The Space Cookies

Programming Captain (2022-2023)

I joined The Space Cookies, FRC Team 1868 in my freshman year of high school. Before being elected as Programming Captain in 12th grade, I was the Superstructure Director (Programming lead) of the Space Cookies for two years (10th/11th grade). This year is my fourth year as a programmer on the team (we code using C++, making C++ my main language). 

The Space Cookies Team 1868 is an all-girls FIRST Robotics Competition team that currently consists of 52 girls from 22 different high schools throughout the Bay Area. Founded jointly by NASA and the Girl Scouts of America, The Space Cookies call NASA Ames Research Center their home and is also a Girl Scout troop. Through outreach and Girl Scout events, we strive to inspire young girls about STEM and robotics.

In 2022, I was nominated by my robotics team as a FIRST Dean’s List Semi-finalist for my leadership, efforts in embodying and spreading FIRST's mission and values, and achievements in personal technical expertise.

I was inspired to write a little bit about my experience on a robotics team! Visit my (incomplete) blog that I created in the summer before Sophomore year: https://spaceroboticsblog.wordpress.com/

Blog entries: 

A Wood Robot: FRC and Coronavirus

https://spaceroboticsblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/15/50/

Chocolate-Chip and Space Cookies

https://spaceroboticsblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/18/chocolate-chip-and-space-cookies/

Links

2023 Season

• Elected as Programming Captain for the 2022-2023 season, representing the team as one of four captains.
• Led the complete redesign of programming workshops for incoming rookies (new members of the team)

2022 Season

• Selected as a FIRST Dean's List Finalist at the Monterey Bay Regional, qualifying me to be considered for the FIRST Dean's List Award
• Selected as one of two girls on my robotics team as a FIRST Dean’s List Semi-finalist for my leadership, embodiment of FIRST values, and achievements in personal technical expertise.

Below is a video of our 2022 robot, Mae, in action. The first half of the video depicts our robot in action during a practice session. The second half showcases the 22-second traversal climb (highest climb possible) at the 2022 FIRST Robotics Championships.

Awards

FIRST Dean's List Finalist:

• For having shown great leadership, increased awareness for FIRST, and achieved personal technical expertise.
• Automatically become finalist considered for the international FIRST Dean's List Award at the world championships in Houston, Texas.

FIRST Dean's List Semi-finalist:

• I was nominated by my robotics team as a FIRST Dean’s List Semi-finalist for my leadership, efforts in embodying and spreading FIRST's mission and values, and achievements in personal technical expertise.

Engineering Inspiration Award:

• Celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school or organization and community.

2021 Offseason

• Re-elected as superstructure director (Programming lead)
• Continue to build and teach workshops for rookies
• Leading Code Cleanup project once more to give rookies a chance to learn about the code framework
• Went to both offseason competitions (CalGames hosted at Lynbrook High School and Chezy Champs hosted at Bellarmine College Preparatory) in person as main programming standby. 
• Leading up to CalGames, worked with the mechanical subteam and the drive team to optimize the indexing process on the robot: went from a 3-ball robot to a 4-ball robot.
• CalGames:
  • Won the first offseason competition in 20 months after the pandemic had shut down all robotics competitions in March of 2020.
    • Won the entire event. We were the 2nd seeded team after qualification rounds, and we were the 1st team picked by the 1st alliance. Together, we won CalGamese!
    • Won the Imagery Award
      • "Awarded to the team with the most visually attractive design of their machine, team appearance, and uses these to create a marketing strategy and executed implementation plan to generate awareness and build interest in the team and their robot."
• After CalGames, the work was not done! I spent the entire three weeks between CalGames and Chezy Champs optimizing our robot even more!
  • By adding a third photoelectric sensor and revamping the entire indexing logic/state machine, I was able to:
    • allow our robot to intake and index 5 balls(!), as opposed to 3 balls at Utah and 4 balls at CalGames
    • shoot ALL five balls at high speeds (3x faster)
    • reduce jamming due to gaps between mechanisms (that made our robot easy to fix/maintain as it was very modular, but gaps introduce jamming potential).  I also worked closely with the drive team at drive team practices to make adjustments to mechanism speeds according to their wishes

    • create and test new auto sequences

  • In all, I optimized almost all systems of the robot, making it competitive for Chezy champs (which is known for being incredibly competitive with many of the top 25-100 teams in the world attending. Chezy was considered to be the championship of the 2020 season since the 2020 championship was canceled due to Covid)

  • `See the below video to see my work in action!
• Chezy Champs:
  • I was the main programming standby during Chezy champs: performed all programming checks before matches (checking driver station, sensors, etc) and performed emergency checks before finals when the robot was tipped over by another robot.
  • Finalists!
    • Strong and reliable performance at Chezy Champs landed us a spot in the second alliance. We went all the way to the finals to become finalists! Quite an accomplishment: this is the farthest my team has gotten in this competition since 2017, considering this competition is highly competitive (oftentimes with robots performing at calibers higher than world championships) with many robots being those of the top 25 teams in the world!
  • We won The Professionalism Award
    • Awards the team that wholeheartedly displays gracious professionalism, a major tenet of FIRST robotics.

