Well, build season has officially started, and it started with a bang! Yesterday (January ninth,) we had an all-team meeting to kickoff the build season and the game for 2021.
We started off with introductions, then played a Kahoot to test our knowledge of the game. After that, we watched the official live kickoff video from FIRST that went over the challenges for this year. There are still a lot of unknowns, with the ongoing pandemic, but we at NoMythic are ready for whatever comes our way in 2021.
After a lunch break where we each looked over the game manual and at-home-guide, we reconvened to go over any questions we had about the rules for the game. After that, we discussed whether we wanted to focus on a robot designed more for the at-home challenges or the competition. We eventually came to the conclusion that we wanted to focus on the smaller things designed for the at-home challenges. We then broke into breakout rooms to discuss what we wanted the robot to be like, and to ensure we knew about each challenge. Finally, we came back together for the last ten minutes of the meeting to recap and set our work to do before the next team meeting.
We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us in 2021, but we at 2491 NoMythic are looking forward to the hardest fun ever.
Fall 2020
Hello all! It’s been a while.
As you know, it’s been quite a hectic year. Both Avalon and GRS are meeting virtually, although Great River allows some students to learn somewhat in-person, socially distanced. Of course, this also means that the robotics team is meeting virtually. Until recently, build team had been doing some meetings in-person to work on the robot, but we decided last week that the COVID numbers were getting too high, so build transitioned to virtual meetings.
Despite the pandemic, NoMythic has still been recruiting new team members. We had a virtual open house in early October, and after the recruitment process, our team has 20 students, 11 of whom are new. We are enjoying working with these new recruits and welcoming them onto the team.
The programming team has also been doing some notable work since quarantine began. Recently, they have been teaching new members the basics of a programming language called python. Each team member has received a lego based robot, called a SPIKE Prime, and they are using their python-programming skills to program it to move.
As for operations, we have been hard at work on many projects, but have mainly been adapting our sponsor presentation so that we can present it virtually during the pandemic, and have been giving it to companies looking to sponsor NoMythic. Additionally, we worked hard on the recruitment process earlier this fall.
The captain’s team has been meeting weekly to make decisions, plan meetings, work out schedules, and keep the team on track. The captain’s team is made up of students and mentors, and the students were selected for their positions this spring. In addition to logistical work, the captain’s team has been improving our leadership skills by reading books and discussing them together. So far, they’ve read Joy Inc. by Richard Sheridan and Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen.
Recently, NoMythic had a virtual team retreat, where we got to know each other, played games, and made goals for this year.
A few weeks ago, we registered with FIRST, and we are looking forward to our upcoming season!
Face Shield Project – April, 2020
We’re currently working with the incredible robotics team KnightKrawler to make face shields for front line workers. We have access to several 3D printers, some owned by the team, some owned by mentors, which we are using to print the frames for face shields. If you are able and interested we are currently accepting donations to help us pay for the filament at our Donate page. If you need face shields, or just want to check out the amazing KnightKrawler and the work they’re doing, you can do so on their website.
We’re Still Meeting – March, 2020
Even though we’re no longer seeing each other or our robot in person, we’re still a team. We’ve moved our meetings online and have been meeting as a whole team once a week, and it’s been wonderful to see everyone’s faces and hold on to our community when so much else is different. Sub-teams have been having some additional meetings for their work. All of our sub-teams have been using this time for some infrastructural improvements, such as our student handbook, annual calendar, a programming style guide, and training all around. Our Build team has also been working on a few robot-related projects in CAD (Computer-Aided Design), which revolve around changes we would like to make to our robot in the future. One of these is modifying the shooter hood to be adjustable, while others include our climber and intake mechanisms.
We Won!
At the Northern Lights competition this weekend, our robot Clank was a star, shooting balls and climbing over and over again. We won every qualifying match, and all but one playoffs match. We captained the first alliance, and our alliance won the event! We also won the Creativity award.
More photos can be found in our Duluth 2020 gallery!