FIRST TECH Challenge Team
Meet the team
We are a FIRST Tech Challenge team from Jacksonville, Florida. The team is made of five members ages 13-16, and we are all homeschooled.
All of us were apart of the Mega Mavericks, an FLL team which we now mentor. We also mentor the Mighty Mavericks, a FLL Junior team.
Meet The Team
"CROC"
Croc enjoys sports, reading, working out with his older brother, listening to music, practicing his viola, and hanging out with friends. He was a part of the mega mavericks for his first FLL season but then he moved up to FTC. This is his second season on the team and he is currently the captain and works on fundraising, 3D CAD designs, documentation, and is a spokesperson for the team. In the future, he plans a career in welding or HVAC
"AUTO"
Auto plays video games and likes modding games. He is apart of the coding team and is the driver coach. Auto has done karate for 3 years and is a junior black belt. He has also played soccer for 8 years and is currently apart of an undefeated team. He did FLL once, this being his third year doing FIRST.
"Nomad"
Nomad is a coder for the Metal Maverick. He also works on 3D cad designs, fundraising, and is a spokesperson for the team. He enjoys programming, graphic design, and flying planes in a simulator in his free time. He has attended several coding classes and was a member of a FLL team that obtained the NE Florida Championship and participated in an International Invitational competition. His career goals are to become a programmer and an engineer for Boeing.
"Maru"
Maru is the mechanical engineer for the Metal Mavericks. In his spare time, he likes to build, weld, and tinker. He successfully ran his own business selling chicken coops and has a US Patent from an FLL team project. He has been in FIRST since 2017 and completed 4 seasons of FLL and this will be his 3rd FTC season. He invented a wallpaper scraper attachment for his beloved drill. He would like to be a mechanical engineer, millwright, or entrepreneur in the future.
"Goose"
Goose is the newest member of the team. This will be his 8th season in FIRST. He has competed at FLL Explore, FLL Challenge, and now FIRST Tech Challenge levels. In his spare time, he plays video games, swims, cooks, and hangs out with friends. He has an entrepreneurial mind and runs a small farm business selling honey and eggs. His current plans for the future are to attend culinary school or become an electrical engineer.
"Brackets"
Brackets has been doing FIRST alongside Bruh for five years. In his spare time, he enjoys programming of any kind, ping pong, playing video games, and occasionally tinkering with programmable circuit boards such as Micro:Bit, Raspberry Pi, and Arduino. Brackets wants to go into either Software Development or Web Development in the future.
"Bruh"
Bruh joined along with Brackets close after Goose. Bruh has been in First for five years, four of which were in First Lego League. In his spare time, he enjoys playing video games, ping pong, coding in Scratch, and swimming. He also has interests in flying planes. He does not yet know what kind of career path he will take.
About Our Robots
FreeShipping
2021-2022 Season Robot
TBA
2023-2024 Season robot
Coming Soon
Our robot’s name is G-Force. We specifically designed our robot to be as versatile as possible. Whether it meant we were maneuvering around the junctions or trying to score on the ground junctions or high junctions we made sure we could do it all efficiently. The arm was designed to reach the lowest junction up to the highest junction. The collection device has only gone through a few iterations throughout the season. Our latest change was to increase the speed of the intake because we noticed that compared to a claw it was a little slower.
What our robot is known for the most is having a large number of end-game points because we focused on spreading our cones out to maximize our ownership points. We had a pretty good record of completing the circuit.
FreeShipping
2021-2022 Season Robot
Our robot’s name is FreeShipping. We specifically designed our robot to be able to fit through the barriers, but it also can drive over them. The arm was designed to have the ability to lift the heaviest objects in the playing field. The scoop has gone through many iterations throughout the season. The scoop has a motorized collection system and is the most efficient iteration. The arm is equipped with self-leveling. Before it would constantly tilt over due to the floppiness of the arm.
The primary skill of our robot is to put blocks into the shared shipping hub. We used mecanum because we noticed that the wheels, we were previously using had poor traction.
Our robot also has the ability to spin the carousel and deliver the ducks using the wheel on the top.
Past Season Achievements
PowerPlay 2022/23
- Winning Alliance Championship
- Inspire Award 3rd Place
- Connect Award 1st Place
- Promote Award 1st Place
- Bid to State Championship
- Think Award 3rd Place
Freight Frenzy 2021/22
- Think Award 2nd Place
- Motivate Award 1st Place
- Semi-finalist in the alliance round
- Bid to State Championship
- Placed 13th in Scott division.