TALON 540 learned a spectacular amount this year, from both build season and competition. Our build season was the first time we truly implemented a 2nd robot, duplicating TALON 8.0 almost exactly (minus a few mechanical differences) and completely electrically. It was the first time we engaged in an extended prototyping phase, spending many days playing with different slider mechanisms for our lifters. We spent more hours driving before competition before any other year. And those were just the biggest ones.
At Virginia, we learned what it was like to win and compete exceptionally well. Maybe our most successful campaign, we captained an alliance at Virginia for only the second time in our team history (#7 captain in 2013), and ranked highest we had ever had at the competition as well (#4 ranked, #3 alliance captain). For the first time, we advanced to the finals, not just as a pick but as a captain. None of the students on the team this year had ever advanced past the quarterfinals. Although we fell just short of winning it all, we learned what it was like to be that successful, and it's something that has inspired my team to do even more in 2016. Did I mention we made some amazing friends along the way?
Yet, just as important was our experience at Championship. In Newton, we came in 75th place, the lowest finish our team has had at Championship with the current student body. We took many things from this, such as playing the game as we designed our robot to play it (capping four stacks) instead of trying to do too much and playing worse in the process. We learned how to focus our on the field frustrations toward improving our robot, and with the help of our pit crew, our lifter mechanism became continuously better as the days continued. Our awards presenters did exceptionally, and learned from other amazing programs along the way. Watching the other robots inspired us to think that the seemingly impossible really is possible. And maybe most importantly, our entire team had fun, we made more friends, and our younger members got inspired.
We can't wait for the 2016 season. Although I am a senior and am heading to college, I'm excited for what my team will do next year.