Reflecting on the Milestones: What Comes Next for 2025?
Wednesday, December 18th was our team’s last official meeting and work night of 2024. It caps off a very exciting year for Round Table Robotics. To get our team ready for the upcoming build season, we spent the last 8 weeks building a brand new swerve drive base using WestCoast Products Kraken X60 Motors. This project allowed us to teach new students how to design custom parts, fabricate those parts on our CNC, 3D printers, and a new vertical mill. New students learned valuable assembly and wiring skills, an understanding of hand and power tools, a sense of urgency, and teamwork.
As a team-building exercise, we took three teams of ten to the City 13 Escape Room in Oak Creek. The “Electric Dolphins,” “Rizzy Round Tables,” and “Problem Solvers” used teamwork and attention to detail to escape from their rooms and had a great time doing it.
The next day, we held an open house at our new build space, which the team has nicknamed “THE FORGE.” We were able to show off our incredible workspace to some of our sponsors, friends, family, and community members. If you missed our December open house, we will host another one on January 9, 2025, and hope to show more and more people what we can do with room to grow.
Round Table Robotics is also continuing our GEM Program. Gender Equality in Manufacturing is an organization started by a group of girls on our team. GEM has a mission to raise awareness of the roles women can play in engineering and manufacturing. The goal is to foster a supportive and inclusive environment for girls interested in working in these often male-dominated roles.
The 2024 season was an exciting year in which we made our third appearance in a row at
FIRST Champs in Houston, Texas. This year, our robot traveled over 3600 miles just to get to and from competitions in Minnesota, Texas, Illinois, and four right here in Wisconsin. We welcomed over 20 new students this year and head into the 2025 season with the largest team we have ever had. We worked with 31 different
FLL teams, and our students logged thousands of volunteer hours. We raised over $30,000 from company sponsorships and fundraising projects in preparation for the 2025 season. We made a huge IMPACT this year.
Offseason Highlights:
May:
- Welcoming New Members: We kicked off our offseason by bringing in fresh faces as quickly as possible to maximize their learning time before the build season.
- FLL Minicamps: Hosting camps for students interested in robotics, sparking excitement and sustainability for our program through engaging activities that ignite curiosity.
June:
- Laser Lights:
- Focused on honing skills in mechanical, programming, scouting, and drive team roles.
- Our team, 1792, proudly became the 2nd pick of Alliance 2 at the event (Special thanks to teams 930 and 2194). A massive shoutout to 2077 for organizing this stellar event!
- Parade Bot: Redesigned our previous “Tready Roosevelt” T-shirt cannon, transforming it with a swerve drivetrain, adjustable barrel height, and dual battery system for uninterrupted radio communication while changing batteries.
July:
- 4th of July Parade: Achieved a milestone with our parade bot driving continuously through the whole parade for the first time!
- STEAM Clinics: Collaborated with our school district to conduct multiple STEAM clinics across four sites for over 100 students, where we guided them through hands-on projects for students aged 5-13, fostering their love for STEAM.
- Mukwonago Robotics Offseason Competition (MROC): Secured our first-ever first-place finish! Led Alliance 1 as captains, thanks to teams 7021 and 2202. Square Table Robotics (9992) stood out as the first pick of Alliance 8. Huge thanks to team 930 for hosting an incredible event!
- Rock River Robotics Offseason Competition (R2OC): Captained Alliance 6 with teams 461, 2062, and 6651. Fully scouted the event and ran multiple scouting crews effectively. Special thanks to teams 1625, 2039, 3352, and 4655 for organizing this fantastic event!
August:
- Lions Fest: Operated the walking taco stand at Lions Fest. Thank you to the Oak Creek Lions Club for organizing this incredible event. Through this event we were able to engage with hundreds of people to show video footage and talk to those in our community about robotics and what the mission of FIRST is.
- Oak Creek Staff Welcome Back: This year our school district asked us to speak in front of 750 staff, teachers, and administrators about FIRST, our program, and we even got to demo our parade bot by shooting T-shirts into the audience!
- Community Demos: We demonstrated our robot at various sites, including Sendiks, our local Farmer’s Market, and Regal Rexnord.
September:
- FLL Team Support: Worked with 31 FLL teams including launching 24 new FLL Explorer teams!
- FLL Coaches Conference: Held the inaugural Working Together FLL Coach Conference with over 50 attendees from across the state!
October:
- TWIST Event: Proudly fielded an all-female/non-binary drive team and pit crew, earning the 2nd pick of Alliance 4. One of our mentors even donned a unicorn costume, and played Crescendo with the costume on!
- Full Field Build: Completed the construction of our full field!
November:
- FLL Challenge Scrimmage: Hosted a scrimmage for our district’s FLL Challenge teams.
- New Robot - ‘Test Bot’: Created to learn new preseason skills, featuring Mk4n swerve modules, Krakens, a CANivore, with a fully planned electrical system and a new bumper system inspired by Team 1678.
December:
- Oak Creek FLL Sectional Event: Hosted our capstone event, the Oak Creek FLL Sectional, hosting 26 FLL Challenge teams and advancing eight teams to STATE. Also held an FLL Explore Showcase with over twenty teams, preparing our future team members.
2025 Reefscape Game Kickoff: Join us on January 4th, at the Oak Creek Performing Arts and Education Center to unveil the 2025 Reefscape game and begin building a new robot for an exciting competition year!
