Nemesis Navigator is a new section on our team's website that aims to provide a wealth of information and advice to the FIRST community. We plan to create a database encapsulating every corner of FIRST.

One of the sections, Alumni Advice, will feature personal stories and advice from former Nemesis members. These alumni will share what FIRST means to them, what they got out of the program, and how it has helped them in their college and career paths.

Another area of Nemesis Navigator is Team/Community Resources. This will contain informational articles or videos from current Nemesis members on various topics. These resources will include both Build and Business how-to's, such as How to CAD, How to Get Sponsors, and How to Program. The goal of these resources is to help members from other teams learn new skills and techniques. We will gather input from our own team as well as from other teams to create a comprehensive resource for the FIRST community.

By compiling a database of resources and advice from our team, alumni, and the FIRST community, we hope to bring together the FIRST community and assist rookie teams or those considering joining a FIRST team. We plan to reach out to other teams via Chief Delphi and other online means to gather information and make connections.

We are excited to launch this resource and hope that it will serve as a valuable tool for teams of all levels.

Over the weekend, Robbinsville High School hosted its inaugural robotics competition which turned out to be a resounding success and an experience that is sure to be remembered.

Team Nemesis would like to express our gratitude to all the volunteers who helped make this event possible. From the initial planning stages to the final day of the competition, they selflessly gave their time and energy to ensure that everything ran smoothly. Nemesis parents,  alumni, and other students from the FIRST community came together, working at the concession stands and participating in the competition as judges and field resetters to make the weekend memorable and an enjoyable experience for everyone. Without their assistance, this event would not have been possible, and we are grateful for their unwavering support.

Despite some initial worries about the amount of work it would be to set up and disassemble the competition, the process went far more smoothly than we had anticipated. With the help of our volunteers and the cooperation of all the teams involved, we were able to efficiently and effectively get everything arranged for a fantastic weekend of competition. What we initially thought would be a lengthy and tiresome process turned out to be an unforgettable bonding experience.

One of the highlights of the competition was the spirit of FIRST: the embodiment of coopertition and gracious professionalism that permeated throughout the teams bolstered the excitement through the arena . Rather than just focusing on winning at all costs, the teams were genuinely invested in helping each other out and fostering a sense of camaraderie and mutual respect. Whether it was lending spare parts, offering advice, or simply cheering each other on, the teams demonstrated a true commitment to working together for the greater good. One example of this was when three robots failed to meet the inspection requirements. To help them compete, Nemesis mentors worked with the teams to fabricate new pieces in the machine shop and reassemble the robots.

Of course, there were moments of fierce competition, with each team vying for the top spot. However, even in these moments, the teams remained respectful and enthusiastic, never losing sight of the bigger picture. This dedication to gracious professionalism was truly inspiring and a testament to the character of the students involved. We are so proud that Nemesis ended up as a semi-finalist as a part of the number two alliance in the competition. The event culminated with Nemesis winning the Sustainability award, an incredible accomplishment thanks to the collective efforts and dedication of the entirety of the team. 

In conclusion, the inaugural robotics competition at Robbinsville was a shining example of what can be achieved when people come together with a common goal. We look forward to seeing what the future holds for Nemesis and the opportunities that lie ahead for our students to innovate, collaborate, and make a positive impact on the world. We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to host such an amazing event and we hope to host another in the future.

On March 18th and 19th, Nemesis hosted our inaugural district event competition at our high school in Robbinsville, NJ. The event was an amazing success – not to mention it ran beautifully due to the hard work and dedication of all the volunteers and alumni involved! Additionally, Nemesis was graciously awarded the Team Sustainability Award! (What’s outstanding is that this is the 16th time we have achieved this honor). This award celebrates and recognizes a team which has developed a sustainable program in order to define, manage, and achieve the team’s ongoing objectives.

Nemesis embodies this by dividing our workload into subteams (logistics, media, software, strategy, etc) and inspiring future team members by introducing STEM to our community with Discovery and Engineering days. We strive to keep our contributors engaged through our annual Sponsor Networking Night; a chance to update our patrons on the future goals of Nemesis and how we plan to budget for these objectives.

