Today we’d like to introduce you to The Moment Makers FTC Robotics Team. They and their team shared their story with us below:
The Moment Makers FTC Robotics Team is an all-girl FIRST Tech Challenge team with team members from Pearland and Houston. This is our third year competing, and we have advanced to the FIRST World Championship all three years, each year winning a prestigious judged award at this international level. This year, The Moment Makers is the only FTC team from the greater Houston area winning a coveted spot in the FIRST World Championship. In April 2024, we won the second highest judged award in our “Ochoa” division — the 2nd place Inspire Award for the best overall team, considering engineering innovation, design, automation, engineering documentation, spreading STEM in the community, and reaching out to professionals in the field.
FIRST Tech Challenge competitions are organized in the greater Houston region by San Jacinto Community College. Teams compete in local leagues with several league meets. From there, teams can advance to the Houston Regional Championship at San Jacinto Central. The Moment Makers won the top judged award (1st place Inspire) and were also the winning alliance captain at both their league and regional levels. From regionals, some teams advance to a state championship to try to win a spot to represent Texas at the FIRST World Championship to compete with 224 top teams from over 50 countries from around the world.
All of us started building using LEGOs in FIRST LEGO League (grades 4-8), where we needed to design robots made fully out of LEGOs to complete tasks autonomously. We competed with LEGOs for many years, learning a lot about how to build reliable and durable robots, how to utilize the engineering design process, and how to present our work. This is our team’s third year in FIRST Tech Challenge, where we build much larger (up to 18 in. cube) robots and make them much more custom. Every year, we have learned more about designing 3D-printed parts, using complex mechanisms, and programming in Java to make it all work.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Every robotics season has many struggles for teams. We needed to design our robot, plan and complete its build, program the autonomous routines and driving software, and practice to ensure successful robot matches on the field. In addition, we needed to fundraise to support our team costs. Juggling robotics, schoolwork, and our activities like dance and music is a lot for our student team members!
In the design of our robot this season especially, one of the challenges that we faced was using CAD software to design CNC fabricated plates that are integral to the structure of our robot. We learned from professionals about the process, and carefully prototyped our proposed robot design in AutoDesk Fusion360 CAD software itself, using motion joints. Our successfully designed plates lasted the entire robotics season with expanded functionality being added around the design.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
FIRST Tech Challenge has taught us so many engineering design, software, and manufacturing skills. We, The Moment Makers, are eager to give back to the community by encouraging STEM exploration and other students joining or starting their own robotics teams. We are exhibitors at many local events, bringing hands-on learning displays to explain robotics concepts and allowing children and adults alike a chance to drive our robots. We mentor other robotics teams, both locally and virtually worldwide. Being an all-girl team ourselves, we especially target bringing other girls to STEM.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
When we met with alliance partner teams from around the world at the FIRST Championship, a lot of teams were surprised to find out that our team is made up of only three girls — an eighth grader, a ninth grader, and an eleventh grader. Many other teams have up to 15 students on them, with many being comprised of high school upperclassmen only. Our team very successfully competes with only three students and has received some of the highest awards at all levels of the competition.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://themomentmakers.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MomentMakerSTEM
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MomentMakerSTEM
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MomentMakerSTEM
