Hello, dear parents, sponsors, and friends! It is my pleasure to announce that, in spite of the current mess of a situation we’re in right now, the Wire Clippers are back online! As of Friday, the tenth, the robotics season has officially begun, and as we race to keep up with a whole new slew of deadlines to make, challenges to overcome, and innovation to enact. We’ve had three meetings thus far in preparation for the season (one at the kickoff, one with the team captains, and a third with the entire team present), and are looking excitedly forward to this year. 2020 was a year like no other, and while 2021 is shaping up to be better, we’re still headed into uncharted territory. That said, although there’s a lot of uncertainty, a fair amount remains the same. First and most noticeably, we plan to maintain (if not expand) the format and frequency of the posts here, to ensure that you’re up to date on absolutely everything our team is doing. Let’s dive right in, shall we?
Last year was a great year, especially under the circumstances, but there were nonetheless weaknesses in our design. The build team has decided to start this year strong by placing a focus on analyzing our past mistakes, so we can grow from them and make an even stronger design this time around. Since, due to the circumstances, the nature of the standard challenge this year is going to be similar to last year’s (manipulating the same sized dodgeballs, lifting the robot off of the ground, hitting different targets with projectiles, etc.), we expect this approach to be more effective than ever. As for logistical details, Portsmouth High School has been amazingly cooperative through all of this, and as a result it looks like we’re going to be able to have the normal workspace. Of course, most of our work will be still remote, and when we’re in person we’ll be limited to a skeleton crew, but that’s a lot better than we were expecting. Being able to go in person is going to be absolutely invaluable in the season to come.
Programming, on the other hand, is taking a more developmental approach. Because this year’s code isn’t going to need to be as different from that of previous years as before, we’re committing more of our time towards code we’ll be able to use in future years going forward. Plans on this end are preliminary; the biggest challenge we’re focused on tackling is a consistent drive train, but since we still want to focus first on ensuring success on this year’s competition, longer term benefits are likely to take somewhat longer to begin anyway. Nonetheless, given the unique nature of this we expect that this will be entirely possible to make a lasting contribution to the team. Should this pan out, we’ll be able to spend more of our time on, well, anything else the team needs. At the very least, getting our robot moving sooner means the drive team will be able to start practicing much sooner, leading to an even better performance on competition day.
Lastly, the business team is pledging to improve our community outreach. Last year, when we lost most of our sponsors along with New Heights, we had a huge focus on our financial situation, but now that we’re back on our feet (thanks, we should note, to tremendous help from many of you), we can start working to give back to our community. Last year, we made over two hundred masks for the community, and plan to do much more as this year develops. Of course, we still welcome donations and new sponsors, and for our team to continue growing those will be invaluable to us; so for any new faces reading this, thank you for your interest, and welcome to the team!
In conclusion, things aren’t going to be like anything we’ve seen before. We’re still learning just what all this is going to entail, but while we figure it all out, we’re going to have a framework to work from, a dedicated team of fresh faces and returning members alike, and a tremendous community supporting us. These are times like no other, but we’re confident when we say that we are a team like no other. Thank you for reading, and we can’t wait to keep updating you as the season develops.