All that being said; the entire team is grateful for the judges' recognition and extremely happy to have received such a meaningful award at our first home competition. Nemesis is ready to continue showcasing these core values highlighted by the Team Sustainability Award at the fast approaching Mid Atlantic Regionals and beyond!

Nemesis had a very eventful Week 1 competition at Hatboro Horsham High School, a weekend of surprises, crushing defeats, and thrilling victories. The robot, Jynx, arrived on Friday, ready for a new competition season. This year, the robot is centered around a swerve drive, allowing the drive team to implement more diverse strategies in their design. As for business, the team was ready to present every element of Nemesis, ranging from our types of sustainability to various outreach events. 

Qualification matches brought excitement for all of the Nemesis team. The drive team began implementing unique strategies into matches, using their elevator and suction subsystems. However, some complications arose during these qualification matches. There were issues with the robot, especially with the suction not working consistently. In addition to this, the intake had some significant troubles getting the game pieces into the robot's elevator. Despite facing these issues, the build team also had many things go well for them. The driving of the robot was strategically executed, thanks to very efficient work by our pit crew. Not only was the execution of this successful, the scouting app, which analyzes all aspects of each match was exceptionally organized. Ultimately, even with sudden obstacles, the build team rose to the challenge, now planning to come back stronger than ever. They continue to dedicate a lot of time in the lab, embracing innovation and STEM. The build team was selected to join the eighth alliance, along with teams 5181 and 423. The alliance that Nemesis was a part of ultimately lost  in the first round. 

During Day 1, one of our team’s biggest projects was presented to a judging panel. The Impact Award  is given to the team with the most prominent effect on their community. Three members of Nemesis gave a seven minute oral presentation about our impact throughout our community, as well as completing a five minute question and answer session. This presentation delved into how the team as a whole has expanded and assisted the STEM community. After months of hard work, the Impact presentation was successfully executed, with the team excited for the award ceremony.  

In the meantime, the business team had sprung to action. In the pits, judges heard an in-depth presentation about Nemesis. Members gave out flyers and buttons  to other teams from across the region. We were able to present our team and financial sustainability implementations, as well as our multitude of outreach initiatives including Sponsor Night, Discovery and Engineering Day, and our collaboration with the Trenton Urban Promise.

All teams anxiously awaited the end of the second day to hear who would be given the most prestigious award in FRC. Sure enough, when Nemesis heard the winning team being described with the words “pipeline” and “legislative initiative,” the stands with our 68 member team began to shake. Nemesis 2590 had won the Impact award! Unified efforts, months of hard work and overcoming many obstacles was all worth it, and Nemesis looks forward to using this amazing experience to strengthen the team. The team is incredibly grateful for the wonderful Hatboro-Havoc event, and looks forward to a great time at Robbinsville, and at Lehigh University. 

Build

This week, the Build team was hard at work preparing for the soon-approaching competition season ahead! The past three weeks have been filled with intense brainstorming, prototyping, and testing. After careful deliberation and consideration of our various prototypes, we have settled on a finalized robot design to continue developing for the rest of the build season.

The electrical subteam has been hard at work wiring up various subsystems on different prototypes for the robot. Many forms of intake, placing, and even vision systems were wired up, allowing for efficiency in testing. Problems also occurred with the Kitbot’s speed motor connectors, which impaired the ability of the drivetrain to function properly. This issue was dealt with, allowing the Kitbot to continue functioning optimally. The fabrication subteam continued to teach new members about the different machines present in the techlab. Practice was done with the router and bandsaw, allowing new team members to gain valuable hands-on experience. Additionally, the mill was used to mill bars that would become useful for many parts of the final robot design.

On the design subteam, work was done to finalize the CAD of the robot. Members continued to use Onshape to CAD the drivetrain, elevator, and other key aspects of the final design. The software subteam worked hard to fix some common bugs in the drivetrain’s programming. This included using CANCoders to create a workaround for known Falcon encoder issues. Additionally, members worked on using field vision to autoalign the Mk4 drivetrain with field elements, such as the april tags present on the grid. New code was also written to verify the odometry measurements with the new drivetrain. Overall, the build team had a successful week of designing, programming, fabricating, and assembling. With the build season coming to a close, we hope to finish out strong and hit the ground running during competition season!

