build a functioning robot, but also to get involved with the community and spread the principles of FIRST Robotics. This community involvement is incredibly important to our team because it allows us to truly make a difference within our local community.
In the past couple of weeks, our robotics team has organized and taken part in five outreach events. On February 3rd, we participated in a Parent Pit Stop, in which we were able to educate AZTECH families as to what we do everyday. The very next day, our team held an event at the Tempe Public Library as part of our Rainbow Robotics Initiative where we were able to work with other high schoolers on STEM-based activities. A couple days later, our team participated in ACP’s STEAM Knight Fair in which we got to spread awareness about robotics with our very own booth. That weekend, some of our members operated a booth at the Tempe District Enrollment Fair and encouraged students to both join a Tempe Union school and join STEM activities. Lastly, on February 9th, the AZTECH Robotics team arranged a one n ten event at Litchfield Park to spread STEM to the queer community. However, this is just a small taste of what the business team organizes and the robotics team participates in throughout the year!
Looking forward, we still have many events coming up that anyone and everyone is welcome to attend! On February 23rd, the AZTECH Robotics team will be at the Chandler Sunset Library at 4pm hosting an event to teach local children about the engineering design process. We will have exciting activities and robots to show off. We will also have an event at Gilbert’s one n ten facility on February 26th at 6pm. This will include building figurines with queer youth and encouraging their participation in the STEM world. The AZTECH Robotics community strongly recommends anyone who has a desire to learn about robotics or engineering to attend one of our events! Thank you for your constant support! Now, I’ll hand it over to Jarem.
Spirit
Hi everyone! In the past few weeks, our spirit team has been hard at work refining the bumpers that keep our robot safe on the field. This technical development is incredibly important to our team because it ensures that our robot is ready for the high impact environment of competition. We spent the first few weeks fully CADing the entire bumper system, navigating quite a few changes along the way to get the fit just right. Huge shoutout to Aashna for all the help with the CAD! We also made a major move to swap out old pool noodles for recycled VEX foam floor pieces, which gives us way cleaner corners and better padding for those big hits.
We looked into switching our fabric from Cordura (a super tough, heavy-duty material built to last) to slippery sailcloth to make us harder to defend, but we ultimately decided to stick with the reliable stuff. One thing we are super hyped about is our new fastening method; we MAJORLY improved it this year to be simple and fast, like an F1 pit stop. We machined all the brackets and panels with way more precision than ever, so the whole setup looks incredibly clean. Honestly, none of this would’ve happened without Mrs. Januzi. She helped us with literally everything, especially with her insane embroidering skills for our team numbers. It’s been a long few weeks of trial and error, but seeing the final product coming together is the best feeling!
