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This past October of 2021, the Doyenne Inspiration team, along with Pitt Pirates and Titanium Tigers, hosted an all-girls/non-binary robotics competition! The competition brought together over 12 teams from across the state with over 100 participants eager to explore the fields of STEM. With the founder of Doyenne, Ash Dhungel, acting as the MC throughout the day, the matches were filled with excitement and fair rivalry. 

With all of the hard work from the past months of planning the event and fixing the robot from the previous competition, the team was beyond ready to put the robot to the test and watch the competition come together.

Though the 5190 Falcons did not bring home the winning trophy, the actions of spreading knowledge about engineering and programming, supporting other women and non-binary people, adapting to the COVID-19 circumstances, and showing spirited teamwork were a greater gift and accomplishment for the team. 

Doyenne Inspiration plans to continue this sense of unity by holding speaker series with women prominent in their career fields talking to the youth generation as well as once again hosting the annual competition in the fall of 2022.

The last two years have been a time of reflection and have brought changes in FRC 5190 in how our team approaches new student training and recruitment. In a normal year, new students join together to create mini competition teams and prototype and build a mini-robot to get hands-on experience of all the different aspects of FRC Competition. This mini-competition was a chance for new students, and the older students willing to mentor, to develop connections and prepare for the build season effectively and in a fun way. However, the shift to the virtual environment has brought changes to this ideal method as meeting in-person everyday to build this mini-robot was not possible.

Needless to say, the Green Hope Falcons took a new approach. Utilizing our online presence, we have reached around 45 students who are now proud members of our team. For pre-season training, our team developed Falcon Academy, where the current leadership team along with veteran members joined to create classes teaching new students in fields of mechanical, electrical, CAD, programming, marketing and business. This way, members still had an opportunity to develop an interest in some of the many subteams that FIRST competition contains. 

Now, let’s take a look at what some freshman members have adapted to FRC 5190. “My favorite thing about the team so far is the 70-20-10 rule where you work with the subgroup of your main interest 70% of the time, another subgroup of your other interest 20% of the time, and a third subgroup which you know nothing about 10% of the time. This exposes us to multiple fields (for example, engineering, programming, marketing, business, etc.) and makes us well-rounded individuals as well as teaches us how to work with others who have diverse skills and backgrounds,” says Aayush Kumar. Aayush is now the team’s main human player and has made significant contributions to almost every aspect of engineering our robot. Even through the virtual pre-season period, he has been able to make an impact on the team in the build space and at competition. Yash Gupta is another new student who joined our team after learning about robotics through the team’s alumni. Curious about robotics, he is now our team’s Cheer Lead and makes important contributions in engineering the robot at the buildspace and competition strategy/scouting. “My favorite thing about the team so far is being able to see the robot go from a design to a prototype to a functional and successful race robot…after joining the team, I learned a lot about how robots work and general engineering practices. It has allowed me to look at different robots and understand how they work better, increasing my curiosity.”

Moving forward, we can say that the new members are the heart of our team’s progression as their commitment to the team is what continues our team, passing knowledge and experiences while also the thrill of FIRST Competition. 

On March 18th, the Green Hope Falcons participated in this first NC Districts competition after a year-long wait caused by the COVID Pandemic. The team competing in Asheville had a great experience with the autonomous code in which the robot scored 4 points almost every game! The shooter and climber had their own positives as it was able to swivel around with agility and the climber was very reliable. At the end of the Qualification matches, FRC 5190 was ranked 6th and had a record of 10 wins and six losses! On Sunday, the team formed an alliance with Triple Strange (1533) and Girls on Fire (5679) to make it all the way to the Semifinals. With their robust robot design and versatility, the team brought home the Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors! The new students, along with the drive team who competed in a competition for the first time, had a great hands-on experience and learned various new skills and strategies: ready to take on the next district competition! See you at Guilford! 

The Green Hope Falcons participated in their second district competition this year in Guilford County. With the experience at Asheville, the team was better prepared this time around and was able to maneuver the robot around better while also scoring more points in the upper hub. The opposing teams were more fierce. However, the Falcons were able to keep up. At the end of the qualifications, the team’s record was ten wins, four losses, and one tie, ranking 5th in the competition! The Falcons joined Valence Robotics (8429) and The Flying Platypi (2655) in an alliance and made it to the quarterfinals, where they lost to Terrorbytes (4561), The Hedgehogs (587), and Knights (8746).

