Want to get Involved?
Any students from Truman, William Chrisman, or Van Horn High School (or in the Independence School District boundary) are encouraged to join us as a member of the FBI. No skills or experience are needed to join our team; if you’re hardworking, willing to learn, and dedicated, you’ll learn everything you need to be a part of the team. As a member of the FBI you’ll have an experience that is profound and life-changing. You will gain so much technical experience as well as valuable life skills.
Leadership
Captains & Leaders in Sub Teams
Our student leaders and captains are appointed by our coaches. Captains are responsible for helping all the sub-teams work together, involving new members, and representing the team. Leaders of sub-teams are selected based on their work ethic, devotion, and understanding of the subsequent group. They are responsible for organizing their group and helping form a plan to implement their ideas on the robot or for the team. The FBI works in three main sub-teams: build, programming, and public relations. These sub-teams are further broken down within the division. The build team consists of fabrication, design, assembly, inventory, and wiring. The programming team consists of code to run the robot, apps for strategy and scouting, lights and sensors, and some parts of wiring. Our public relations team takes photos and videos for the team, works on the website, chairman’s award, public outreach, and social media.
Build Team
Robot Assembly & Part Fabrication
Students involved in this group are responsible for designing, prototyping, testing, building, and understanding everything about the mechanical, electrical, layout, and programming mindset of our robot in relation to the game.
Students in this group will learn valuable skills in the areas of general and shop safety, communication, mechanical advantage, gear ratios, and how to correctly use tools. They also learn how to make changes quickly, and many other skills that aren’t only helpful for robotics competitions, but work-like situations.
Programming
Robot Movement & Feed Back
Our Programmers are responsible for writing the main program that will control the functions of the team robot, and programming sensors. This team also trains new programmers so our team is never left without several programmers for the upcoming season. Programmers work together to find logical solutions through programming, trouble shooting, and ensuring the robot functions as intended.
Strategy and Logistics
Logistics and Strategy is a very important part of FIRST. The strategy team consists of the drive team, coaches, and leadership. They take into consideration how their robot should perform with the mindset to win each match, as well as what types of robots compliment our robot to make a strong alliance. This team uses data from our scouting app to keep track of each robot during matches. This allows us to pick strong, reliable robots for playoff rounds. Logistics and Strategy work together to decide what robots would be best to make a strong alliance in hopes of winning the competition.
Marketing
The FBI Marketing team is responsible for maintaining our team image and planning how we will make positive impacts on other FIRST teams, our school district, and our community.
This group also keeps track of which awards we will work towards for the season, in addition to making sure all of the proper steps are taken for those awards. Marketing includes our website development, management, clothing/uniforms, travel arrangements, accounting, team outreach promoting STEMS education, and Gracious Professionalism.
Chairman Outlook
Students involved with this sub-team primarily write. They write an essay and an executive summary of the essay to tell how our team has spread the message of FIRST. They also work on a presentation which includes a video of our team working on the robot and spreading the message of FIRST. We are able to present at only one competition, where the students have five minutes to present and answer questions in front of a panel of judges.
Web Development
The web team is responsible for building and maintaining this website. Skills are wanted, but anyone motivated can learn and can be self taught or through school mentors. This team never stops working or trying to improve the site and its functionality.