Awards

CalGames:

• Won the entire event. We were the 2nd seeded team after qualification rounds, and we were the 1st team picked by the 1st alliance. Together, we won CalGamese!
• Imagery Award
  • "Awarded to the team with the most visually attractive design of their machine, team appearance, and uses these to create a marketing strategy and executed implementation plan to generate awareness and build interest in the team and their robot."

Chezy Champs:

• Finalists as members of the 2nd alliance!
• The Professionalism Award
  • Awards the team that wholeheartedly displays gracious professionalism, a major tenet of FIRST robotics.

2020-2021

• Elected as Superstructure Director (Programming lead)

• Created and ran workshops (3 hours long, 10 workshops in total) to teach rookies (girls new to the team) how to program with C++. Most have no prior experience with programming. The workshops prepare them for competition season and for coding the robot.

• Leader of code cleanup project over the summer (review/fix/organize competition code from 2020 season, find memory leaks, complete our team’s code documentation).

  • Knowledgeable about the entire code framework.

• Due to COVID, there were no in-person competitions for the 2020 offseason and the 2021 competition season. Instead, there were three challenges: Infinite Recharge @ Home, the Game Design Challenge, and the Innovation Challenge. There was also Chairman's Award. We won awards in all four of these award categories.

• Led the Game Design Challenge project (A new FRC competition that was introduced due to the pandemic)

  • In charge of documentation; organizing the meeting times, brainstorming process, and iteration process; and writing the submission materials (including four essays and a game manual).

  • Award: Designer’s Award, San Francisco Bay Regional

    • The Designer’s Award celebrates a team's outstanding success with the Game Design Challenge.

      • “This team designed a detailed and well-balanced game focused not only on the outer but on the inner. With a whole universe of possibilities available to them, this team really made the connections that matter. They even found space in their game to throw in a few crumbs from games past. Congratulations Team 1868 The Space Cookies from Mountain View California and their game Bio Breakthrough!”

• Chosen by the team to present our robot, our design process, and the programming behind our robot in front of a judging panel for the Infinite Recharge @ Home challenge.

  • Represented my team by presenting our 2019-2020 season robot to First Robotics judges. Created a superstructure animation. Presented on the programming and capabilities of our robot (with emphasis on its modularity) and our team’s engineering process.

  • Also created an auto sequence demonstration video (from 2019-2020 match footage) and filmed autonomous sequence skills challenge videos in person (participated in writing/editing/testing these sequences too at our improvised field, a basketball court outside of Google).

  • Award: Excellence in Engineering Award, San Francisco Bay Regional

    • The Excellence in Engineering Award celebrates the team that demonstrates a professional approach to the design process.

      • “Here is what the judges had to say about our winning team. This team’s engineering skills are out of this world. They stuck to their design process like a recipe. Under the pressure, their excellence did not crumble. Congratulations Team 1868 The Space Cookies from Mountain View California and their game Bio Breakthrough!”

• Participated in the Innovation challenge project

  • Our innovation was Don’t Stop Me Now, an initiative aimed at menstrual equity—affordable, accessible, and safe menstrual products available to all who need them. Our idea was sparked by our members’ experiences at sporting events, but our research showed clearly that this is a much larger issue. More than 80% of US students have either missed class or know someone who has because they lacked access to period products. Even missing just a few days of school can lead to significant performance gaps that are exacerbated by poverty and racism. We developed a crowdsourced mobile app, to be integrated with Google maps, that provides real-time visibility of restrooms stocked with free menstrual products. In parallel, we have launched a campaign through which we are advocating for free menstrual products in schools, offices, FIRST competitions, and other locations and are partnering with Aunt Flow, an organization committed to universal access to menstrual products. 

  • Award: FIRST Innovation Challenge Semi-Finalist Award, San Francisco Bay Regional

    • Semi-Finalists are teams that achieve excellence across all criteria: problem or opportunity, business model, innovation impact, design, business pitch, and FIRST Innovation Challenge emphasis.