Business

4 weeks into the build season, the Business team continued working on various tasks in preparation for the rest of the season. As a team, planning continued for our upcoming Sponsor Night, and updates to our team showcases occurred as well. Our various subteams were also hard at work. Specifically, our finance subteam continued to apply for grants and potential sponsorship opportunities, which will allow us access to increased resources for our team. Additionally, the 5-year business plan was completed, and work continued on the overarching business plan. The logistics subteam was hard at work planning for upcoming competitions, including the Hatboro-Horsham District Event, Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships, and even our own Robbinsville District Event. By starting early with preparations, we hope to make our District Event one of the best yet. 

On the Community Outreach subteam, members worked with Trenton Urban Promise to organize a STEM-kit building event, with the goal of spreading interest in STEM and engineering throughout our community. Additionally, the Community Outreach subteam planned and executed a second event with the same organization. The Media subteam worked on organizing and capturing action shots of our team. Updates were also made to our Pit Presentation, which will be utilized at future competitions and our upcoming Sponsor Night. Brainstorming also took place for our Impact video, and production will begin soon. Overall, it was a very productive week for the business team, and we are looking forward to a successful season ahead!

The most recent Nemesis outreach event was a great opportunity for our team to give back to the community and inspire a new generation of innovators. The team visited the Urban Promise organization located in Trenton, NJ on January 31st and February 6th to guide and assemble STEM kits with elementary school children.

The three activities in the kits were interactive and immersive opportunities for the children to understand our team and how robotics work. The first was a Wobble Bot, a robot designed like a toy that, when activated, moves in unpredictable directions. The second project was a rubber band powered helicopter, which would launch into a short flight and then glide to the ground. The third kit was a toy modeled after a wizard’s wand which used popsicle sticks, wires, a watch battery, and an LED to illuminate a “spell” in different colors and was designed to introduce the students to basic electrical circuits. The kits were designed to encourage creativity and problem solving skills.

We also posted accompanying videos to our YouTube channel, demonstrating how to assemble the kits and discussing the engineering principles of each challenge. This allows the students to continue having engineering fun in their own homes!

The Nemesis members and children all had a great time at the event. According to the site director of the event, “The students were amazing and our children had a wonderful time creating the robots!” This opportunity was one of the many outreach programs that Nemesis offers to spread awareness about STEM and promote the FIRST message in our community.
 

Build

3 weeks into build season, our team has experienced its fair share of ups and downs while working towards building a competitive robot in this year’s Charged Up challenge. We’ve made significant progress in our efforts to create a swerve-type drivetrain, as our Electrical Team finished wiring up the CanBUS system; we now hope to test swerve more intensely in weeks to come. Our Build Team focused on testing the “over the bumper” intake, but ran into issues regarding spacing. We are hard at work to resolve the issue, as was our Design Team, which improved geometries in their CAD models to ensure such issues do not reoccur. Design also tested various other geometries/prototypes, giving our build team more data to work with in the future. 

Fabrication stressed the importance of learning by teaching many of our underclassmen how to operate the various machines in the build lab, including the lathe, router, and mill. Under the careful watch of our senior members, our younger members became proficient and interested in our machines, now able to aid the team further. Software made leaps and bounds with swerve drive, coding an operational product that can be tested in the weeks to go. On top of this, software investigated how April Tags could be of use to us during matches, as well as finalizing Scouting Application v1. Through feedback from the rest of our teammates, Scout App received overwhelming positive reviews, and we are excited to use the new and improved version during competitions. 

