Created by Team 8726 Cryptohawks Fellow robot enthusiasts, On behalf of Urbana High Cryptohawks #8726, we'd like to say how fun this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition was, and how nice everyone was towards us, a rookie team. As a rookie team with very limited experience, we would firstly like to thank our team, whom most of had not been part of a robotics team prior to this season, with very little expectations of actual competition. We persevered and worked tirelessly to put forward our first robot, Peanut Butter Crackers (yes that’s the official name). Our school had previously had a team, FRC #1886, but had disbanded in 2010, meaning this is the first team in over a decade at Urbana High. One of the reasons our team was founded was to help spread and increase the presence of STEM in our local community. While working on our robot, we also decided to hold a few workshops and events, with the aim of showing the community what STEM really has the capability to do. We think this is important for every FIRST team; regardless of how your robot may perform, it's the impact and the experiences you have made while building that really define how successful a team and culture are. We were very fortunate and grateful for all the sponsors and funding that companies, and our parents provided with us, alongside with the dedication all our members put towards making this season the first of many. At the time of writing, the team had won two awards, and were a finalist in a district event. As important as our building staff is (as you all know, since they kinda build the entire thing), our non-building staff and crew are equally important. As a rookie team emerging after the COVID-19 pandemic, we were basically starting from scratch, which created the problem of finding sponsors and contacts with allies, to start building the connections with other teams. A big problem most teams face, as did we, was finding grants and funds to apply for. Fortunately, we were able to find sponsors and grants that were willing to take a chance on a rookie team, and we took off with their support. Our business captain, Richard Gu, was a key member in managing team costs, and working with all the other captains and teams to ensure we had enough funds to not only build the robot but making sure we had enough funds to make outreach programs possible, having enough money to register for the events, and FIRST Chesapeake District Championships, and potentially for the FIRST Championship 2022 in Houston, Texas. Richard also made the team trailer on our YouTube channel (which we recommend checking out), showcasing what the team is about and our goals for this season. Richard was also working with our Marketing and Outreach teams, to ensure the team had enough opportunities in the community to spread opportunities for not only our team members, but for the next generation of kids in STEM. Speaking of, our outreach team, hailed by Dhruv Girish and Emily Wang, is constantly in talks with members and leaders of our community, finding opportunities to introduce the younger generations into the opportunities of FIRST Robotics, and in STEM/VEX robotics. Dhruv, also the Safety Captain of the team, is always conversing with other FLL teams and coming up with ideas to get involved with the community, as he always thinks about involving others with the team. It was the efforts of both him and Emily that we were able to showcase our robot to a local elementary school, not only for the students there, but also for the Cub Scouts to introduce them into the world of robotics. The Cub Scouts earned their robotics badge and were awestruck by the possibilities of robotics. Emily is also a big advocate of getting more females into STEM, wanting to achieve more diversity for young girls, and to create more opportunities for them to be future STEM leaders in the future. Currently in our rookie year, we have 4 females, and we hope to double that number (or more) next year. She is also the Scouting captain, along with Abhi Senthilkumar, making sure the team gets the data from the other teams at events, feeding that information to the team at the event, so we’re prepared for the team drafts. It is because of these three that the team can safely build and work on the robot, compare and observe the data with other teams to see if we need to do any improvements, and to get us the communal opportunities to spread the opportunities and awareness of STEM and Robotics. Working together with all the other teams, our Marketing Team, consisting of captain Deven Patel, and Kitty Lin, to establish ourselves in the Robotics community, as well as the Urbana/Frederick County community. Marketing is often paired with our business team, since they both accomplish similar things. We find and reach out to potential sponsors, reach out to any possible outreach opportunities alongside Emily, writing newsletters and keeping sponsors and families informed on the latest Urbana Robotics news, and keeping the team active on social media, interacting with other teams. We are occasionally joined by Team Captain Amogh Kashyap, who aids us, along with every other team, giving out helpful suggestions and pointing out small mistakes. We were able to establish ourselves as a successful team this year based on our teamwork and collaboration with all the teams, working as one to achieve one goal. We were able to win two awards this year, one being the Entrepreneurship Award, which is done heavily through the work of Dhruv and Richard, which showcases key financial management and funding management, as well as adequate planning and care (which gave us some snazzy points in the rankings). We also won Rookie All Stars in our DC Week 2 Event 2 but that’s minor details (shoutout to our hands-on team though). Aside from the obvious factor that our building and hands-on team led us to success (from like, you know, building the actual robot), our non-technical team is equally as important, making sure we have opportunities to showcase our talent and skills, to put ourselves in the best possible position, not only for this year, but to also give Urbana High School Robotics a good reputation in the future. We also obviously couldn’t do much without the hard work from all the parents and companies who donated money to support a rookie team, so on behalf of the entire team, we’d like to say a quick thanks to everyone who supported us, and hopefully we exceeded your expectations. As a rookie team, we didn’t have a method or plan that worked, so we were able to merge the ideas of all the team members, and that of other teams and what they proved successful to find the solution to success. And as a rookie team, we don’t know what the future holds for us (hopefully good things), but the bottom line for all future rookie teams is to make sure you are involved with your local community and other FIRST teams, which is incredibly rewarding in terms of knowledge and advice but also character and support. - Deven Patel (Marketing Lead), Amogh Kashyap (Team Captain) Team 8726 (Cryptohawks) is an FRC team based in Ijamsville, MD. Connect with them on Instagram @uhsrobotics or at cryptohawks8726.com
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