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Seasons
Explore our season highlights, including photos, videos, and major accomplishments. Dig deeper into each season by viewing each season's Engineering Portfolio.
Want to see our growth over the years? While our team has been active since 2016 as a FIRST LEGO League Junior (now known as Explore) and Challenge team, we started FIRST Tech Challenge in 2023, the CENTERSTAGE season. We just completed 2024's INTO THE DEEP season, and are in the midst of 2025's DECODE season! We will continue to update this section to provide season updates and history for past seasons!
2025 - DECODE
Off Season
We worked this offseason to increase our teams outreach to the community, we went to 4 events, and spoke to nearly 650 people. We also worked to increase the knowledge of our CAD team, by going through OnShape training programs to be sure that we would be functional once the season began. We also worked on fixing any code bumps we had found, including making turns more stable, and learning how to use more sensors so we were better equipped for any challenges the season ahead threw our way. We also did some robot maintenance so that our bot was in prime condition.
2024 - Into the Deep
Off Season
Unlike the 2023-24 season, where we spent our off-season relaxing after our participation in the FLL World Championship in Houston, we were prepared to make the most of our 2024-25 off-season.
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We worked to raise money through grants, sponsorships, and a Girl Scout badge workshop. We also worked on spreading our name by creating a website, working on social media posts, and going to the WICT Tech It Out event. This event allowed us to gain more sponsorship money and mentors.
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Finally, some of our members spent the off-season learning how to code in Java, as we switched from block coding to JavaScript for the 2024-25 season.
This season we implemented a large structure to ensure that our team and offshoots were on time with deliveries and informatics. We utilized an online interface to communicate deadlines with team members, parents, and mentors. We also used a whiteboard with color coded task lists to ensure productivity was ultimated. We utilized the help of our mentors to approximate timelines and to assist in conformity.
Planning
First Meet Preparations
Our team worked tirelessly to ensure we were prepared for our first meet of the season. We did a mixture of building, coding, and script preparation. We split up the roles and created strict yet flexible timelines that were optimized for overall performance. We updated our robot and went through many checks to ensure our robot would only add to our reputation.
We once again went through a metamorphosis to adhere to the standards we had set for ourselves with past competitions, updating our robot and creating a large number of CAD parts befitting to our raised standards and our drive to succeed. We succeeded at the league championship and had the wonderful opperatunity to advance to State.
League Championship
State Championship
We as a team had the wonderful opportunity to advance to the state competition and show off our abilities on a larger stage, potentially assisting us in reaching out to other well-leveled teams and thus creating beneficial alliances and friendships. We worked very hard to increase our robots ability to do the jobs that we had built and programmed it to do. We preformed well at state and had a wonderful experience full of team building and success.
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2023 - Centerstage
Our Plan
The 2023-24 season was our first year as an FTC (First Tech Challenge) team. We had competed as an FLL (First Lego League) team for years before, but switching to FTC was challenging.
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We spent a lot of our time learning how to use the tools we had. Fortunately, we got access to a 3D printer that allowed us to create custom pieces, and we were able to order more specific pieces because of some of the amazing grants we received.
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We decided that in our transition year, it would make the most sense to use block coding as compared to Java. While Java would allow us to make more complicated code, it would take away a lot of the limited time that we had, so we decided to learn Java over the 2024 off-season.
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Finally, one of the main ideas we wanted to implement into our final robot design was the addition of an attachment that could complete one of the end game tasks of that season, which was launching a paper airplane. The airplane launcher was the piece that we worked on the most, adjusting it and working with the spring to make sure it was as accurate as possible.
We planned the 2023-24 season to be entirely dedicated to learning about FTC and gaining the experience we needed for future seasons, so when we managed to be selected for an alliance and moved on to state, we were entirely surprised. Despite this, we continued to develop our robot to give the FTC Missouri-Kansas competition our all.
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Our main goal before the state championship was to create an intake system that would allow us to collect the game element, pixels, and place them on the board with an extending arm, as that was the main way to score points during the driver-controlled period of the game, which is the longest part. We were able to create a fully functional intake system, however, the night before the competition, we double-checked the system, and it completely broke. There wasn't any visible damage, and considering how little time we had, we were forced to scrap the entire intake system and use the small claw we made for regionals.
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We didn't make it on to an alliance in state, which was expected, but the experience prepared us for later seasons.
Our Advancement
2022-SuperPowered
Project Research
In First Lego League, teams are expected to make a project relating to the season. In our final FLL season, SuperPowered, we created a device that could recharge batteries implemented in a person solely based off of their body heat.
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We focused our initial research on learning about the many types of medical implants available, such as battery types, device lifespans, medical procedures, and the FDA approval process. We spent considerable time investigating the best ways to fabricate electronic devices and identifying the best components to use in our device. We had eventually decided to use Thermoelectric Generators in our innovation project in order to achieve our goal.
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Thermoelectric generators, also known as TEGs, generate energy based on the difference in temperature between its “hot side” and “cool side". Based on the Seebeck effect, where voltage is created from the temperature difference between two differently electrical conductors (TEGs in our 2nd prototype are made with bismuth telluride). Most efficient when harnessing wasted heat, like that of the wood burning stoves. Heat generated by the human body is another common type of wasted heat.​​
Non-rechargeable implants need to be surgically replaced in as few as three years. However, rechargeable medical stimulator implants are not widely used due to the inconvenience of weekly charging, so neither are the most optimal of choices.
Rechargeable implants can last four times as long, which could result in three fewer surgical procedures over the lifespan of the device. The problem with current chargers however is that they can be challenging to use for Parkinson’s patients with decreased motor control and stiff joints, potentially contributing to overall patient preference for non-rechargeable implants.
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Our solution to this was to use TEGs to convert wasted body heat to energy that can charge the batteries used to power deep brain stimulators implanted in the body. Once we gathered that energy, we could transmit the electricity generated by the Power Sleeve under the skin’s surface using wireless induction charging coils.
We then wired TEGs in series to increase voltage and mount them together to create a sleeve that you could pull on your arm. The design was made to be easier and more comfortable to use than existing shoulder harness systems with fewer parts to worry about that will lead to increased adoption of medical stimulator implant devices using rechargeable batteries.
Problem And Solution
Past Seasons
FIRST LEGO League Challenge
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2022 - SuperPowered
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2021 - Cargo Connect
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2020 - RePlay
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2019 - City Shaper
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2018 - Into Orbit
FIRSTLEGO League Explore
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2017 - Aqua Adventure
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2016 - Creature Craze
Awards
FIRST Tech Challenge
Centerstage (2023):
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League - Winning Alliance-2nd Team Selected
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League - 2nd Place Think Award
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League - Advancement to MO/KS Championship
Into The Deep (2024):​
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League - Winning Alliance- Partner Team
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League - 2nd Place Inspire Award
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League - Advancement to MO/KS Championship
FIRST LEGO League Challenge
Cargo Connect (2021):
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State - 1st Place Robot Performance Award
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State - Advancement to Razorback Invitational
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Qualifier - 1st Place Champions Award
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Qualifier - 1st Place Robot Performance Award
Superpowered (2022):​
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State - 1st Place Champions Award
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State - 1st Place Robot Performance Award
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State - Advancement to FIRST Championship
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Qualifier - 1st Place Champions Award