Business

This week, the Business team diligently prepared for a variety of upcoming events. Our annual Sponsor Night is right around the corner, and the team is hard at work getting ready. First, our newer members continued to work on creating updated team showcases, to represent all of  Nemesis’ efforts last year. These showcases are a window into our team for all members of the community. The logistics team worked on invitations for Sponsor Night and planning for the event. Additionally, we created some exciting new community outreach events. This weekend, we will hold an FLL Meet and Greet, where we will teach local parents about FIRST, and why they should consider starting an FLL team of their own. We also connected all interested parents to work together. This joining together will enable our community to create multiple new FLL teams. This is a new and exciting opportunity for us to continue to spread the FIRST mission throughout Robbinsville. 

This week, our Community Outreach subteam will work with the Trenton Urban Promise organization for an upcoming STEM event. Our team hopes to spread the FIRST message to an underserved community by building STEM kits with kids from the Trenton area. Our logistics team also worked on planning for our competitions, including the week 3 Robbinsville district event. They continued the search for transportation, meals, and hotels for our travel competitions later this season. Overall, this was another highly productive week for the Nemesis Business team and we are looking forward to another exciting season of building and learning.

Nemesis 2590 recently held a meet and greet event for parents interested in creating First Lego League(FLL) teams within the Robbinsville community. The event started off with the prospective FLL parents arriving at the tech lab, and the kids heading to the hallway, where they could learn more about FLL. First, the kids were shown the FLL team IDK’s Lego robot and how it maneuvered on the field. Members of IDK explained the various sensors on the robot, the attachments, and how the robot was coded. Students were then given a chance to ask questions about their robot and FLL as a whole, which members of Nemesis 2590 and IDK answered. Throughout this process, the students developed a passion for FLL, and were excited to get started on a team.

Meanwhile, the parents were shown a presentation which detailed how FLL works, and the commitment it takes for parents to be part of an FLL team. Interest was higher than ever for FLL after the presentation. After the presentation, parents had the opportunity to network and form teams. Coaches were decided for each team, and they took the final steps in settinmg up teams. 

Overall, the FLL meet and greet was a successful event with new teams forming and kids expressing interest in First. The event was a great way for children to have fun while learning, and for parents to learn more about the FLL program, and how to get involved. Nemesis plans on helping these teams through their journey, and hopes they have lots of success, fun, and gain knowledge of STEM. Nemesis plans to continue hosting these types of events and additional workshops to promote STEM education, and inspire young people to pursue careers in these fields. 

After a successful first week of planning and prototyping, the build team continued to test different intakes, cycling options, and game piece indexing mechanisms. Among the indexing designs we considered were the V-Intake, which used two bands in the shape of a V to pull cones to the middle of the robot, and the Bar Indexer, which uses a simple horizontal bar to right fallen cones.

However, after testing and evaluating these designs, the team ultimately scrapped the V-Intake and moved on to other ideas such as a claw-like intake, which used flexible arms with wheels to grab game elements, and the Suction intake, which used suction cups to stick onto cones. We also worked on an "Over the Bumper" intake, which used a shaft with wheels at cone height in front of the robot's bumper to pull cones in and over the bumper into the robot.

In addition to these intake designs, the team also focused on building and refining other aspects of the robot, such as the Spindexer, a mechanism to index the cone into a finite number of fixed locations inside the bot's frame perimete We also made progress on field elements and field set up. We hope to have prototyping done by the end of this week, so that we can break in Week 3 with a discussion of what our final design should be. Overall, it was a successful and productive week for the build team.

Robbinsville High School saw a very successful, informative night on Thursday, January 19th, as it held the annual State of the Schools event. There were a multitude of clubs, organizations and school administration showcasing their accomplishments over the past few years. The common area was buzzing with people from all over Robbinsville, especially around the back corner, where Nemesis 2590 had their own booth. 

This had many aspects, with the center of attention being Nemesis’ 2022 robot, Iris. The drive team was able to show off their skills, allowing attendees to experience the robot's shooter through audience interaction, while catching cargo from the robot. While this occurred, other team members presented the ins and outs of Nemesis 2590. They educated the crowd about Nemesis’ operations, the team's various community outreach events, and more. The team gave out tattoos and tri-folds to those attending, while also showcasing posters detailing all aspects of our team. 

