Outreach and Fundraising

FUNDRAISING


Capital Bots is sponsored by many different companies some of them are:





Virtual/Online Outreach Activities

During this season the Capital Bots team was able to outreach to other professionals in who work with robotics and space! We were also able to teach other children about STEM.

Haycock Steam Night - 

Haycock Steam Night - june 12, 2021

Capital Bots participated in Haycock Elementary School STEAM Night.

Our team got young kids interested in STEM activities; specifically robotics. We demonstrated how our robot worked, like moving, strafing and the subsystems. We took a 3-D printer to demonstrate basic 3-D printing ideas. 

We also presented a slideshow of what our team is about, what we did last year (fundraising and outreach, build, and programming), and answered questions. 



Girls In Technology Connect Event for Robotics 

A team member of Capital Bots, Aamani, represented our team in the GIT Protégé program. During this time, she taught other young women the fundamentals of FTC, including this season's field and challenge. She presented our robot from last year, and she moved through the field to show the movement of the Mecanum wheels. There were many middle school and high school girls who wanted to learn more about FTC and how to join.




Robotics Global Implementation Brainstorm with FLL Team 


An FLL team from New Jersey reached out to us for feedback on their FLL Core Values research project. They developed an app using Django that displays the varying prices of electricity. 


In our virtual meeting, we provided feedback regarding changing the order of information displayed in the app and adding better examples for core values. 




Robot demo and FTC information session at India International School

We conducted an outreach event where we set up a partial field and demonstrated our robot for this season. Kids were really excited about getting a chance to drive the robot and see it in action. Many of them were interested in learning about our recruiting plans for next season. We were able to spread FIRST values to members if the community.





CodeOn Hackathon (Future event)

“CodeOn (formerly Uplift India) is a student-led initiative, working with charities to address social issues through hackathons. We’re currently planning a hackathon to benefit underprivileged people in India. The hackathon will consist of a competition, food and workshops! You’ll learn web development, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Robotics and CAD/Fusion.”


We volunteered to host CAD and Fusion Workshop as part of this event. Also looking at other ways of contributing, such as providing some robot building kits.



CONNECTING WITH INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS

Online Connect Event - Discussion event with an aerospace engineer at JPL.

Our team got an opportunity to connect with Sherwin Goo, an aerospace engineer with NASA JPL. He’s worked on some amazing projects like the Saturn Cassini mission. Joining him was Elaine Ho, the deputy associate administrator for the STEM Engagement Program at NASA Headquarters. We presented about FTC, our team and what we did this season. We asked questions on why they chose their field, what got them started in their career and interesting projects and opportunities are at NASA. One of the interesting things we learned is that NASA has opportunities for many fields, not just rocket scientists and engineers.


Online Connect Event - Discussion event with a Physicist in the  Countermine Division’s Algorithm and Image Processing (AIP) Branch

Our team was able to meet with Mr. Kendall Johnson from the U.S Army itself! He develops and integrates Automated Target Recognition (ATR) capabilities. While in college, he interned at NASA Goddard’s Heliophysics lab for 3 years where he worked with many professional scientists and engineers in the fields of robotics, AI, and Heliophysics. 


He shared with us his passion for building AI robots. Our team had very interesting conversations about neural networks, sensors and the mechanisms he used to build robots. He also gave us some valuable feedback and advice on choosing college majors.



PAST YEARS OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

SPREADING FIRST AND FTC THROUGHOUT OUR LOCAL COMMUNITIES

3D printing booth at Haycock Elementary School STEM Night (2019) - Free

We provided a live demonstration of the 3D printing process by setting up our 3D printer.We showed a demo of the printer making a toy. We explained the 3D printing process to the kids. There were many engaged students, and we had 15 kids sign up for a potential 3D printing class that we were planning to  host. We also held a small booth on the side with a tri-fold explaining our journey through FTC. We raised awareness about FIRST programs to help people join/create teams. We had over 50 people attend our booth.

Introduction to Robotics and FIRST Programs - Free (September 2019)

We conducted a free event at our local library and invited friends and neighbors. We also handed out flyers to parents and kids visiting the library. We gave an introduction about the FTC robotics competition, the challenges, our design process, and how we built and programmed the robot. We allowed kids to drive around our robot, and spoke with them about joining and starting FIRST teams. We had over 30 kids attend our event at Reston Regional Library. 



Free Robotics Training (December 2018)

In this event, we taught kids about basic programming, demonstrated our robot and let them drive the robot. We also presented our design process and the engineering notebook. We had over 50 kids attend our event at Herndon Fortnightly Library.