FIRST and Foremost
Left: Close-up of an FTC robot. Top Right and Bottom Right: FTC team members in action at the FTC Vermont Regional Championship in February 2024 at Lamoille Union High School
mass would shift when the arm lifted, so instead of driving straight, the robot would curve. It threw off our odometry and made tuning really difficult.”
Rather than being discouraged, students leaned into the learning process.“ Our overall experience was like watching a bus traveling along right next to the edge of a cliff,” head coach Peter Radocchia says with a laugh.“ Somehow it stayed in control, but it was always that close to disaster. And yet, the kids kept problem-solving and kept it running.” That effort reflects FIRST’ s concerted emphasis on persistence, as well as gracious professionalism. For the Cookie Clickers, those cultural values have shaped their identity as much as the robots themselves.
Jomaa’ s fellow teammate, Eben Radocchia, added the following:“ I enjoy working with like-minded people, as well as seeing a complex project through to completion. It’ s very satisfying seeing everything working( mostly) in the end. I really liked learning how to program the spline paths. Those looked very cool, even if sometimes they weren’ t consistent and gave us so many headaches.” Eben explains that“ spline paths” are part of autonomous pathing, programming that allows the robot to move to certain positions on the field by itself. Cookie Clickers team member, Nolan Hunt, echoes that sentiment:“ I enjoyed learning new things
and having to change the way you think of mechanical problems to make the whole robot function together. One of the coolest things that I learned in my years on FTC was how to change the way I thought of problems and dealt with strategy.”
Callahan sees the biggest rewards not in trophies or awards, but in personal transformation.“ For kids and parents who are new to FIRST Robotics, I always start with this: The biggest impact has nothing to do with robotics. It has everything to do with everything else. It gives kids a reason to work together on a hard technical project, to struggle through challenges, and to overcome setbacks along the way.”
54 manchester life | manchesterlifemagazine. com