Eclipse Outreach Summary
We help FTC teams!
Our goal is to help as many new and rookie FTC teams as possible. So far we have...
- Helped over 350 different FTC teams
- Put in over 1,000 outreach hours
The ABC's of FTC (FTC Guidebook)
Attendees at the RGV talking about the Guidebook and what they can learn from it
As we reflected on our FTC experience, we discussed what we wished we knew at the start of our journey. This inspired the Guidebook. Drawing on our collective FTC experience, we compiled these things into The ABC’s of FTC: Getting Started Guide for the FIRST Tech Challenge. This 100 page book contains 14 chapters covering various topics about FTC.
The ABC's of FTC Conference, Rio Grande Valley
Team Eclipse hanging out with some of the kids at the RGV conference
The growth of FIRST and FTC in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) of Texas has been phenomenal and inspiring. This season, they went from 40 FTC teams to more than 120 teams. When we heard about this, we were inspired to share our guidebook with them, so we coordinated with FIRST RGV to host a conference there. We presented and shared our knowledge with over 250 students, mentors, and teachers who attended the conference.
Smaller Outreach Programs
The coach was actively engaged in the presentation, asking questions and learning
We did workshops and mentorships with LBJ High School and Reagan High Schools teaching them critical concepts including the engineering notebook and team roles. Furthermore, many teams don’t have access to resources needed to solve problems and questions they have over the course of the season so we are active in helping other teams through online communities like the FTC Subreddit and Discord.
Business Connections
The Data.World team was listening with rapt attention and were having fun.
In addition to helping FTC teams, we actively connect with the Austin business community. During our 2017-2018 season, we secured 2 gold level sponsorships from leading technology companies in Austin: Atlassian and data.world. We have done robot demos and showcases at both of their companies, teaching them to drive our robot and getting feedback from professional engineers.