Nonetheless, The Green Hope Falcons earned the Autonomous Award sponsored by Ford for their very precise auto code. The Falcons will advance to the NC State competition on April 9th! We can not wait to see you there! 

In preparation for the build season, FRC Team 5190 members are currently participating in the “Low Bridge” Mini-Competition. Teams are given approximately 6 weeks to prepare for the mini-competition, which will occur on December 5th. Each of the three subteams consists of mentors, engineers, programmers, marketing students, and strategists. Students will be marketing their team through the creation of a reveal video and logo while the robot will be built and programmed around the tasks that are required by the competition. 

Team 1 (SUCC) has completed all of the electronics for their robot and their pneumatic systems. Additionally, they have designed their vacuum intake system and written the code that will drive the robot. They are working toward completing the elevator, the winch, and fine-tuning their auto-balancing software.

Team 2 (Turret Tech) has completed its turret system. They are hard at work at designing and assembling the wrist of their robot and also building the intake system.

Team 3 (Santa’s Helpers) has completed the intake for their robot. They are working on mounting it and developing other systems in their robot.

All the teams are making great progress on their robots, logos, and reveal videos. The teams are excited for the mini-competition!

Team FRC 5190, The Green Hope Falcons, Team 2642, Pitt Pirates, and FIRST North Carolina are hosting Doyenne Inspiration, an all-girls off-season competition at Green Hope High School, on October 19th.

Doyenne Inspiration is about empowering young women by allowing them to get exposure in an FRC competition. They will get exposure to all aspects of FIRST Deep Space and will create bonds with their female peers. Doyenne Inspiration’s purpose is to create a community of young women who are supportive of each other in this male-dominated sport and the industry that follows. We strive to create a more diverse community of leaders in FIRST and encourage them to dive into future careers in STEM fields. Spread this information with your team to make this event impactful.

Register here: http://www.firstnorthcarolina.org/doyenne-inspiration

Questions? Please see our FAQ page here: http://www.firstnorthcarolina.org/doyenne-inspiration-faqs

Or email us at [email protected]

FRC Team 5190 recently attended the Asheville District event at UNC Asheville from March 22th-24th.

Saturday was spent playing qualification matches, scouting, and strategizing for later matches. The team won the majority of their qualification matches, and we ended the day with the highest rank and a lot of confidence for Sunday.

We ended the qualification matches on Sunday morning with great success, where our 8 wins and 4 losses placed us in the number one spot. Our first pick was Team 2655, The Flying Platypi, and our second pick was Team 2640, HOTBOTZ. Our alliance won both of our quarterfinal matches with the scores of 68-67 and 78-62, and also won our two semifinal matches with scores of 80-57 and 84-63. Though we lost our first match in final, we won the final two matches with scores of 64-47 and 84-69.

Team 5190 was elevated to have been awarded the autonomous award, and delighted to have won the UNC Asheville District Event alongside our partners, Team 2655 and Team 2640. We were given a medal, plaque, trophy, and blue banner for being the event’s winner. Our team congratulates everyone for their awards and participation! The team is now preparing for the FIRST NC State Championship from April 6th to April 8th.

FRC Team 5190 recently attended the Wake County District event at Holly Springs High School from March 8th-10th.

Friday, March 8th was a preparation day, when the team was setting up the pit, checking the robot to ensure all systems were working, and participating in practice matches that emulated the matches that we would play Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday and Sunday morning were spent playing qualification matches. During the qualification matches, the team also strategized and scouted for future matches during the playoffs. We ended the qualification matches with 7 wins and 5 losses and placing 16th.

The remainder of Sunday was used for the playoff matches. We allied with Team 7671, Fire Hazard, and Team 4828, RoboEagles. We won both of our quarterfinal matches with scores of 50-47 and 54-43. Though we lost our first semifinal game, we managed to win the last two with scores of 68-57 and 65-53. Finals were really intense for both sides and very exciting, but unfortunately we lost the first and third match 68-57 and 65-53 and drew the second match 53-53.

Team 5190 was already enthusiastic about placing as a Wake County District Event Finalist, but we were even more delighted to have also been awarded the Engineering Inspiration Award. We had a great time playing with the two teams in our alliance and we are really excited for our second event at UNC Asheville!