2025/2/26-2025/3/4
Last week, I traveled to Vancouver for the FRC Canadian Pacific Regional. As I signed the travel commitment form, I knew that this trip would be more than robotics, it would be a trip filled with fun and challenging teamwork as well as pushing our limits and aim for the highest for our team.
My role on the team is outreach and stats head, which means that I am in charge of managing all games’ data and coming up with strategies in order to win every round. I would also need to negotiate with other teams/alliances; firstly, getting to know them; and then, to come up with the best strategy plan. Apart from these in-game competition work. I also took pictures and my friend and I would then post on our teams’ social media. Yes, I am also the social media manager on the team.
When I first joined the competition last year, I got lots of comments like “you don’t look like a robotics person” or “you don’t suit robotics”, and I did not like it at first too. Last year, I felt useless on the team and made no contributions. However, I believe that I have found the role that suits me on the team. I don’t have to be super good at coding or building the robot (because I am not interested in that too), but I can contribute to the team in my own ways. Through this trip, I also got closer to my teammates and learned more about them, which was valuable to me because they are actually so different from what I thought they were.
One of the most inspiring parts of the competition was the spirit of gracious professionalism—a core value of FRC. Teams that were technically our competitors were also willing to help each other, whether by lending tools, offering advice, or even brainstorming quick fixes between matches. I got the chance to talk to teams from different regions, exchange ideas, and learn about different approaches to problem-solving in robotics. It reminded me that FRC is about more than just winning—it’s about growing as engineers, innovators, and leaders.
While we didn’t take home the championship, we left Vancouver with something even more valuable—experience, new connections, and motivation to keep improving. It was because of this regional and what we learned from this regional that led to us getting first seed in Taiwan. Although we still didn’t win finals in Taiwan, it is another opportunity for us to improve next time right?? So so grateful for this Vancouver trip.
Sandy’s Footprints 