Wednesday was our team's last official meeting and work night of 2024. It caps off a very exciting year for Round Table Robotics. To get our team ready for the upcoming build season, we spent the last 8 weeks building a brand new swerve drive base using WestCoast Products Kraken X60 Motors. This project has allowed us to teach new students how to design custom parts, fabricate those parts on our CNC, 3D printers, or new vertical mill. New students learned valuable assembly and wiring skills, an understanding of hand and power tools, a sense of urgency, and teamwork.
As a team-building exercise, we took three teams of ten to the City 13 Escape Room in Oak Creek. The "Electric Dolphins," "Rizzy Round Tables," and "Problem Solvers" used teamwork and attention to detail to escape from their rooms and had a great time doing it.
The next day, we held an open house at our new build space, which the team has nicknamed "THE FORGE." We were able to show off our incredible workspace to some of our sponsors, friends, family, and community members. If you missed our December open house, we will host another one on January 9, 2025, and hope to show more and more people what we can do with room to grow.
Our capstone event every December is the Oak Creek FLL Sectional Event, where teams qualified at regional events all over the state to go to the next level of competition. Our event at the high school hosted 26 FLL Challenge teams, and we advanced eight teams to STATE in January. We also held an FLL Explorer Expo with over twenty teams from our own school district, comprising over a hundred 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. These are our future team members, and we do this to guarantee we have strong students to continue our program.
Round Table Robotics is also continuing our GEM Program. Gender Equality in Manufacturing is an organization started by a group of girls on our team. GEM has a mission to raise awareness of the roles women can play in engineering and manufacturing. The goal is to foster a supportive and inclusive environment for girls interested in working in these often male-dominated roles.
The 2024 season was an exciting year in which we made our third appearance in a row at FIRST Champs in Houston, Texas. This year, our robot traveled over 3600 miles just to get to and from competitions in Minnesota, Texas, Illinois, and four right here in Wisconsin. We welcomed over 20 new students this year and head into the 2025 season with the largest team we have ever had. We worked with 28 different FLL teams, and our students logged hundreds of volunteer hours. We raised over $30,000 from company sponsorships and fundraising projects in preparation for the 2025 season. We made a huge IMPACT this year.
Achievements in 2024:
Engineering Inspiration Award at the Northern Lights Regional.
Made our third appearance in a row at FIRST Champs in Houston, Texas.
Our robot traveled over 3600 miles for competitions.
Welcomed over 20 new students.
Worked with 28 different FLL teams.
Launched 24 different FLL Explore teams across 6 sites.
Held the inaugural Working Together FLL Coach conference with over 50 attendees from across the state.
Logged thousands of volunteer hours.
Raised over $30,000 from company sponsorships and fundraising projects including a partnership between the school's athletic department and a local State Farm agent and do the RED ZONE Rally Towel shooter at several football games last fall.
NEXT UP! On Saturday, January 4th, at 11:00 am, we will gather at the Oak Creek Performing Arts and Education Center to learn what the 2025 Reefscape game will be and then build a NEW robot to play that game. The Kickoff event is open to the public, and you are welcome to join us for what should be an incredible year for the Oak Creek High School Robotics Program, FRC Team 1792 Round Table Robotics.
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