At the superintendent’s debrief on the current events of Robbinsville, Nemesis was honored to be mentioned many times. The dedication of Nemesis team members, the new 2023 game, and the team hosting its first district competition were all spoken about during the speech. Overall, it was a very successful night for Nemesis. The team was incredibly excited to share a year of accomplishments with the Robbinsville community.

On the morning of January 21st, members of Nemesis 2590 were up and ready to showcase their award-winning robot, Iris. Held at the local Robbinsville library and open to elementary and middle schoolers, the demonstration was meant to show the community what Nemesis is all about. After a brief explanation of our team and what we do, students were able to have hands-on interactions with Iris.

Firstly, lead members of Nemesis gave a presentation to the students and their parents. They described what FIRST is, how the FIRST Robotics Competition works, and different ways students could get involved in FIRST. Brief introductions were given about the FIRST Lego League, and a quarter-final match, with Nemesis 2590 playing, from the FRC Championship of 2022 was aired for the students. Described as “a chaotic mix of the NBA and BattleBots”, students were glued to their seats by the sight of six 120 pound robots racing around the arena. The match got students ready and excited to learn about Iris and see how the systems of the robot function.

After the presentation was finished, students were able to witness Iris’s use of its Limelight, a tool which can find the reflexive tape on a hoop in order for the robot to be able to aim itself, first hand. They were given a necklace with a strip of reflective tape on it, and the robot used its Limelight to track the tape on the students as they walked around the robot. Students were able to see the green light shined on them, and the precision of the Limelight’s tracking ability.

After demonstrating the Limelight, the turret was showcased to the students. Some students stood in front of the robot, and a ball was shot from Iris’s turret for the students to catch. This was the same turret and auto locking system used during the 2022 competition season, but the power was turned down so that the ball was catchable for students. While this was happening, other students were able to drive the robot and experience how the control system for Iris works.

Finally, students were given a chance to take a look at Iris, while being guided through the various systems by Nemesis team members. They were walked through the intake, cycling, and shooting systems on the robot, so that they could have a rudimentary understanding of how the different aspects of Iris works. This wrapped up the hands-on interaction for the students, and they were able to go home with an increased understanding of FIRST, with many now preparing to be on FLL teams for the next season.

Stomp rockets were flying everywhere outside the Tech Lab on December 4th, during Engineering Day. The 6th through 8th graders experienced a hugely successful half-day experience thanks to the members of Nemesis 2590. The team helped kids to cultivate their passion for STEM through multiple creative challenges. 

The day started off with an interactive presentation detailing the STEM challenge that the kids would complete. Team members of Nemesis 2590 presented them with the STEM challenge that they would complete -- creating rockets out of paper which would then be launched up into the air by stomping on a bottle.  The kids asked many questions about the task and could not wait to start making their own stomp rockets.

Then, students worked in small teams of 2-3 members led by a student on the team. They then used critical thinking, creativity, and assistance from Nemesis 2590 team members to create a rocket that would launch high into the air. After stomping the rocket and being amazed by how high they went, the kids moved on to the real challenge: finding a way to launch an egg with the rocket without breaking it. 

Guided by their student mentors, the campers, the group of students, were provided with a wide selection of materials that could possibly protect the egg which they put in the bag, along with the egg. After doing this, they attached the bags to the rockets and stomped on the bottles to test run their rocket. After successful test runs, the kids and their student mentors would face the pinnacle of their Engineering Day journey: The Big Bertha cannon, a compressor-based stomp rocket launcher. Big Bertha would launch the bottles to a height of 30-40 feet, which meant that it would be difficult to prevent the egg from breaking. Some teams managed to prevent fracturing the egg, but other groups needed to improve their designs. These groups went back to the tech lab to adjust their rocket, and by the end of Engineering Day, all groups were able to prevent the egg from cracking, successfully completing the challenge.

However, this STEM challenge was not the only opportunity offered to the 6th to 8th graders that attended Engineering Day. The kids were given the special opportunity to drive Iris, the 2022 competition robot that we used in the FIRST Worlds Championship. They had lots of fun launching giant tennis ball-like game pieces 8+ feet into the air to score in giant four foot wide cones. These kids were also given the opportunity to converse with members of Nemesis 2590 in order to gather information about the team. The kids were fascinated with how smoothly Nemesis 2590 ran, and we look forward to seeing these campers at next year’s Engineering day. 

