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(tune in next week for Part 2: Sponsorship)
Competing on robotics teams is impossible without funding. Robotics is an expensive sport, and fundraising allows teams to do what they do! This being said, the process of fundraising can be difficult to start and to continue. So here are some tips on how to start and what to look for when setting up and running fundraisers. How to Start
Once you’ve set the groundwork for raising money, your team is ready to go! But how do you find sponsors and fundraising opportunities? Finding Fundraisers
Setting up Fundraisers
(tune in next week for part 2: Sponsorship) This blog was written by anonymous. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule.
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The Da Vinci Code (By Dan Brown) is one of my favorite books, and being able to learn more about Leonardo, and see his works inches away from my face was AWESOME! In 1452, during the Renaissance, a genius was born with the name Leonardo Da Vinci. When he was young, his uncles arranged for him to apprenticeship in the trade of architecture, sculpture, and art. He fascinated with the things around him, and felt the desire to understand the way this world works. It was his habit to always carry around folded pieces of scrap paper, where he could record things he observed, or theories that he formed. Those fragile pieces of 500 year old paper in Leonardo’s own hand, were what we saw, right in front of us! Fun fact: whenever he tried to show motion, he would also repeat and thicken the lines. His notes were tiny and neat, with little drawings on the side. Leonardo not only left incredible paintings for artists, but a legacy for scientist and engineers.
Absolutely amazing in the fact that he could do it all- observe well, write descriptively, draw lifely, and think ingenuisly. He wanted to study the mountains that were around him, and theorized that they formed because of an cave scalpel somewhere, like a see-saw: if something comes up, something else has to come down. Looking at the moon, he saw bumps, and waves, which he was only seen with by the ocean, and believed that the moon had a lot of water on it. Sure, we know today that it wasn’t correct, but just that scientific thinking and hypothesizing is something that we can learn from! Not to mention, he discovered what we today call “earth shine”, which is being able to see not only the shining crescent, but also the dark disk of the moon. Already, he made analogies with water and air currents to how the world is a system, and his genius mind had connected that sound with waves- today’s sound waves! Through observing, Leonardo discovered that water droplets, upon landing on the ground makes a crown shape. Five hundred years back, was he already spot on with something that we need super advance photography technology to spot- that’s mind blowing! He was not only a scientist, artist, but moreover an engineer, who tried to develop a solution for the flooding river. Leonardo’s solution is something that we use today-a dam. He was so great, that the famous painter Raphael, like many people today, deeply admired him, and even painted Leonardo as Pluto on one of his morals! Killer eyesight, observation, and drawing skills, helped him see the world in a different way than majority of the people. He believed that you needed to understand what you observed. We shouldn’t be afraid to be curious and hypothesis. As the wise Leonardo said, “it’s not enough to believe what you see. You must also understand what you see.” One of the biggest things I took away from this experience was what Leonard Da Vinci showed us-to take life slowly, and notice the things around us. Sometimes we’re so focused on sprinting to our destination, that we miss the beautiful scenery along the way. Sometimes we’re too busy looking into the future that we forget the enjoy the present. With the technology today, everything is moving and advancing so quickly, and sometimes we just need to slow down to be able to fully appreciate the beautiful world around us. With all of your classes, and jobs, and responsibilities, and now Super Regional Tournaments, it’s important to remember not to forget about yourself in the hustle and bustle. It’s hard, when you have a lot of obligations, to take care of yourself. But your own well-being should be your first obligation.
I realized this slowly over the last few months after I had been going to bed at 3am everyday for over two weeks. I couldn’t stay awake through any of my classes, my graders were suffering, and so were my relationships. I was getting everything done that I needed to, but none of it was done well and I wasn’t proud of any of it. I realized that for me to feel normal and healthy again, I needed to recognize my own needs: sleep, eating well, and taking time to do the things I wanted to and enjoyed doing. This doesn’t mean I quit everything, nor does it mean I stopped fulfilling my obligations to my teachers, my teammates, and my friends. Instead, I asked for help. I gave myself room to breathe and tried to give myself a break when I was overwhelmed. My team understood when I told them I couldn’t do all of the work I had committed to, and they helped me take tasks off of my to-do list. I had to take care of myself in order to be proud of anything I was doing, and to make everything I was doing to feel meaningful. Doing this has made me alert and proactive again, and has allowed me to really enjoy my time in FIRST Robotics. This blog was written by anonymous. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule. 3D printing was one of those things that I always wondered about, but never actually did any research. Well, thanks to this trip to 3D printing company, Stratasys, I uncovered a whole new world! I learned a lot of technical things from the tour guides, but just saying that I learned a couple things would be an understatement. This totally blew my mind, and I was geeking out. It’s not only a tool, but something that is a start of a new generation, new era of thinking and innovation.
We started our tour with Polyjet 3D printing. Polyjet is liquid-based, which takes the ratios of the liquid plastic, and “jets” them out to build the final product. There’s also another type of 3D printing called FDM (Fuse Deposition Modeling). It was interesting to see a injection molding, where they inject the liquid plastic between two molds for finer, detailed designs. I especially found their “rotary into retillier motion” 3D piece fascinating- it would spin a wheel, and get a linear motion (instead of the usual circular motion!). In the lobby, we were all drawn to a giant 3D printed creature that looked like it walked out of Harry Potter. There, we were introduced to casting material, like paint, to give the printed parts a more desired look. We also dug deeper into how they work with customers, plus R&D (research and development) and Testing. Basically, it’s designing the product, 3D printing it, and continue tweaking/developing it, till it’s to the point where they bring in consumers to test it on. That sounded really cool, and Evan (our guide) described the best part of his job to be helping and working with people. It absolutely took our breath away to see the world’s largest multi-material 3D printer in action! It was huge, and usually prints for 130+ hours! Here, we learned that a big factor in how long it takes to create a new part, depends on how tall/thick it is. We also got to peek in the backroom, where they presented an innovative idea. The problem with FDM printers are that they create air gaps in the parts, and so someone came up with the genius idea of using a vacuum mold, and pouring the plastic to fill in the gaps. 3D parts are becoming an amazing help in the world, and branching into practically every industry. Fun fact: ESD printed parts, if put between two antennas, can break the interference of radio signals. Another fun fact we stumbled across, upon almost dropping $800 worth of vero-blue (a type of plastic): vero-clear comes out yellowish, but if you leave it under the sun for a while, it will transform into see-through clear. And, who could forget support material? The “magic” that makes printed parts move. With support material, it gives the part a matte feel, or else it becomes glossy. In the end, we all received 3D printed catapults that are made from a certain plastic, that can resist gamma radiation! Overall, I had a blast learning about 3D printing! There’s so much we could do with it! As long as you have a design, you can create it with a 3D printer! It has made developing prototypes much more efficient, and is less costly. They have already started with 3D printed arms and legs in the biomedical fields. It was incredibly interesting, inspiring, and innovative! With what they have already accomplished, and the endless possibilities of what could happen. As someone wise said today, “if you can think it, you can make it!” |
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March 2025
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