This year has been diverse in comparison to our past and has changed our approaches in various ways. As we review, developments can be seen throughout the season:
Student Captains | Jumping into the the year, we experienced the loss of our main teacher sponsor. This promoted our student captains to take new leadership responsibilities that had never been conducted independently. We were able to persevere through these stressful weeks; working together and succeeding in building a robot worthy of the FIRST Robotics Competition. |
Programming Team | In our 2012 season, our programming team composed of two seniors that were constantly occupied with their busy schedules. Consequently, there lacked a mentor to train the new generation of fresh programmers. This proved problematic, as only one seasoned programmer had familliarity in the field while another group of four lacked battle experience. With access to excellent mentors, we were able to provide the participants with proper knowledge for programming. Today we have a team of four freshman and one sophmore ready to show results at the regional competition. |
Marketing and Communications | Until this point, our team lacked consideration for the business aspect of a proper FIRST Robotics Team. Through pre-season, we were able to compose this website from the ground up and provide improvements during build season. Compared to current applications, our previous teams have not thoroughly interacted with Outreach. We will hopefully establish strong connections with three local elementary schools and help spread the FIRST mission to younger students by the end of this season. |
Financial Team and Fundraising | Because of our success last year in making semi-finals of 2012 Rebound Rumble, we attracted many companies that have made contributions to our team. This is also the first year that our team has pitched our cause to local Rotary clubs, which has provided a very positive feedback. Student run, our financial sub-teams have developed potential over the course of the year. Members learned how to address potential sponsors as well as promote our team mission and ideas. Their valuable skills have fully funded the Cougar Robotics team. |