Meet the team
GNCE Onyx is FIRST® Tech Challenge team 37122 at Weston Public Schools. BIOBUZZ™ presented by RTX is our first season, but most of us have competed before, on other GNCE teams.
- Members
- 11
- Veterans of other GNCE teams
- 7
- GNCE teams before this one
- 4
- Grades on the roster
- 8 to 11
Members
Turn a card over for that member's grade, roles and earlier GNCE teams. We each choose our own jobs, so most of us hold several. Custom Manufacturing means making the parts we design rather than buying them ready-made.
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Select a card to turn it over.
- Earlier GNCE teams: 22489, 26111.10th grade. Roles: Programming, Design, Mech, Documentation, Outreach. Earlier GNCE teams: 22489, 26111.
- Earlier GNCE teams: 22489, 26111.10th grade. Roles: Design, Mech, Custom Manufacturing, Outreach. Earlier GNCE teams: 22489, 26111.
- Earlier GNCE teams: 22489, 26111.10th grade. Roles: Custom Manufacturing, Design, Documentation. Earlier GNCE teams: 22489, 26111.
- Earlier GNCE teams: 22489, 26413.11th grade. Roles: Design, Documentation. Earlier GNCE teams: 22489, 26413.
- Earlier GNCE teams: 26413, 26112.10th grade. Roles: Design, Outreach. Earlier GNCE teams: 26413, 26112.
- Earlier GNCE teams: 26112, 26111.10th grade. Roles: Outreach, Documentation. Earlier GNCE teams: 26112, 26111.
- Earlier GNCE teams: 26111.10th grade. Roles: Design, Mech. Earlier GNCE teams: 26111.
- First GNCE team.9th grade. Roles: Finance, Outreach. Earlier GNCE teams: none, Onyx is the first.
- First GNCE team.11th grade. Roles: Outreach, Documentation. Earlier GNCE teams: none, Onyx is the first.
- First GNCE team.8th grade. Roles: Design, Outreach. Earlier GNCE teams: none, Onyx is the first.
- First GNCE team.8th grade. Role: Design. Earlier GNCE teams: none, Onyx is the first.
Four teams before this one
Seven of us competed on another GNCE team first. Pick a team to see who.
- 22489: Ethan Zhang, Anson Su, Adrian Chang, Elisa Peng.
- 26111: Ethan Zhang, Anson Su, Adrian Chang, Ethan Zhuang, Leo Li.
- 26112: Nicholas Colli, Ethan Zhuang.
- 26413: Elisa Peng, Nicholas Colli.
- All eleven members are on 37122.
How we work
Captains are elected. Members choose their own work.
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the integral of f of x, d x
- Captains
- Each phase of the season has its own captains, chosen by anonymous vote.
- Everyone else
- Beyond the captains, there is no fixed hierarchy.
- Jobs
- Members choose their own responsibilities rather than being assigned them.
How we keep track
WhatsApp and Notion
Notion is a shared online workspace for notes and documents.
- One click to switch topics
- Search finds any decision
- Software and hardware work in parallel
Program-wide Piazza
Piazza is an online question-and-answer forum, shared by the whole GNCE program.
- Questions and ideas
- Announcements, meeting times and information
- Every student in the program in one place
Parts spreadsheet
- Introduced by us, now used program-wide
- Dates and deadlines
- Budgeting and talking to coaches
Ask to see it in our pit, the team's work area at each event.
Engineering notebook
- The whole season: iterations and brainstorms
- Every entry dated
- Organized by subtopic, so entries are easy to find
Ask to see it in our pit, the team's work area at each event.
Goals for our first season
Open a goal to see what we did about it and what came of it.
FundingA public school robotics program that pays for itself
What we did
- Secured a $47K stipend for paid robotics positions
- A robotics steering committee
What came of it
- A new head coach hired
- 10 after-school supervision stipends filled
EducationGrow new leaders across the program
What we did
- Brought Coach Chris into the team organization
- Assisted FIRST® LEGO® League and FTC teams
What came of it
- Coaches and supervisors equipped program-wide
- Knowledge passed on from one class of students to the next
OutreachAmbassadors for FIRST in our community
What we did
- Hosted, ran and helped at community events
- Recruited students and supervisors from outside FIRST
What came of it
- Reached 4,000+ people
- After-school supervision from members of the community
ConnectLearn from people who have done it
What we did
- Learned from coaches and mentors
- Connected with professionals in STEM
What came of it
- Applied their guidance
- Stronger parts and shared knowledge across the team
DesignA consistent, effective design
What we did
- The whole robot modeled in CAD
- A core design process the team follows
InnovateComplex, original mechanisms
What we did
- The design process above
- Brainstormed unusual ideas
ControlConsistent, easy to drive, tested in parallel
What we did
- Command-based code, which splits the software into small commands, one for each robot action
- A dependency system
Part of GNCE
Onyx is one of the FTC teams in GNCE (Galactic Narwhal Chicken Effect), the robotics program at Weston Public Schools. GNCE's FTC teams have 54 students in all.