FTC team heads to NorCal Championship

The Mechanical Science and Engineering Team (MSET) will be sending their newly founded First Tech Challenge (FTC) team to the Northern California Championship held in Newark on Feb. 24.

Members of the MSET Cuttlefish, FTC team 6165, have been preparing for most of the season and are now reaping the rewards for building a successful robot that completes the assigned objectives with great speed and efficiency. This year’s game involves hanging plastic rings on three different levels of pegs to score points.

“We have an evolving team. We have team members who come up with crazy ideas and we discuss them to [apply] them to the robot. Slowly the robot changed as the season progressed and we performed very well,” robotics member freshman Naveed Riazat said.

The team met almost every day over winter break making small modifications to their robot. These changes wound up making a huge difference throughout their qualification and regional matches.

According to Riazat, the changes that occurred after the regional tournament was the redesign of the pickup mechanism. In the team’s case, the claw was altered to pick up the rings faster while securing them with a stronger grasp. 

“I think we got a lot of work done during break. We’re going to have everything done by the tournament date,” Riazat said. "We’ve improved the claw and we can run circles around other robots.” 

The team also encountered some minor setbacks during the competition and the build season, including rough play from opponents and failed prototypes.

According to freshmen Kabir Manghnani, many of the teams during competition were aggressive. Many parts broke off the team’s robot and caused the team to fix gaping issues using duct tape. 

The team's robot cooperated well with those of other teams, allowing them to be part of the winning alliance in their first tournament and the captain of the winning alliance in their second.

“I'm really proud of the way the FTC team has attacked this whole season.  It's a large group and although they may not always see eye to eye, they've been very focused on being successful this season,” said mentor Dianne France. “Since this is the first time our club has competed in this FIRST event, I wasn't sure what to expect but they've exceeded everything I thought they would do.”

Now looking forward, the FTC team hopes to find success in the Sacramento championship on Feb. 24, ready to contribute to MSET’s already notable success. 

For more information about FTC visit: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/ftc.