It Takes Alumni to pull off the Biggest and Best ROBOTICON yet.
Florida Polytechnic Student and FIRST Alumni, Zachary Weingarten joined us to discuss ROBOTICON, FIRST and the Robotics Club at Florida Polytechnic University. Zachary is a sophomore at the newly formed tech school located in Lakeland, Florida and has been an instrumental part of everything that made this weekend a success.
The Robotics Club started with just a couple of students during the school's inaugural year in 2016 and is growing rapidly with about 30 students this year. They have alumni from FIRST and VEX, as well as some students who were not previously on a formal robotics team but have a passion for building robots. The students recently participated in the First Tech Challenge's Robot in a Weekend program where they built a working prototype robot in just two days, immediately after getting the specs from the FTC Kickoff in September.
This robot is what brought the club here to volunteer at ROBOTICON Tampa Bay 2017. They came to show off the robot, run some scrimmages and assist the FTC teams with their builds and answer questions. Members of the club also volunteered for ROBOTICON directly and helped with FRC field set up and overall assistance during the event.
Zach joins Daniele and Marissa, also FIRST Alum, in speaking about their experiences in FIRST as well as offering due props to the FIRST Alumni Coordinator for the state of Florida, Barry Bohnsack. Barry is not only a great recruiter and mentor for these students, but he is also very active in FIRST activities and helps to make the experience fun.
Daniele is a student at Florida Polytechnic University who is studying Computer Science with a concentration in Cyber Security. In High School, she was introduced to the science and technology world through the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a robotics foundation where students of varying ages can compete through tasks that their robots perform. With help from mentors she met through FIRST, she became interested in programming and developing. Today, Daniele is a special events host for F5 Live: Refreshing Technology and PLuGHiTz Live Special Events and a co-host for both The New Product Launchpad and FIRST Looks.
