We reached out to a local company, Rover Robotics, to learn about how they manufacture and build their robots. We also spoke with them about software usage, and told them about our own robot.

We had the amazing opportunity to testify at a hearing for a Senate bill. This opportunity was given by High Tech Kids, as they were also testifying in the hearing. Saniyah was chosen to give testimony about how robotics has impacted her life, and how funding from this bill could help High Tech Kids and MN STEM Ecosystem. This was such an amazing experience, and we are so honored that one of our team members was chosen!

HTK invited us to STEM Day at the Capitol to help them promote FTC and FLL. We discussed the importance of STEM education at an early age, how FLL and FTC promote soft skills, and showed off some of the technical knowledge we learned. We also discussed specific funding requests for HTK, including renewal of the DEED grants without the focus on internships.

Our friends from Maranatha Academy invited us for their annual MNTI Scrimmage. We had a great time competing with other top teams in the state!

We went for a tour at the Robotic Perception and Manipulation (RPM) Lab at the University of Minnesota. We learned a lot about the work they do and made good connections with the lab director and students. 

High Tech Kids invited one of our team members to attend this summit at the Mall of America, a meeting between leaders in the local STEAM community to discuss teenage engagement in STEAM. We spoke to many teachers and people in industry, and they liked driving our robot.

High Tech Kids invited us to exhibit our robot at STEM Fest, which was hosted at Target HQ. We had fun showing kids and adults our robot and letting them drive it. We got to meet the Target Dog!

Some of our team members made a presentation called Into to Documentation, and presented it for rookie teams at our kickoff event. The presentation went really well, and there were lots of good questions! If you would like to access the slides, use this link.

In July 2023, Saniyah, Abby, and Ayana attended a girls-only event at Target Northern Campus. There, Target shared information with us about how to empower ourselves to pursue STEM careers and seek out leadership roles. (TWIST is Target Women in Science and Technology).

Our team went to the Ramsey Country Library in Shoreview twice this year during robot story time. We sang along, our robot danced, and we let kids and their parents drive. Everyone had lots of fun, and the kids were very interested in our robot!

James and Harry went to a SPARCS IT tour at Infinity Robotics to learn about the importance of safety in robot-human interactions, how to reduce error in autonomous using different methods, and how to detect an object's position without using a full AI. 

Some of our team members toured Microsoft to learn about how coding can be used in the real world, and to see some cool things that can be done with it. This tour was organized by SPARCS, a Minnesota youth technology development program for middle and high schoolers, which is a part of Minnesota State University.

We learned about the many different types of 3D printing that Stratasys offers, including FDM and PolyJet. We also learned about the many different uses for 3D printing, including medical, aerospace, movie props, increased prototype efficiency, and many other things.