The 2008-2009 season for the Fembots had its ups and downs, but was memorable nonetheless. Last year in Atlanta, it was announced that starting this year, a new computer for the robot’s control system would be used. The programmers had to prepare themselves for this new system, preferably before build season, by going to workshops and reading tutorials for a new programming software called LabView. As usual, the Fembots’ workspace was once again relocated, this time to a corner inside the maintenance storage area. However, this wasn’t enough to get us down and we made the best of what we had.

We decided to expand our outreach efforts with FIRST Lego League. We continued to mentor Sam Brannan’s team for the third year. But our biggest push came when we realized that not a single Catholic elementary school in the Sacramento area had a team. We wanted to change that, so we held meetings with principals to get them interested, and got two teams started, Our Lady of the Assumption and St. Ignatius. We sent Fembots out each week to each of the three schools to mentor them. At the same time, we were planning and preparing for the Sacramento FLL Qualifying Tournament, which we were now completely in charge of running. The tournament was in the beginning of December and it went very smoothly! All the kids had a lot of fun, which made all our efforts worth it.

Not even a month after, the FRC Kickoff occurred, signaling the start of build season. Unfortunately, UC Davis was unable to host kickoff this year, so the Fembots played the broadcast in the Campus Life Center, inviting other teams to come watch it with us. This year’s game was called Lunacy, and it involved picking up balls (moon rocks) and dumping them in the opposing alliances’ trailers, as every robot had a trailer attached to it. They also threw everyone for a loop by changing the surface from the normal carpet to a slick plastic.

Build season was especially tough this year. We had started with 17 members this year, but for various reasons, we had dwindled down to 13. With so many activities involving the team, we felt the loss, but managed to complete our robot on time and host practice day at St. Francis again. Building the robots (yes, robots – we again built two so that we could keep one to practice with) was an adventure as usual. This year, we were constrained to not have any parts of the robot allowed outside the starting dimensions, which meant no arms of any sort. We also knew from our mistake in 2007 that picking up from the ground would be essential. We designed and built our robot keeping all this in mind, and the result was B2, which could pick up balls from the floor with a set of rollers, store them, and shoot them out the top into a trailer with more rollers. A few of us got to learn how to weld, and we successfully welded the chassis. Also, Mr. Wargo built us a new crate since we were going to Atlanta again, and we didn’t think our old one would make it again. This enabled us to give our old crate to the Davis team, 1678, who needed one (so both of our old crates are still in use, as Hiram Johnson has our other old crate!).

We also brought back Practice Day from last year. It took over seven hours to set up, but the Fembots built a full-size playing field, regolith, outposts, and all. However, we had no way of distinguishing moon rocks from empty and super cells, so one of our mentors went out of her way to spray paint the empty cells gold, and covered our super cells in sparkly pink fabric, which became a small hit later on when they were displayed at competitions. We also implemented the new field management system, which allowed us to run competition-style matches. About 15 teams came, and everyone was grateful for what we did, learned a ton, and had fun!

When the robot was done and shipped, all that was left to do was wait for competition. We came into competition, clad in pink and full of spirit with a freshman driver, the head of PR for the human player, an alum from 2003 who was a mentor this year as coach, and a senior operator (the only point of consistency on the drive team, since she has been doing it since her freshman year). The other freshman was our Safety Captain, and those who were not the pit crew were all scouting. Everyone was constantly busy, but we still found time to have fun. Like last year, we had our sights set on going to Atlanta, either by winning Chairman’s a second year in a row or by becoming champion of either the Silicon Valley or Sacramento regional. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. We were allied with the eighth seed in Silicon Valley, unfortunately losing in the quarter finals. At the Sacramento Regional, we allied with the third seed and made it to the semi-finals, only to have B2 break down right before the next match started. We weren’t able to repair it in time, but our alliance made it all the way to the finals. And though we did not win the Chairman’s Award, we were honored with the Gracious Professionalism Award at SVR, and the Judges’ and Regional Finalists Awards at Sacramento. In addition to this, we had actually managed to get in to the Championship via the open spots, so we were once again going!

Atlanta was an incredible experience. The sheer number of teams and people was almost overwhelming in its enormity. And then the activities: meeting other teams, workshops, parties, and even a dance kept us busy each day we were there. Going to sleep near or after midnight and waking up at six was trying for all of us, but the experiences we gained were all worth it. Although we did not make it to the Division or Championship finals, we received more recognition than we had last year and hope to continue this trend in future years.

And so came the conclusion of our busiest year yet. We did several other things throughout the year, like demonstrating at various events, hosting a STEM Fair for our school, and being interviewed for O Magazine. We accomplished things that no normal team of only 13 should be able to do, but we did not let that stand in our way, and we did it anyway! And we thus showed the true spirit of the Fembots.