This year, High Tech Kids (the nonprofit organization that runs FIRST programs in Minnesota) invited us to demo at the annual Robotics Alley conference in Minneapolis. We were honored and very excited to be demoing along with three other local FTC teams.
The conference was held in a hall lined with booths for various different technology and robotics exhibitors, companies, and products. There was a small section near the door with an FTC field set up next to a long table with flyers and informational handouts from High Tech Kids. We spent the evening driving the robot and talking to visitors, as well as demonstrating our cap ball lift whenever someone wanted to see it. It worked consistently and the 30-second demonstration was a good conversation starter for the many engineers who came by. We sometimes took the opportunity to ask them for advice, which would start a long and very fun discussion about how we could improve our robot’s mechanisms before the North Super Regional next month.
Since there were five of us plus each of the other teams in that one small area, we took turns driving the robot and walking around to the other booths. There were many cool displays related to technology and engineering. We also collected a lot of goodies like colorful 3D-printed Pokemon and a 3D-printed tooth.
At 4:00pm, we and the other robotics teams lined up behind a stage for the “March of the Robots.” When our name was called, we walked out while driving our robot and stood for about 30 seconds while the host read out a tidbit about our team. Afterwards, the audience clapped as we walked and drove Stacy down the aisle. It was like a bizarre fashion show for our robot.
Thank you to High Tech Kids for inviting us to the demo!
At the conference, we were interviewed by Karen Zamora from the Star Tribune. Click here to read the article she wrote about us and another all-girls FTC team.