2018-2019 FIRST Rover Ruckus Season
Now in their fourth season, Wizards.exe is comprised of six veteran members and five rookies. These eleven members aged twelve to sixteen, are from five different schools. So far this season, we have attended qualifiers and state championships in Maryland and Virginia, as well as two meets in Delaware. At our qualifier in Virginia (November 17th), we were honored to win the Inspire Award and be a part of the finalist alliance. This was a really fun tournament as it was our first time competing in Virginia. On December 7th, we attended our first meet of the season in Delaware and were undefeated. We attended our first Maryland qualifier on December 9th. At this tournament, we were honored to win the Think and Control Awards, as well as be a part of the winning alliance. We attended our second Delaware meet on January 11th, where we were undefeated. On February 2nd, at Virginia States, we won 2nd Place Inspire and were Division Finalist Alliance Captains. At the Maryland State Championship on March 3rd, we won the Inspire Award, marking the first time for us to win this in Maryland which was exciting. We were also the Winning Alliance Captain for our division. The Detroit World Championship was another fantastic experience. We were nominated as Think Award finalists and ended the robot game as quarter-finalists. We're excited for Skystone!
2017-2018 FIRST Relic Recovery Season
FIRST Tech Challenge Team #9794, Wizards.exe, completed their third season in April 2018. During the Relic Recovery season, the team was comprised of the same eleven members as the prior season. The Wizards aimed higher than they had in the past, striving to both create a competitive robot and have an outreach program which had a larger impact, especially on underrepresented communities. Wizards.exe worked to introduce FLL Junior pilot programs into 3 elementary schools, one of them being a Title One School. We ran 8 FLL training sessions to make coaches and teams more comfortable with FLL and EV3 programming. We ran 10 FTC training sessions on all aspects of FTC, and created training videos showing teams how to write our own autonomous program in Blocky. We also mentored an all deaf FTC team from the Model Secondary School for the Deaf. On the other hand, Wizards.exe also worked tirelessly to create The Wizard, our competition robot. It had a fairly consistent autonomous, was able to cipher in roughly a minute, and could double relic. We were Winning Alliance Captain at the Maryland State Championship and were members of the winning alliance at the East Super Regional. Additionally, we were honored to win the first place Inspire Award at the Delaware State Championship, East Super Regional, and World Championship!
2016-2017 FIRST Velocity Vortex Season
FIRST Tech Challenge Team #9794, Wizards.exe, completed their second season in April 2017. During the Velocity Vortex season the team was comprised of 3 original members and an edition of 8 new members. Wizards.exe strived to reach higher than in accomplishments than we had in our rookie year, and they did. Wizards.exe worked tirelessly during the season to make it to the quarter finals of the World Championship. We received the 2nd place Inspire Award at the East Super Regionals, 1st place inspire at the Delaware State Championships, and various other awards during the season. Wizards.exe not only made a robot "Gandalf the Rev" that could complete every task on the field, but had a very large and comprehensive outreach program. Wizards.exe, in their outreach, reached out to all 4 levels of FIRST. Wizards.exe ran trainings and info sessions for both FLL and FLL Jr., and from there started and mentored 11 new teams. Wizards.exe also ran three FTC scrimmages and connected with the FTC community. Wizards.exe created the mission statement of Engage, X-Pand, and Educate (exe), to show what they really wanted to do in outreach. Wizards.exe engaged the community by going to several community events, such as maker faires and fall festivals. We helped at 16 different school events at 8 different elementary and middle schools. To X-Pand, Wizards.exe was able to form 11 new FLL and FLL Jr. teams. And to educate, Wizards.exe mentored these teams, as well as ran training sessions for kids and new coaches. Wizards.exe also had each team member run at least one outreach event on their own. Wizards.exe went to 115+ outreach events, and spent 1600+ hours on outreach. Wizards.exe wants to interest kids in robotics and STEM so they are ready for a future in an increasingly technological world. We hope to accomplish more in our next season!
2015-16 FIRST Res-Q Season
FIRST Tech Challenge Team #9794, Wizards.exe, began in the season of 2015-16, coached by Pankaj Oberoi. In the first season of the team, Wizards.exe consisted of eight members from six different schools. In the rookie season of Wizards.exe, the team attended competitions across the Super East Region, in Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania. At the two Maryland qualifiers attended, the team won the Control Award at the Bullis Qualifier and were Finalist Alliance Captain at both the Bullis and Annapolis Qualifiers. The team also won the Finalist Alliance Captain Award at the Southern Pennsylvania Qualifier. Due to this success, the team qualified for the Maryland and Pennsylvania State Championships and received an invitation to the Delaware State Championship. At both the Delaware and Maryland State Tournaments, Wizards.exe received the Winning Alliance 2nd Pick Award, qualifying the team to compete at the Super East Regional Championship, from which Wizards.exe advanced to the World Championship in St. Louis, Missouri. Though the season of 2015-16 was the rookie season, it was truly successful. Wizards.exe consistently persevered in efforts to continue the initiative to inspire other students to participate in more such STEM activities, holding true to the mission of FIRST. Team #9794 values community outreach and has integrated FIRST in the Montgomery County environment by hosting robotics events at elementary and middle school science fairs, showcasing team achievements to the Montgomery County Council, mentoring and supporting new and developing younger teams among various other outreach events. As a team, one of the main goals of Wizards.exe is to promote science and technology to more people thereby involving them in STEM in order to spread the spirit of FIRST.