September 14, 2026
Meeting Summary
We spent today's session moving from ideas to hardware. After some brainstorming, we disassembled most of an old robot from last year's prep course and began putting together the frame of this season's build. A good chunk of the discussion centered on how the robot should pick up and release the pollen and nectar balls, and that thinking directly shaped the early structure we started putting together. Toward the end of the meeting, we shifted gears to talk money (covering costs like shirts and field materials) and settled on visiting local businesses Wednesday to look for support. We also decided on each team member's specialty areas.
Team Roles
We all do a bit of everything, but these are the areas each of us specializes in:
- Sarah: programming, outreach, and the engineering notebook
- Torin: design iteration and building
- Josh: CAD design, 3D printing, and building. Josh will also be our main driver for the robot.
Design & Build
- Brainstormed ideas for intaking and ejecting the pollen and nectar balls
- Designed our new structure based on our plans for collecting and shooting the balls
- Partially disassembled one of our robots from last year's prep course
- Got a good start on assembling our new structure
Design Sketches & Strategy Notes
Fundraising Discussion
- Discussed fundraising for shirts, the playing field, and other necessary expenses
- Estimated total cost of shirts, banner, spare parts, registration fees, and the playing field
- Decided to go out to businesses on Wednesday
Homework / Action Items
- Sarah: put together a handout sheet with fundraising info to give to businesses on Wednesday
This notebook was created with the assistance of Claude AI and Handy dictation software.