On 4th of December, Oxford High School held this year’s FIRST Tech Robotics Scrimmage – an event where teams can bring their robots to test out on the game field, meet other teams in the area and then further develop their robots to meet this year’s challenge. The day started early for some of our team members who set up the game field which was completed just before the other teams started to arrive.
At 10:00 we had almost all of the schools in the hall, a total of 10 teams including us. The first half of the day, after Mr. Watts’ short briefing, was dedicated to networking. We introduced ourselves to new teams like Emmbrook School, Magdalen College and Wycombe Abbey, while also catching up with some familiar old teams, like Matthew Arnold or Holmer Green.
A few teams were quick to get their robots on the game field, testing (and showing off) their robot. It was interesting to see their different stages of progress, as we were still scouting for fool-proof mechanisms.
Over the course of the day, our team was highly productive. As we are a large team, we split the jobs – some worked on our robot with lots of success, even sticking on a ramp, others engaged our visitors in conversation about robots, a few continued with programming, offering help to some teams who needed tips on coding.
Some of our newer teammates also took a hand at driving the robot. Although wobbly, it was fun to see them enjoying themselves driving our robot, Cubo, around the field.
Overall, it was an extremely well used day, with lots of useful networking and introductions. The next time we meet will be in the qualifiers in February.
