The matches
Two-team alliances face off on a 12-foot field. Every match opens with thirty seconds of fully autonomous play before drivers take over, so the code matters as much as the driving.
About
A competition team, run by students
Millis Dynamics competes in the FIRST Tech Challenge: the same game, the same deadline, and the same field as every other team in the state.
What we do
Engineering with a scoreboard attached.
Robotics is the closest thing school offers to real engineering work: an open-ended problem, a hard deadline, a limited budget, and a competition at the end where the thing either works or it doesn’t.
Students on this team do the whole job. They read the game manual and argue about strategy. They model the robot in CAD, cut and assemble it, wire the control system, and write the code that drives it. They keep an engineering notebook that documents every decision, and they stand in front of judges to defend it.
Then they drive it: two-team alliances, thirty seconds of autonomous play, then two minutes of everything they practiced.
The competition
How FTC works
One game per season, announced at kickoff in September and played by every FTC team in the world through to the championship.
The notebook
Teams document every design decision in an engineering notebook and defend it to judges. It is how the Inspire Award, the top award in FTC, gets won.
Scholarships
FIRST participation unlocks a large scholarship catalog, and a lot of it goes unclaimed every year simply because students never apply.
A year on the team
What the season looks like
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September
Kickoff
The season’s game is revealed on the second Saturday after Labor Day. Everybody starts from zero on the same day.
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Sep – Nov
Design and build
Strategy, prototyping, CAD, and code, plus the engineering notebook that runs alongside all of it.
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Dec – Mar
Qualifying tournaments
Massachusetts events through the winter, iterating on the robot between each one.
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Late March
State championship
The best teams in Massachusetts, and the judged awards.
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Spring
FIRST Championship
The world championship, for teams that advance out of states.
The team
Every job here is a real job
Everyone on the team works on the robot. On top of that, six roles run the season: president, engineering, social media, fundraising, outreach and recruiting, and an administrative helper. All of them are open.
Questions
Frequently asked
Do I need robotics experience to join?
No. Most people arrive having never built a robot, and the team teaches as it goes. If you are willing to learn and to show up, you are qualified. There is also plenty of room for people who would rather write, design, film, or handle sponsorship than turn a wrench.
What does it cost a student to join?
We are raising sponsorship and fundraising money specifically so that cost is not what keeps somebody off this team. We cannot promise a completely free season yet, and we will be straight with you about anything students are asked to cover.
If cost is a concern for you or your family, tell us early and we will work it out.
How much time does it take?
A couple of afternoons a week in season, ramping up before tournaments, plus competition Saturdays. Meeting times are set around what students choose on the sign-up form.
What do I actually learn?
CAD in Onshape, machining and assembly, wiring, programming in Blocks or Java, and the habit of documenting a design so somebody else can follow it. Also the part nobody advertises: how to fix something under time pressure while it matters.
Where are competitions?
Massachusetts qualifiers run from December through March and cluster east of Worcester (mostly the Boston area), generally under an hour from Millis. The state championship is in late March.
How can adults help?
Volunteer, or sponsor. Volunteers do not need to know FTC. Being an experienced adult in the room is the job, and FIRST publishes free mentor training. Sponsors keep the robot funded, and get their name on the shirt.
Ready to build something?
Students, volunteers, and sponsors all start in the same place.