Overall, Engineering Day was an astounding success, that left kids in our community desiring to engage in more STEM related activities. We thank all the campers who showed up to Engineering Day as we had a wonderful experience spreading knowledge of STEM to the community. It was a win-win for everyone involved, and we can't wait to see what next year's Engineering Day has in store! 

After much excitement and anticipation, FIRST kickoff weekend arrived on January 7th, with 2023’s newest challenge: Charged Up. Live from FIRST headquarters in Manchester, New Hampshire, this new challenge engaged and motivated the minds of Nemesis 2590. This year's challenge revolves around creating tech innovation to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. After the challenge was finally announced, the team was launched into a state of excitement. The 2023 build season has officially begun!

After the team read through the game manual to gain full knowledge of the challenge, we split up into several brainstorming groups, all to examine the game and discuss how we could approach this feat.

During these breakout sessions, members used statistical analysis, ranking the actions that the robots could exhibit, in an effort to help with the design of the robot. Eventually, team members and mentors came to a consensus on each Robot action. Next up, each group would decide the rankings and strategy of these actions. An overall consensus was eventually reached and Day 1 finished with the team splitting up into small groups to review potential designs of the robot actions, with a focus on maximizing game piece placement efficiency.

On Day 2, after the ranking of tasks and strategies were decided, the “How’s” of  Nemesis’ approach were discussed. Team 2590 split up into their respective subteams, and eventually came to an agreement about how designs were to be implemented on the overall procedure. This rigorous challenge would require each and every member of the team to step up, and embrace the spirit of building a brand new robot for this year's challenge. 

Kickoff weekend for Nemesis 2590 had the team rally around a difficult challenge, through perseverance and resilience, the team was able to overcome the obstacles together. The team not only worked hard, but enjoyed every moment of solving problems collaboratively, from the rigorous discussions of strategy, to the designing of the robot, to how the team could utilize different mechanics for the robot. Creativity, teamwork and determination abounded this kickoff weekend, and we can think of no better way to start another exhilarating season with FIRST Robotics Competition.
 

    The FRC 2023 season has officially begun, and Nemesis has been busier than ever in the first week! The business team has been preparing for the annual Nemesis sponsor night by updating information and planning presentations to keep our sponsors informed. We have also been preparing and sending invites for this event. We are very excited to meet our sponsors and present all of our hard work so far.

    In addition, our team, sponsor, and outreach showcases are being updated with new photos and awards from our last 2022 season. Our new members are hard at work ensuring that these showcases are kept updated. 

    As a team, we are preparing workshops for First Lego League teams made up of elementary and middle school students. These workshops include a variety of activities designed to keep students engaged and excited about STEM. We are also getting ready for our State of the Schools event, a club fair where parents can see the accomplishments of our team; this keeps us connected to our community. In addition, our Chairman’s team is diligently working on their Impact Award presentation, putting in their best effort to win this prestigious award. We are also busy creating buttons with our logo and a 2023 game-specific design to pass out to other teams during competitions.

    Our logistics team has been finding restaurants for the FMA District Championship and are making sure that meals are being provided for our team during meetings. Our media team is currently in the process of using Photoshop to design labels for our showcases as well as updating the website with information and photos of newer members. Our finance team is looking and applying for sponsor grants, creating our business plan, and reconciling the bank account. Finally, we have been preparing for our robot demonstration in the local library as well as setting up an outreach event in collaboration with the Trenton Urban Promise organization. Overall, it has been a successful start for the business team in the 2023 season!

After the Covid-19 pandemic, Robbinsville High School is back to hosting the Nemesis classic, Discovery day. On the fifteenth and sixteenth of October, Nemesis hosted two , discovery day camps, managing to reach over One-Hundred students. Every year, the Nemesis FRC team hosts an event, open to elementary and middle school students, where the campers work with current team members to give them a fun and enjoyable introduction to STEM. The program has them complete a plethora of age-appropriate STEM challenges, meant to offer a stimulating, but fun, experience for the students.

