Titanium Robotics held another week of its popular summer camp. The third week of sessions was extremely busy for members in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, programming and CAD alike. Every member of every field was engaged and immersed in new tasks and jobs.
Starting on Wednesday, June 19, CAD (computer aided design) and mechanical engineering began building prototypes to exemplify the framework for the new mechanism the team wishes to incorporate into the robot for the next competition. Newcomers in mechanical engineering split into two groups, each building their own model of the same mechanism in order for every member to get familiar with how the mechanism would work and the logistics of building it. CAD members split into two groups as well, and alternated between working in CAD and mechanical engineering. This was done in order to allow members of CAD to become accustomed to the mechanism and how it is built in order to create the drawings in the best way. Electrical engineering moved on from the electrical board to pneumatics on last year’s practice robot and programming continued their introductory lessons.
The third week of Titanium Robotics’ summer camp finished up on Thursday, June 20, with a mentor review. Five mentors—one a teacher at San Marino High School and the other four alumni of the team—heard presentations from the incoming team members about the specifics of how the mechanism is designed to work during the actual competition. Mentors asked several questions and gave helpful feedback and insight for both newcomers and returning members to revise their original design and create new prototypes. This mentor review was designed not only to engage newcomers into the revision process and to come up with new ways to improve on the last design, but also to expose incoming team members to the meticulous and repetitive questioning and redrafting team members do together during the actual competition season with the goal of coming up with the best design possible.
Returning team member Marcus Chua is extremely excited with the progress incoming team members have made and the opportunity summer camp gives new members to learn and returning members to teach. Marcus remarked, “Having the opportunity to be able to teach so many kids who are interested in fields in STEM is amazing, and I think that our summer camp is a great way to introduce students to the world of robotics.”
During the fourth week of summer camp, team members are going to review the suggestions provided by mentors and come up with ways to refine and enhance the mechanism’s current design, and hopefully develop others.
