Today we’d like to introduce you to Gear Up 12499. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Gear Up had its humble origins in 2013 as a group of elementary schoolers interested in robotics. We started our journey with the FIRST Lego League in third grade, competing against other teams with robots built out of Legos. As we developed our technical skillset and learned how to work together, we progressed as a team to the FIRST Tech Challenge. A larger competition with more advanced tasks, the robots are now built from a mix of off-the-self and custom-made parts – no longer the simple Lego machines from before. Over the course of the past five years, we have won numerous awards for both our robot performance and outreach. Our team emphasizes individual learning on the student’s part. While we look to our mentors for ideas and guidance when we run into certain problems, all of our work is done by the students, from designing and 3D-printing parts to developing algorithms to accurately run our robot. In addition, part of FIRST’s mission is to bring STEM to our community. In light of this, we organized numerous outreach events, from holding presentations at our library and elementary school to hosting Zoom Q&A sessions with professionals working in STEM.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Because we’re only high school students, we had to learn many different skills to succeed in FTC. These included using project management sheets to keep track of tasks, goals, and deadlines, utilizing Computer Aided Design (CAD) to create custom 3D-printable parts, reading through countless pages of documentation to familiarize ourselves with the new Java programming environment, and building our robot with various types of parts, among many others skills. We also had to learn how to work together as a team and communicate effectively, listening to everyone’s ideas and making sure each member has a voice in our decisions.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Gear Up is a FIRST Tech Challenge robotics team based in San Diego, California, with members from Westview High School. We channel our passions for science and technology to build a new robot each year to compete in local and regional tournaments.
Combining computer-aided mechanical design, 3D printing, and Java software programming, our team works together to create the best possible robot each season. In addition, we lead outreach efforts in our local area to give back to our community and promote STEM.
Any big plans?
In the next few months, we are planning on building a new robot for the upcoming season of FTC. With a new season, there is a new competition with a new game, tasks, and challenges. We plan on integrating more advanced hardware design and software into our robot this year.
After that, many of our members are headed to college, planning to study in the field of mechanical design, computer science, physics, and electrical engineering. The younger members on our team will continue attending Westview High School and competing in FTC.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gearup12499-org.github.io/
- Instagram: @gearup_12499
- Twitter: @gearup_12499
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO8Uq6jTFN_uF80hEzFgdQA
- Other: https://theorangealliance.org/teams/12499
Image Credits
Gear Up 12499