• Award: Chairman’s Award, San Francisco Bay Regional

  • “This team made the transition from in-person to virtual with ease. Assembling PPE and hosting online events, their reach is global, having established FIRST teams internationally and created a curriculum for girls nationwide to try STEM at scale. In addition to the 700 kids served through their workshops, these smart cookies have started FIRST pathways to inspire the students most in need in their city. The Chairman’s Award goes to team 1868 Space Cookies, a Girl Scout Troop from Mountain View!”

2020-2021 Space Cookies Outreach Efforts:

As a Girl Scout myself since 1st grade, I worked on a lot of outreach events with Girl Scouts as young as 5 years old.

• Girl Scouts of Northern California: I was featured on the GS NorCal website’s home page and for a feature on my robotics team, the Space Cookies, and our mask campaign. (I am “Allison B,” unfortunately due to a typo + security reasons)
• In May 2020, my Girl Scouts/robotics team and I made handmade masks to support Girl Scouts who are daughters of migrant workers. There was a shortage of masks at the time, and we realized that this would be a great way to support these Girl Scouts.
• Speaker at multiple workshops (throughout an entire month, January 2021)  for prospective Girl Scouts all over Northern California. 
  • Girls from grades K-5 were invited to these workshops to learn about Girl Scouts. Every month had a different theme for the workshops, and January was “Space Science.” 
  • I was invited to inspire these girls about STEM and what they can do later on as a Girl Scout. During the meetings, I answered the girls’ questions about my involvement in a Girl Scout troop/FRC team.
  • Many parents of these prospective Girl Scouts asked for advice on how to get their daughters started with computer science.
• Girl Scout Camporee
  • Led electrical engineering workshop for Girl Scouts from grades K-5.
  • Explained our 2020 robot and showcased (through video) the First Robotics Competition program, our team’s performance at Utah in 2020, and answered questions during a Q&A
  • Led K-2 circuit activity using LED’s, batteries, and playdoh (one being conductive and another being insulative) provided to the girls.

Awards

Award: Designer’s Award, San Francisco Bay Regional. The Designer’s Award celebrates a team's outstanding success with the Game Design Challenge.

Award: Excellence in Engineering Award, San Francisco Bay Regional. The Excellence in Engineering Award celebrates the team that demonstrates a professional approach to the design process.

Award: FIRST Innovation Challenge Semi-Finalist Award, San Francisco Bay Regional. Semi-Finalists are teams that achieve excellence across all criteria: problem or opportunity, business model, innovation impact, design, business pitch, and FIRST Innovation Challenge emphasis.

Award: Chairman’s Award, San Francisco Bay Regional

2019-2020

• Joined Space Cookies in August of 2019, becoming a rookie

• Attended veteran-led workshops every weekend about programming, mechanical engineering, CAD, electrical engineering, and business operations for an FRC team

• Joined the programming sub-team

• Worked on the robot code during build season (January-March)

  • I programmed (using C++) the first state machine for the robot. The state machine automates the superstructure, or everything above the drive train (the main wheels that make the robot move). The state machine streamlines the intaking, indexing, and shooting process.

  • I also worked on the autonomous commands used during the autonomous period of games. Here is an auto sequence video that I created for the 2021 IR@H challenges. This video shows our robot's performance during competition season at the FRC Utah Regional (2020)

• Attended the Utah FRC Regional on Space Cookies' travel team

  • Being on the travel team means satisfying lab and outreach hour requirements

  • We performed outstandingly at the Utah Regional! We placed second overall in rankings after qualification matches, becoming 2nd alliance captains. We were unfortunately eliminated during the playoffs. 

  • We won the Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors at the FRC Utah Regional in (very early, only a week before shutdowns) March 2020.

    • The Industrial Design Award, sponsored by General Motors, celebrates the team that demonstrates industrial design principles, striking a balance between form, function, and aesthetics.

• Although I was only a “rookie,” I was asked to be a part of a skeleton crew to compete at another FRC regional competition in March 2020. The programming captain and I were the only programmers asked to attend, due to the short notice. However, this additional regional was canceled only a day before it occurred due to the Covid (but I feel extremely honored that I was picked to be one of the few girls to represent our team!)

Outreach events:

We love doing outreach! We maintain and upgrade our outreach bot (named Nova!), which can softly throw dodgeballs at an audience.

• In 2019-2020, I helped run:

  • a Bay Area Science Festival robotics booth to inspire young kids about robotics and STEM!

  • a robotics booth at the yearly Girl Scouts Craftapalooza event to promote robotics and STEM to young Girl Scouts

  • an FLL (First Lego League) tournament at NASA Ames Research Center (where our robotics lab is located)

Awards

The Industrial Design Award, sponsored by General Motors, celebrates the team that demonstrates industrial design principles, striking a balance between form, function, and aesthetics.