On Saturday, October 14, twenty-one members of Ferradermis, multiple Ferradermis alumni, and the Washington Bricklayers FIRST LEGO League (FLL) team traveled to Lake Denoon Middle School in Muskego for the inaugural TWIST Off-Season Event hosted by the WarriorBots FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team from Muskego High School. Eighteen FRC robots, representing nineteen schools from Wisconsin and Illinois, took the field in competition beginning at 7 am and ending at approximately 5 pm. Eight FLL teams rotated through two two-hour scrimmages that allowed them to try out their new robots in a first-ever pre-season event for FLL.
TWIST was an event with a twist – all members of the high school drive teams needed to be female or non-binary. TWIST (Together, Women in STEM Thrive) was an event meant to highlight the role of women in STEM and encourage female team members to take on roles that they normally don’t do within the team. For Whitewater High School, sophomore Programming Lead Ace Hudec and sophomore Electro-Mechanical Lead Erison Dreksler had already been members of the Ferradermis drive team for the 2023 season, but Ace took on a new role as Driver on Saturday; Erison remained in the role of Human Player. They were joined on the drive team for Saturday by Robot Operator junior Outreach Lead Maddison LaHaie, Drive Coach junior Game Strategy Lead Emerson Dunham, and Technician senior Administrative Team Member Ghati Binagi. In regular season competition, the role of Drive Coach is filled by an adult, the team’s Head Coach and alum Jacob Lee. Coach Lee took on an advisory only role on Saturday, consulting with the drive team between matches.
Ferradermis is currently 61% female, which is highly unique in the robotics world. What did this mean for TWIST? It meant that some of our team members were able to step into roles on other drive teams for teams that didn’t have enough female members! Administrative Team Captain senior Cosette Wildermuth-Breitzman served as Technician for FRC Team #8701 Graffiti from Greendale High School where she was joined by Electrical Team Member sophomore Belle Cohen who served as Graffiti’s Human Player. Sophomore Nina Heim stepped in at the last minute to fill out the drive team for FRC Team #930 from Mukwonago High School, serving as their Technician. This would lead to a very unique situation at the end of the day, when the Ferradermis alliance and the alliance containing Greendale and Mukwonago faced off in the event finals!
CAD Team Lead junior Zoe Olson took on the role of Head Scout, representing the team on the field for Alliance Selections while Safety Captain sophomore Elora Wildermuth-Breitzman spent most of the day watching over the team’s pit. Sophomore Margaret Brown continued to film matches for the team, bringing the footage to the drive team for analysis after every match. Robot Team Captain Andrew O’Toole and Business Team Lead Andrew Zimmermann worked with the scouting data being gathered in order to prepare a “pick list” for alliance selections. Scouts included sophomores Chacha Binagi and Rae Breisath who helped support freshmen Toby Kapfer, Ian Kowalkiewicz, Carson Miller, Preston Miller, Kai Peterson, and Ava Van Daele.
Ferradermis ranked #3 out of 18 robots after going 5-3 in the qualification round where robots are randomly assigned to play three-on-three matches. Ranking is based not only on overall match results but on specific tasks robots can accomplish during the matches. The top seed, the host WarriorBots, then asked Ferradermis to join their alliance for the elimination round, a double-elimination playoff tournament. Warrior and Ferradermis invited FRC Team #5125 Hawks on the Horizon from McKinley Park, Illinois to join them to round out their playoff alliance.
The #1 alliance received a bye in the first round of the playoffs and then defeated the #4 seeded alliance 106-103 and the #3 seeded alliance 113-95 to move undefeated into the finals. The #6 seeded alliance made up of Greendale, Mukwonago, and Roaring Robotics from Naperville, Illinois worked their way through the bottom half of the playoff bracket, defeating the #2, #3, and #4-seeded alliances to meet Ferradermis in the finals. In the finals, the champion is declared after a best-of-three series of matches. Ferradermis and Warrior fought hard, with their third teammate unable to move for much of one match, and lost 115-89 and 112-102. The difference in each of the finals matches was the ability of the robots to balance the charging station platform in the final 30 seconds of the match.
A highlight of the day for Ferradermis was their receipt of the “TWIST Ties” Award, which celebrated the team that was the most fun to play with and best embodied the values of Gracious Professionalism. This award was selected based on peer nominations and was a direct reflection of the team’s willingness to support other teams who were short-handed. Gracious Professionalism is a trait highly valued in FIRST Robotics and was a phrase coined by the late Woodie Flowers, co-founder of the program. According to FIRST, “Gracious professionals learn and compete like crazy, but treat one another with respect and kindness in the process.”
Ferradermis was thrilled to see so many of its alumni involved and giving back to the program throughout the day. In addition to Ferradermis head coach Jacob Lee who works as an engineer in Menomonee Falls, Ferradermis founding member Wesley Salverson, a new MSOE grad working as an engineer in Fond du Lac, was on hand as a mentor for FRC Team Fondy Fire. Alum Rosie Aschenbrener volunteered as a judge, while alum Reilly Aschenbrener worked field-side for the entire tournament. Daniel Portwine, a 2023 graduate who will soon be mentoring FRC Team UPS in Milwaukee on behalf of MSOE, was there to support Ferradermis. It was also great to see alum Andrew Rollette there to support his little sister who is a member of the Washington FLL team.
Washington teacher Chris Nate led the Washington Bricklayers FLL team through three robot runs during the first-ever FLL pre-season scrimmage. The team was able to show great improvement, increasing their score from 100 to 155 from their first to second run. They were also able to showcase their Innovation Project publicly for the first time. The team now has until mid-November to take what they learned and make improvements before taking the field in competition. Catch FLL teams from all of our district elementary schools and the middle school in action at Mukwonago High School for a Regional event on Saturday, November 18. Like all FIRST events, this is free and open to the public.
As for Ferradermis, they will continue to meet and train in preparation for the reveal of their new season’s game during the kickoff event on January 6 before taking the field with a new robot for the 2024 competition in Duluth, Minnesota on February 29. Watch for them downtown on Ghoul’s Night Out and in the Whitewater Holiday Parade of Lights.
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