Nemesis Spreads STEM At Local Library Demo

On the morning of February 24th, Nemesis team members demonstrated a prototype robot to young children at the Robbinsville local library. Kids of varying ages were able to witness the intriguing elements of the robot, such as its swerve modules and their swiveling movements.

Team members from the build and business subteams gave a presentation to the kids and their parents about the First Robotics Competition. In this informative talk, they learned what FIRST is, what last year's challenge was, and Nemesis’ accomplishments this past season. They were also introduced to First Lego League (FLL), alongside highlights of the recent FLL competition, Robbinsville Ruckus, which took place at our high school. The students were also given a demonstration by IDK, an FLL team. They showed off their robot, explaining the basics of Lego robotics and how their robot functioned.

After the FLL demonstration, the kids were able to gain an understanding of the Nemesis prototype robot. They were given a presentation on how the swerve drivetrain moved, and were given a high level overview of the programming behind the swerve modules. This  intrigued the minds of these young students. After an introduction to the prototyping process, the students were incredibly curious and they asked questions, such as; “How was this robot able to move in all directions?”, and “Why doesn’t the robot turn like a car?”. Nemesis team members quickly answered the curious students with robotics knowledge, increasing their Robotics skills.

After this, the students were able to drive the robot and learned about how the control panel functioned. The students played around with the robot, which was capable of moving in all directions. Students also played ‘Simon Says’ against the robot, and were amazed by the robot’s quickness and its functionality. After the end of the games, the students went home excited, having learned about FLL and were ready to participate in future FIRST events.