This year, there were two challenges, each targeted at one of the two different participating age groups in the event. For the younger students (second through fourth grade), the challenge was to make a robot that could kick a ball and a goalie to stop the ball from reaching the edge of the table using Lego Technic and RCX motors. The older students, from fifth to sixth grade, were challenged to use similar NXT and Lego Technic pieces to create a robot that would “bowl” a wiffle ball into  a set of concentrated pins.Once they successfully completed this, they were challenged to code the robot using NXT software to bowl the wiffle ball with just the press of a button.

The campers were split into groups of 2-3 students, and were mentored by current members of the FRC team. The student-mentors assisted the campers in creating the best robots possible, while still understanding the science behind the challenge, and allowing the campers to maintain creative control. . Elan Ronen, a junior on the Software Team, mentored three young students. Elan admired his students’ ingenuity. “Their communication and perseverance struck me the most. They were experimenting with the robot design in the beginning, but after extensive amounts of collaborative brainstorming, they were able to come up with a design. The issue was that their design kept on breaking -- still, after many trials, these students were able to utilize the engineering design process to create a great design.” Elan, and many other student-mentors, found that recovering from adversity is what helped these students grow the most; “Whether it be through the build or code, the students never gave up.” Robert Gao, Design Lead, stated, “As time went on, they really got better at cooperating and problem solving together and I sort-of…just…got to sit back and watch. It was really cool.”

The young students were also given other opportunities to explore robotics. The campers  got a chance to look at a robot built by the local FLL team “IDK”. The campers also got a chance to drive Iris, Nemesis’ robot from the 2022 season. Students were amazed by Iris’ smooth movement, and complex design. The robot driving was a student favorite, with almost half of the campers doing the activity twice!

This discovery day played a significant role in introducing young students to robotics and STEM. It was great to see all the students leave with a smile on their faces, and a newfound love of robotics and STEM.

Another year, another Brunswick Eruption! That’s the off-season competition hosted by North Brunswick High School, this year on November 12th, 2022. This year, 51 team members were able to come, which was very good attendance! We had a lot of amazing experiences as well as some great takeaways, and plan to use them for future seasons! 

Before our first match, we learned that there wouldn’t be any warm-up matches since teams needed extra time for calibration. This meant that our robot, Iris, and our drivers wouldn’t be properly warmed up for the competition, and we wouldn’t know how Iris would behave during the actual qualification matches. We also had a few issues concerning the robot, such as Iris’s limelight mount being broken or the ball intake being jammed, which definitely proved to be problematic during the qualification matches. Nemesis's first match was the 2nd qualification match of the competition, but unfortunately, Iris wasn’t performing well, and we didn’t make most of our shots.In our 3rd match, however, things started to look up for Iris and the team. We made some good shots into the hoop, and rarely missed shots during that match. Even though our alliance lost that qualification match, we proved that we were able to stay in the game. During our 4th match, we got a few shots in and were able to go on the middle rung during the endgame. Nemesis ended the qualification matches with a rank of 8th place (out of 35).

After the qualification matches, it was time for the alliance selections! Nemesis chose teams 1155 (SciBorgs), 102, and 2601 (Steel Hawks), based on our scouting, which is when team members take notes on other teams’ robots’ performance, and everyone did a great job with that, even the inexperienced rookies.

Finally, it was time for the much-anticipated quarterfinals! Our alliance, the blue alliance, was facing off against the red alliance, which was made up of teams 3142 (Aperture), 5895 (Peddie Robotics), and 533 (The PSIotics). We made shots one after another, trying our hardest to recover from our rough start, but in the end, we lost to the red alliance 2-1 in the best of 3 rounds.

After many tough and challenging matches, Nemesis persevered through them all. With the help of our fellow alliance members, we were able to beat teams left and right, all so that we could take a shot at the quarter-finals with the help of our alliance members. Nemesis was very proud and grateful to have made it to the quarter-finals, and we know that we will improve and do better in the next competition!