Saturday, January 6th 2024
Kickoff started with excited mouths stuffed with donuts as the team gathered at our lab on Saturday at 9 in the morning. The countdown chant began with anticipation for the big game reveal. As the reveal went on, the excitement grew as the room became silent, and everyone sat on the edge of their seat in anticipation. The excitement rose, and immediate chatter began as the team opened the rule book. We split into groups and read through the game manual. To ensure the team knew a good amount about the game, quizzes were passed out to study the gameplay and rules. Lunch began with trays of burritos and boxes of pizzas being devoured. The lunch table crowd receded to study past matches and begin building the game setup for practice. Each subteam was busy figuring out the role they would play throughout the season. Leadership created a ‘Must, Should, Could’ for robot abilities for our team to later review. Students built most of the field throughout the day, created strategies, and worked in groups on ideas.Â
Sunday, January 7th 2024
The second day started just a bit calmer but was still bustling with excited energy to start. We began as a team, making the ‘Must, Should, Could’ list to categorize what our robot wanted to do. Then, we split into small groups, each creating a robot design that they thought would work for Crescendo. Reconvening with the whole team, each group explained their robot design and got feedback from the audience. The group was graciously gifted a chili and fried chicken lunch, which was quickly devoured. After lunch, everyone went to their subsystems and started building prototypes. The day ended on a high note with enthusiasm and spirit.