For most students at Maggie Walker, the first weekend back from winter break consists of sleeping, the usual homework load, and getting adjusted to life back at the Governor’s School. However, for the largest club at our school, the Mech Tech Dragons, the beginning of this new year was spent planning and taking part in kickoff, a worldwide event which marks the start of the robotics season. 

Kickoff is arguably the largest event of the year for Maggie Walker’s robotics team, and high attendance rates were to be expected with approximately 90 members, 20 alumni, and several mentors planning to participate. The leadership team had to plan carefully to make sure the event could be done in a COVID-safe environment to account for the recent spike in cases while still ensuring everyone could attend. To take extra precautions, especially while eating, the team was broken up into smaller groups for half of the day. 

The all-day event took place on January 8 and included many team traditions. Ankit Agarwal, the build sub-team leader, described it as “a combination of stress and excitement” because everyone had been preparing for it since the robotics off-season began. First, they started out the morning with team building games led by James Wasilewski, a mentor and guest speaker. From there, the team separated into groups and watched the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Competition, commonly referred to as the “FRC” kickoff stream, where the game for this year, in animation, and the manual—including the essential rulebook—were released. After gaining a general understanding of the 136-page manual, the team broke out into six rotations led by alumni: scoring, functions, toaster, field, game piece, and outreach. Here, they brainstormed ideas for different parts of the game and discussed possible options for designing the robot. “My favorite part is seeing the wild ideas that are thrown around at first, because when you look back at the season, it’s cool to see what was the same and what was different,” robotics CEO Quinn Kast (‘22) mentioned. 

Once rotations were complete, there was a game rules recap explained with a mockup of the competition game field. Here, the alumni also gave a presentation on how this year’s game compared to previous years and how past designs could inspire the design for the 2022 robot. To finish off, there was a final meeting for technical and outreach subteams to set priorities and plan for upcoming meetings. 

There has not been a “real” kickoff since 2020 because of the pandemic, and many members expressed that this year’s event was able to finally bring the whole team together. “Last year it was completely virtual, we didn’t have any team building, and it felt very isolated,” remarked Chief Technical Officer (CTO) Will Eisenhauer (‘23). The circulation of ideas and being able to react to the livestream with friends was completely different over Zoom. Additionally, meetings in the school during the build season were limited to 10 people, so being back in the building as a full team was very exciting for everyone. 

As for the upcoming season, this year has been slightly different team-wise due to the abnormally high number of new freshmen members. Leaders from the three technical sub-teams—build, programming, and electrical—have done vigorous off-season training with the new members and have been developing veteran members to become mentors and teachers in coming years. They are working towards getting members familiar with and involved in FRC. “It’s been chaotic,” electrical sub-team leader Zander O’Sickey (‘23) said. “Our typical member count is about 60 and this year we have about 90.” Build season meetings have been limited to 20-25 members, which has actually helped with productivity and focus. So far, “the build and electrical sub teams have been working hard to completely build all the components of the robot while programming has been working on coding various robot functions,” explained the programming subteam leader Aaron Wang (‘23).

Due to COVID, competitions will also look different this year. Competitions are managed by the FIRST Chesapeake District, which has very strict rules regarding attendance. The number of people who can travel to competitions per team is based on the COVID cases in each area, and as of now, only seven people from Maggie Walker can attend. First, the team starts off with district qualifying events, and if the team is within the top two-thirds of those teams, they can move forward to district championships.  

Along with technical, outreach is also a very important part of robotics. The program is interdisciplinary and is expanding within our community and internationally. The team has reached out to underprivileged communities in Richmond, made STEM kits for recently resettled Afghan refugees, and hosted multiple First Lego League (FLL) tournaments for younger elementary students. In general, the role of outreach has been incredibly important during COVID. “It’s been an outlet for people to still be involved in the team, especially since build room space has been limited,” said co-Chief Community Operations Officer (CCOO) Lexi Pasternak. 

During kickoff, outreach charted goals for the season and planned for the prestigious Chairman’s Award. There is a three-part application process: a video, essay, and presentation where the presenters show the judges what the team has done for the community and how that ties into their overall mission. If won, this award will be a significant advantage for the team to advance into district championships. This season, outreach is focusing on advocacy, Chairman’s Award, and creating a template for future members to follow. “We want to work towards reaching out to and meeting with legislators,” remarked co-CCOO Nikki Kumar. They also plan on creating more relationships with sponsors and keeping events such as advocacy and FLL in motion.

Even with such a complicated season, team leadership has done an extraordinary job with keeping the club moving forward. When asked about his experience, Kast says that “the work I do is sometimes fun and sometimes hard, but [our wonderful team and mentors] always make it worth it.” Overall, the team has set a few goals for this season, including becoming more competitive in the playing field. The 2022 season is like a transition period from the last two years which were severely inhibited by COVID. Kast mentioned “the main goal for everything is really just for everyone to have fun, get something out of it, and actively contribute to something that they’re really interested in.” 

Considering the amount of time and effort every member puts into robotics, the future of Team 422 is looking bright. We wish them good luck in their upcoming competitions!