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Gesturing at a mechanism, Adam Menezes ‘25 explains Orange Dynamite’s off-season robot, nicknamed “Kiwi,” to prospective club members. The FRC team held a separate session after the general information session, where they delved deeper into robotics concepts specific to FRC for members interested in joining.
Courtesy of Shruthi Srikanth'
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Elaborating on the FRC timeline, Aayu Yadav ‘25 and Iris Chen ‘26 explain their team’s approach to the build season. In order to efficiently prepare new members in a short amount of time, the team plans to have new recruits work on improving the off-season robots to get them familiar with FRC principles.
Courtesy of Shruthi Srikanth'
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Explaining to the crowd, Jatin Aggarwal ‘26, Avi Rajesh ‘25, and Akaash Reddy ‘25 elaborate on the different FTC awards that can be won during the competition. The three members were Motivate award finalists as part of team Tomahawk the previous year, giving potential members insights on how to best win awards.
Courtesy of Shruthi Srikanth'
With young engineers crowding the MakerSpace, the excitement is palpable as the room is filled with the sounds of chatting, drilling, milling, and more. On Tuesday, Aug. 27, the Westwood Robotics Club held its first informational meeting for both returning and prospective members. Officers of the club showed a presentation talking about the overall structure of the club, before splitting attendees into FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) and FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams based on their preferences. The main differences between the FRC and FTC competitions are the sizes of the robot and the team. While the FRC teams host about 40-50 members and build a bigger robot on a bigger playing field, FTC teams host 10-15 members, building a smaller robot for a smaller field. This year, the club will host four FTC teams- Tomahawk, Slingshot, Boomerang, and Hunga Munga — as well as one FRC team, Orange Dynamite. The club is downsizing from the previous year, going from six to four FTC teams.
“It was impossible to ensure that all six FTC teams had the resources and the space that they needed,” Robotics Club President Akaash Reddy ‘25 said. “So we decided to lower it to four FTC teams. [Our goal is to] focus more on getting dedicated, interested members and retaining them, making sure that they’re doing their best and have everything they need.”
The informational meeting got almost 50 new members interested in the club and in robotics, meeting the goals of the organization.
“[We wanted to] show people about robotics and get them interested, especially if they’re new,” Reddy said. “We’ve gained a lot of really skilled members from events like this, just by sharing information, showing them our procedures, and other basics.”
Overall, the club is focused on sustainability and leaving behind a legacy, and achieving even more successes in the future.
“My goals are to make sure that we have a foundation for next year,” Reddy said. “I want our teams to advance more and more, as we’ve been getting better and better. [Team Tomahawk] left a legacy last year that’s hard to fulfill, but I want to continue [it].”
The Westwood Robotics FTC teams will kick off their season when this year’s challenge, called “Into The Deep”, is revealed on Sep. 7. This encompasses the worldwide release of this year’s game elements, along with the tasks that need to be completed. After the release, teams will begin brainstorming and designing their robots. FRC team Orange Dynamite will compete at their annual off-season competition, the North Texas Tournament of Robots (NTX), on Sep. 28.
