Looking for STEM opportunities? Want to make new friends? Search no further than Westmont’s very own Arrowbotics team, a robotics team that participates in FIRST Robotics Competitions. Team 3482 teaches all the skills required for building robots, so students with no experience are welcome!
Joining a new club can be scary, so here’s a little overview of what we do throughout the year:
September – December
We spend these fall and winter months preparing for the upcoming robotics season; teaching and building skills, along with organizing our space. Additionally, in October we participate in an offseason overnight competition in Sacramento called Capitol City Classic. As a team, we travel up for a weekend and compete against around 40 other teams with a robot we built over the summer. This is a great opportunity for new members as they will experience the joy of competitions months before the real deal.
January
In January our on-season begins. We receive the prompt that determines the design of our new robot and begin development of prototypes that will lead to the final bot. January also marks the beginning of daily meetings, but don’t fret—we understand that many members have outside commitments and won’t be penalized for not attending every meeting. This month, Mechanical builds field elements and prototypes the designs CAD makes.
February – March
February and March are the most crucial months for robotics. During these two months, the robot will be built, wired, and coded. All divisions work on the robot until our first competition, which is typically around the second or third week of March. We compete at the overnight Sacramento Regional and play matches with the robot we’ve poured our heart and soul into.
March – April
Ah, the home stretch. After our first competition, we take the robot home to room 16 and make any changes, fixes, or improvements we discovered it needed at comp. Finally, after a short two weeks, we attend our second competition, East Bay Regional, held in the Berkeley area.
May – June
May and June are spent wrapping up the season, cleaning the robotics room after busy months of building, attending outreach events, and the beginning of refining skills for next year. Typically meetings chill out during this time, and it’s a time for reflection and critiques on the season.