2024 Jumpstart Session Descriptions

FIRST Like a Girl - Team 2052 (Room 1H)

#FIRSTLikeAGirl is an initiative started by Team 1902 Exploding Bacon to improve the culture of STEM by sharing the experiences of the successful women and girls in FIRST. Medtronic's SWEnet Outreach team is partnering with the girls on Team 2052 KnightKrawler to host a breakout session for female-identifying FRC students to meet and speak candidly with female engineers at Medtronic about the challenges facing women and girls in STEM. Students will learn strategies to help them feel empowered in STEM, as well as tools to inspire the next generation of girls and close the gender gap in the FIRST community and STEM as a whole.

Electrical and Controls Basics and Best Practices - Team 8516  (Electrical Presentation)

Basic control system component explanation and implementation. Best wiring practices.

Introduction to Trajectory Planning - Team 3082 (Room 1B)

Ever wonder how some robots effortlessly skate across the field in smooth, curving patterns? Well, look no further than trajectory planning! In this session, you will learn how trajectory following works and explore a few of the most common path planning algorithms. By the end of this session, you will have the knowledge to implement trajectory following code on your own robot this season.

Build & Fabrication Discussion - Team 2264 (Room 2B)

Using Monday.com for Project Management - Team 2175 (Room 2C)

The project management program Monday.com is now free to use for all FRC teams (as of 2024). Learn with team 2175 (who have been using it for a year now) about what it is, and how to use it effectively!

Alumni & Student Volunteering with FIRST - Team 2500 (Room 2G)

In this session, we’ll have a panel and invite discussion from the audience on what volunteering opportunities exist for alumni and students both at competitions and throughout the year. We’ll hear from some real life alumni on how they balance FIRST volunteering with the rest of their lives. 

Lessons Learned: In-shop manufacturing - Team 2052 (Room 2K)

This session will start with an overview of KnightKrawler's CAD design to manufacturing process before getting into some issues or inefficiencies that we ran into during the manufacturing/design process and takeaways from these lessons. An example would be the design of our intake this year, where it used 3D-printed diverters to center notes that took hours to print and were difficult to prototype. With a redesign after our first competition, they were turned into separate printed and CNC milled parts that were better in most aspects by blending the ability to print 3D objects with the ease and efficiency of using sheet goods with CNC milling.

Critical Thinking - Shawn Kelley, Distinguished Engineer, Medtronic (1F)
Critical thinking is the set of skills and behaviors that allow us to make the best possible decision in a given set of circumstances. The skills include analytical skills to gather and process data and turn it into information. The behaviors include practicing personal and group awareness for improved communication and management of the decision process. We must make decisions – the outcomes won’t all be ideal, but we can observe and optimize the way we decide. 

Building Relationships Step by Step - Team 7235 (Room 1H)

In this session, our team will share what we have done to build relationships on our team. We will bring some of our activities, and play with the participants in the session.

Battery Maintenance - Team 4607 (Room 1K)

Simple battery care is essential for teams to succeed in FIRST. Learn from 4607 how we take care of our batteries including storage, charging, tracking, as well as aging out of our batteries.

Strategic Design: Simple & Reliable - Team 2855 (Room 1B)

Learn how to analyze the game to maximize ranking points and score, and how to translate that into a robust and reliable robot.

ID&E Discussion - Team 2264 (Room 2B)

Roundtable Discussion for Mentors led by Nicole Schossow. (Room 2C)

Inside Volunteer Interactions - Team 1816 (Room 2G)

KnightKrawler's Build Process & Season Reflection - Team 2052 (Room 2K)

Learn what Knightkrawler does in terms of prototyping, design, iteration, and our thoughts on how the season went/what we want to change. Also come to share your own thoughts on the season and your team's build processes!

Critical Thinking - Shawn Kelley, Distinguished Engineer, Medtronic (1F)
Critical thinking is the set of skills and behaviors that allow us to make the best possible decision in a given set of circumstances. The skills include analytical skills to gather and process data and turn it into information. The behaviors include practicing personal and group awareness for improved communication and management of the decision process. We must make decisions – the outcomes won’t all be ideal, but we can observe and optimize the way we decide. 

A More Inclusive Team - Team 2855 (Room 1H)

In this session we will discuss step you and your team can take to be inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community.

Improve Your 3D Printed Robot Parts - Team 2220 (Room 1K)

Step up from machine defaults to improve your 3D printed robot parts by understanding how CAD choices, slicer defaults and printing orientations can affect your parts. Know when 3D printing makes sense and when machined, cast, molded or other off the shelf parts are a better choice.  This session can be presented as Part 1 & Part 2, where Part 2 builds on what was learned in Part 1. This session was presented to a standing room only crowd at the 2024 Championships.

FMEA Your Way to Success - Team 4607 (Room 1B)

Learn how Failure Mode/Effects Analyis from the team that redefined their season. FRC 4607 and their FMEA Mentor will showcase how to create a process that will make your robot better through the season.

Leveraging Lessons Learned to Ensure Better Outcomes - Team 1816 (Room 2B)

We cannot improve as a team unless we take the time to analyze the outcomes of the prior season. Then we can plan and try new things to improve.

Safety for Beginners - Team 4693 (Room 2C)

Do you know how to create a safety program? Are you looking for better ways to engage the team?  Lets talk safety.

Future of Robotics Through FLL - Team 3130 (Room 2G)

Through our community, we fund and run 9 FLL teams by giving them everything that they need. We have been running this ever since covid hit, with summer FLL camps, running a FLL tournament with 'High Tech Kids', and showing off what kids can do in FLL.

Robot Vision & April Tags - Team 2052 (Room 2K)

This session will go through what AprilTags are and the uses, how to set up robot vision using PhotonVision, and other related topics around vision. From navigation of PhotonVision UI to the integration of multiple cameras, this presentation will try to be as accessible as it can be to give an understanding of how to get started with vision.