Outreach As part of FIRST® we do our best to reach out to our community – both in and out of school. This can take the form of spreading word of the FIRST program, encouraging science, technology, and engineering, or plain community service. Although the Inspiration subteam takes the greatest responsibility for these activities, every student is encouraged to set up activities and demos of their own motivation.
Mentors Red Raider Robotics is student led; mentor driven…
Red Raider Robotics is supported by a wonderful group of community mentors who dedicate their time and expertise to help the team succeed. Mentors help teach and supervise the various subteams by lending their knowledge, skills and talents through countless volunteer hours.
Mentors bring their own life experiences to the evening workshops and build season meetings by helping the students brainstorm, solve problems, and construct the robot. In addition, mentors help subteams create this website, produce a team animation, and write essays for national competitions.
Leadership Leadership is comprised of the team president, a VP of Engineering, a VP of Marketing, a student treasurer, a secretary, and input from the subteam leaders. Leadership is the team of students that keeps the team organized and running on schedule.
Structures  Structures designs and builds the main robot and any components, such as an arm, a kicker, or a shooter, that are crucial for the game. They deal with anything related to the body of the robot and the building of certain field components for robot practice.
Drive train Drive Train is responsible for building the basic frame and build components that allow the robot to drive.
Electronics Electronics works with the sensors and actuators on the robot and is responsible for wiring the robot\’s components to allow the robot to function, drive, and complete its objectives, like lifting a ring or kicking a ball. Essentially, electronics contributes to the wiring of the robot and acts as the central nervous system.
Programming Programming writes the code (Java) for the robot to respond to the commands sent out from the control board and works on autonomous mode strategy. They are responsible for the computing processes performed by the robot and are essentially the designers of its \”brain\”.
Competition In the beginning there was pit scouting; checking out the other teams robots the first day of the competition. Pit scouting is the first time we can make connections with other teams face-to-face. There are several stories about pit scouts finding teams to help which leads to the other team selecting 578 as an alliance partner for the elimination rounds. Before the competition, someone needs to determine what information the drivers need to know about all the other teams in attendance. The drive team uses that information to plan upcoming matches.

Several years ago, the team created a distinct Strategy Team led by Steve Mundt. Before that pit scouting and pre-game internet scouting were “extra” activities assigned to individuals, now the Strategy team added game scouting to the task list. Game scouting involves collecting information on every team during the competition. Last year all the information from game scouting was put into an Excel spreadsheet and used to predict scores of upcoming matches. When the drive team met Friday night during the Regional, the game scouting data was used to rank teams on different aspects of the game; autonomous points, teleop scoring and climbing points. The data was used to select preferred alliance partners.

The new competition team will continue all these activities plus add more drive team training, team building and strategizing At Champs last spring, the team did some bench marking about other teams practices. There are teams with dedicated drivers that stay together year round. Some teams have drivers that specialize in offense or defense. The competition team was formed to take 578 to the next level. It is not enough to build a great robot, the competition team can provide a competitive edge.
Spirit/Marketing