January Newsletter
FIRST Robotics Competition Team 525 Swartdogs started the new year off with a bang. On January 6, we hosted an official kickoff. 23 FRC teams participated in the new season reveal and three hours of student-led workshops, covering topics including quickbuild, programming, pneumatics, rules, strategy, and Q&A. Team 6630 F.U.N. (Fiercely Uknighted Nation) also helped by leading workshops on financing and the National Advocacy conference.
We were invited to Ames to demonstrate at the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) State Championships on January 14th. We taught the FLL teams about the robots they can build when they join an FRC team in high school.
On January 16th, we demonstrated at our high school’s STEM Open House. This open house featured opportunities for students at Cedar Falls High School within the STEM area. Project Lead the Way (PLTW) classes, rocket club, and FIRST were represented. We drove our robot, answered questions, and talked about the new game for this year, FIRST POWER UP!
This past month all of our work groups have been working really hard. As a team, we read the rules and made sure that we fully understood the game, before strategizing how the game would play out. The mechanical group worked on prototypes for possible arms and grabbers to get the cubes. Now, they are building the robot. The CAD group built CAD models and drawings to help the mechanical group know how to build the robot. The programming group started writing the code for the robot and for the autonomous mode where the robot runs on its own without any driver control. The awards group wrote and edited the Chairman’s main essay and mini essays. 
The scouting group started making a new app for this year’s game. The 3-D printing group printed a 1/20 scale full field that we sent to Team 6536 The Dark Side. Most of their members are either blind or have visual impairments. The 3-D model will allow them to use their sense of touch to better understand the field elements. The finance group has been contacting potential sponsors and looking at fundraiser opportunities. On February 14, we will be holding a fundraiser at Cold Stone in Cedar Falls! If you are in the area please stop by to buy some ice cream!
Overall, we have had a very busy start to the new build season!
Check out our new Instagram page at @525swartdogs!