Friend’s boasts a wide variety of clubs, and among the most interesting of them is the robotics club. Friends’ robotics club participates in a worldwide engineering competition called FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), and a unique experience for anyone interested in STEM. The school’s team, the Bad News Bots, is one of the strongest teams in Deleware. 

The Bad News Bots have been an FTC team for a long time now, and have an established presence in Deleware. “It started while I was here, Jenks and I started it… so it should be about 9 years old.” Initially started by Mr. Cauchy and Mr. Jenks, they started the team in Friends because they “… love the competitive aspect of it, love that its challenging, [and] love that its open-ended… All these aspects make it a really good program.” 

Last year, the 2021-2022 game was called Freight Frenzy, and the Bad News Bots built a robot and performed well in skirmishes throughout the state. They qualified for the state finals and placed excellently with an individual ranking of third. 

While last year’s game was exciting, it was not as interesting as this year’s game, Powerplay. “Last year… if you looked at the top teams in the world… they all converged on the same design… It looked kinda boring. With this year’s game, there’s way more strategy, especially with the circuits… I also just think that because of how high you have to move objects… it’s more of an engineering design challenge… it’s a lot more difficult, but it makes me a lot more excited for the possibilities.” says Frank Murphy, the lead programmer. 

The Bad News Bots has been a smaller team in the past, but they have received a lot of interest after driving a robot around during the club fair. “In previous years, it has been a couple of students who have done the brunt of the work. This year, we can offload work, and designate tasks better. It’s nice; we can have multiple projects going at the same time,” says Devin Wallace, the lead designer. 

However, FTC isn’t just about winning competitions and building something cool. FTC’s spirit is in the love students have for STEM. Furthermore, FTC is built around the idea of “gracious professionalism.” According to the FTC mission, the term gracious professionalism is a process that encourages high-quality work and emphasizes and respects individuals and the community. However, it can mean something slightly different and more personal to each budding engineer in the program. “It means that, whether you win or lose, you learn from the experience, and you’re not angry about it, and you accept, and you move on. Everyone else is just as good as you,” says Gabe Fletcher, team strategist. “We’re all people, playing the same game, together… Everyone is equal.”

Quotes:

Mr. Cauchy

“It started while I was here, Jenks and I started it… so it should be about 9 years old.”

“My experience with FIRST Robotics Challenge, I had done that in another school and thought it was a good opportunity for kids here. And I liked the FIRST Tech Challenge: the fact that it was a smaller robot, it was a bit more accessible.”

“The thing that I like, and Jenks likes, the best, is that these are open-ended challenges; they are extremely difficult. The fact that you can come up with so many different solutions, and that students learn there is nothing simple in real life

“I love the competitive aspect of it, I love that its challenging, I love that its open-ended… All these aspects make it a really good program.”

“Getting those interests into kids who can actually spend some time…

“One of the things I like about FIRST is the fact that people are willing to share their solutions… you can get help. The community is so helpful; they are basically begging to help you… I love the fact that at one point you’re competing against them and the next time they’re your partner… You’re competitive, but your nice to each other.”

“The idea that just because someone is your competitor, you don’t look at them in a different way. We’re all people… What FIRST is trying to do there is recognize that collaboration in all walks of life is a good thing… We can have disagreements or we can compete against each other, but we should be nice to each other.”

Frank Murphy

“I chose to join in my Freshman Year…I joined because I enjoy doing a variety of robotics and AI computer-vision type related things. I really just like doing the different parts: the mechanical stuff and… It’s very rewarding too, because I feel like I don’t really do anything like it in school… I gain a lot of knowledge that’s applicable, that’s not just super specific to the robotics competition but it’s applicable elsewhere. It’s just a really unique experience and it adds a lot to my ability to learn.”

“I love that we don’t really do things other teams do just because it’s convection. We often try to do the simplest thing possible… What I try to shoot for is that we follow the engineering and design principles for making our robot. We create our vision, and then we try to make the simplest thing that satisfies all the requirements… I like how we just take a simple, logical approach, and we try to figure out and understand all the systems.”

“The new game is crazy this year. Last year, the competition was Freight Frenzy, and if you looked at the top teams in the world… they all converged on the same design… It looked kinda boring. With this year’s game, there’s way more strategy, especially with the circuits… I also just think that because of how high you have to move objects… it’s more of an engineering design challenge… I just think it’s a lot more difficult, but it makes me a lot more excited for the possibilities.”

“It’s always great to have more people. Even if you don’t want to participate in the competition, you can still learn about robotics. We are always open to new members and it’s really great that we have a lot more now. I’m looking forward to seeing further interest in robotics.”

“If you have any interest in robotics, if you just want to come and watch, you’re more than welcome. We have meetings on Sundays.”

Frank also mentions the Workbenchs for new members. ~6:40

“I think that gracious professionalism just means being respectful to the other teams that you are competing against and competing with. Every year, the competition is always set up so you are put with other teams against another team of two… Working together is actually a pretty big part of it. Like an example is last year, the team that we were allianced with in the state championship, we had to coordinate our autonomous programs at the start because our robots would have run into each other. There’s coordination like that, but also respecting the rules, the referees, and the other teams. 

Devin Wallace

“I joined my Freshmen year, because I thought I would be interested in robotics…”

“Theres something so satisfying about when you get to build something, and you take so long, and it takes numerous amounts of refining and it finally works. Theres something so satisfying about that.”

“The game strategy this year…

“In previous years, it has been a couple of students who have done the brunt of the work. This year, we can offload work, and designate tasks better. Its nice, we can have multiple projects going at the same time.”

“Gracious professionalism, its an interesting thing FTC has. Its generally a thing people should be doing in athletic events… Everyones doing it to have a good time, to learn things.”

“Its just kinda the idea of ‘let your light shine,’ the basis of some of the Quaker ideologies.”

Gabe Fletcher

“I’m interested in robotics; I want to learn how to code.”

“Absolutely. Bad News Bots is the best way to learn to design and make stuff.”

“About the community? Its very positive. The games are exciting. Its just great, its an opportunity to work with peers and friends on a robot to participate in a competition against other teams. Its a team building, challenging activity.”

“I’m most excited about how this year, there’s a whole lot more strategy than last year.”

“It means that, whether you win or lose, you learn from the experience, and you’re not angry about it, and you accept, and you move on. Everyone else is just as good as you.”

“We’re all people, playing the same game, together. We’re not always allied with the same people… Everyone is equal.”