Ryan Brill and 8 students presented about the River Falls High School “9149 Robocats” robotics team. Ryan provided background on the team and himself: Ryan is in his 18th year teaching, and he brings experience with robotics to RFHS. Program, which is in it 3rd year. The club is an extracurricular, funded by local businesses, clubs, etc. The budget is about $12-15,000 for equipment and travel. Ryan teaches engineering and tech subject as his teaching focus. The robotics team integrates several sub-teams: software/programming, electrical, mechanical, pneumatic, and media teams. Ryan emphasized that robotics has been extended to Meyer Middle School and Westside Elementary. Further extending to other schools is on the horizon. Ryan added that last years RFHS team size was 22, with 34 signed up this year. Click READ MORE for the full story.
Students Evan and Nole then took over the presentation. The RFHS Team is part of FIRST FRC (which stands for: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). The goal of FIRST FRC is promoting STEM ed more broadly. Tasks are Finance, Design, Manufacturing, Programming, Competition and Outreach. The overview video for last year’s competition showed just how complex the tasks are that the robot has to complete.
Mechanical team – engineers the robot using CAD software, machines the parts for the robot, and builds it. Electrical team – wires the robots many components and designs a practice course. Programming team codes, implements techniques. The speakers noted that RFHS has the only FIRST FRC team in Western WI, Successes of the team included good teamwork, veteran members educating newer members, and success in competing in all the opportunities available within WI. The team has a grant from WI Dept of Public Instruction, one condition of which is to compete only within the state.
Competitions are short – 2 minutes. First 15 seconds are autonomous, the rest involve students driving the robot. Sponsors are Interfacial, SMC Ltd, Phillips Medisize, Kairos Hydroponics and Kwik Trip.