The Whitewater High School FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Team #6574 Ferradermis traveled to Duluth for the Northern Lights Regional from February 28 – March 3, and came home as the Impact Award Winners, and as a result, qualified for FIRST Championships in Houston, Texas in April! The regional hosted 55 FRC teams from 5 states including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa. There are four championship qualifying spots from each regional – the captain of the winning playoff alliance, their first pick in alliance selections, the Impact Award winner, and the Engineering Inspiration Award winner.
The Impact Award, as stated by FIRST, is “the most prestigious award in FIRST Robotics. It honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the mission of FIRST. It was created to keep the central focus of FIRST Robotics Competition on the ultimate goal of transforming the culture in ways that will inspire greater levels of respect and honor for science and technology, as well as encouraging more of today’s youth to become science and technology leaders.”
The Impact Award is highly competitive and highly valued in the FIRST community. The submission requires that students respond to 13 questions in an executive summary, write a 10,000-character essay, produce a 3-minute video, prepare a 7-minute presentation, ready themselves for a Q & A session with the judges, and provide detailed documentation for everything that they write or speak about. The content may only reference activities from the team’s last 3 years.
The student Impact Team of Cosette Wildermuth-Breitzman, Maddison LaHaie, and Belle Cohen dressed as tour guides and wowed the judges with their presentation which took them on a “tour” of the impact made by Ferradermis within the team membership, school, community, and state. Items the students highlighted included multiple demonstrations for younger students in the community, a day where the team helped local Girl Scouts earn their robotics badges, presentations given at state and regional conferences, and advocating for FIRST at the State Capitol.
When Ferradermis travels to an overnight event, the team always attempts to include an educational opportunity on its day one agenda. This year, the team was able to spend a couple of hours at the Great Lakes Aquarium before the pit setup crew had to go to work. At least one meal is set aside as a team meal, and in Duluth the tradition is to go to Sammy’s Pizza. Ferradermis has also started a tradition for the Saturday evening after the Duluth event ends – bowling and pizza at Superior Lanes.
The 2024 Ferradermis robot, named Chief Lee the Tangerine because of its many orange components, took the field in practice matches on Thursday, qualification matches on Friday and Saturday, and eventually as part of the #1 seeded alliance for the playoffs on Saturday afternoon. The drive team consisting of Driver Andrew O’Toole, Operator Kay Mikos, Human Player Erison Dreksler, and Technician Nina Heim led the team onto the field under the direction of Drive Coach Jacob Lee.
At a regional, each team is assigned a 10’ x 10’ x 10’ space to work on their robot, known as their pit. Safety Captain Elora Wildermuth-Breitzman kept the pit clean and safe while representing the team in a daily meeting and even taking a volunteer shift stopping pedestrian traffic on the robot travel path to the field. The Safety Team was honored to receive the Safety FIRST award given by another local team, Nicolet FEAR. Programming Subteam Lead Ace Hudec spent nearly the entire event in the pit enhancing the robot’s functionality in between matches by making changes to the code.
Gathering detailed scouting data is a huge part of developing match strategy and planning for playoff alliance selections. Ferradermis Game Strategy Subteam Lead Emerson Dunham worked in advance of the competition to organize a scouting alliance with MORE Robotics from St. Thomas More High School, CORE Robotics from the combined Waukesha high schools, and the Mechanical Mustaches from Chicago. Each team provided two scouts at a time for hour-long rotations, working under the supervision of Ferradermis Head Scouts Zoe Olson and Andrew Zimmermann. The students were each assigned a particular robot to watch in each match and used a system of Android tablets to record their data which then synced to a master tablet. The data was then be analyzed through WarriorWatch, a system of spreadsheets developed by the WarriorBots from Muskego, a regular scouting partner for Ferradermis when the teams are at the same event. Students taking scouting shifts in the stands and sometimes rotating into the pit to work on the robot included Cyrus Hudec, Preston Miller, Carson Miller, Toby Kapfer, and Rae Breisath.
Students also worked to document every move the Ferradermis robot made on the field. Margaret Brown filmed each match and then quickly moved to meet the drive team back in the pit so they could analyze the footage. Meg Roselle used the team’s media badge to go with the drive team to matches to capture field-side photos and video that could be used in her social media posts on behalf of the team.
Chief Lee the Tangerine was expected to perform well on the field, and by the end of the competition, it was doing everything it could to contribute points to its three-robot alliances. However, poor overall performances by our randomly assigned alliances in the qualification round, combined with a qualification match schedule that was ranked the second most difficult at the event, Ferradermis found itself at the bottom of the rankings when qualifications ended. However, highlighting the importance of good scouting data, MORE Robotics was able to look beyond the rankings and appreciate the quality of the Ferradermis robot and drive team. As the #1 ranked team at the event, MORE selected Ferradermis to join them on their alliance for the playoffs. After winning their first two playoff matches, the alliance was eliminated by the eventual champion when the other two robots on the alliance, MORE and Sabre Robotics from Minnesota, experienced mechanical and electrical issues on the field. The Ferradermis alliance officially finished in third place.
The two 2024 Dean’s List nominees for Ferradermis are interviewed at one regional event of their choice to try to become Dean’s List Finalists. Dean’s List is the only individual award in FIRST and is intended to recognize the leadership and dedication of the most outstanding secondary school students from FIRST. Ferradermis was proud to submit Erison Dreksler, Electro-Mechanical Subteam Lead, and Andrew O’Toole, Technical Team Captain, as its nominees this year. The pair opted to complete their interviews in Duluth.
Thank you to the families, community members, and members of the Whitewater Fire Department who came out to welcome the team home on Sunday, March 3! The team spliced together video footage from the awards ceremony as well as photos from the welcome home celebration.
Ferradermis will compete in two additional regional events before heading for Houston. We invite community members to join us in Milwaukee at UWM Panther Arena for the Wisconsin Regional on Saturday and Sunday, March 16 and 17. The event is free and open to the public. The team will also be in Chicago for the Midwest Regional over Spring Break. Ferradermis is truly excited for that opportunity as the event is hosting teams from 6 countries and 10 states including Hawaii, Florida, California, and New York!
Although the team may not compete for the Impact Award at the next two regionals, our Impact Team will work with other teams to help them prepare during the Impact Exchange held at each regional, and they will continue to plan for their presentation and judge Q & A in Houston. The robot will continue to compete, and should our team earn another qualifying spot at the Wisconsin or Midwest Regional, we will generate a wildcard, allowing an alternate team to head to Houston.
Ferradermis is now in major fundraising mode, needing to raise as much as $50,000 for the trip to Houston in order to transport and house 30 people for 5 days. The team is hoping to host a series of restaurant nights at various locations in town and will be reaching out to local companies to request additional financial sponsorships. Individual donations of any amount are very welcome (and tax deductible). Donations can be made through the team website at https://www.ferradermis.org/ via credit card or checks can be sent to the school in care of Laura Masbruch. Checks should be made out to WHS with a notation that they are for Ferradermis. The school address is 534 South Elizabeth in Whitewater. The team is also selling Kwik Trip Cards and the new WUSD Robotics Booster Club is hosting an online plant sale.
The team could not do what it does without the tremendous community support that it receives. Thank you, Whitewater!
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