Newsletter 1: 2023 FRC Competition Season!

Hello everyone! We are so excited that the 2023 competition season for FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) has begun!

Montclair Robotics had a very successful Kickoff celebration at the beginning of January, graciously hosted by Montclair State University. There, we watched the international Kickoff livestream with Montclair High School’s very own Mr. Freeman, Mr. Clark, Ms. Alsina, and Mr. Gannon. The challenge this year is Charged Up! We are creating a robot that can pick up cones and cubes. It will have to bring the objects to a raised drop-off point, and at the end of the time slot, the robot will have to balance on a platform. 

Since Kickoff, we have been meeting four to six days a week, ensuring that we optimize all the time we have to make the best robot we can. The engineering divisions have each been working on independent aspects of the robot, which will all be coming together soon. We also joined the Open Alliance this year!! Keep up with our robot building process by reading here.

The robot will be ready by our first district competition, which is on March 11th and 12th at Mount Olive! Two weeks later, the team will be back on the road to Warren Hills for our second district competition. Depending on how high our standings are at the end of the two tournaments, we may be able to attend the regional competition at Lehigh University, so check out our website for a calendar of our next events!

In addition, our Business Division has been finalizing our awards applications and have been working on planning our annual Robot Petting Zoo in the Spring — back for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. At the event, members of the community will be able to see our robot — and other local teams’ — along with participating in STEM activities. 

There is much to look forward to in the coming season, and we are excited to share it with you all! Thank you for supporting Montclair Robotics!