Category: Outreach

On Saturday, January 4, Texas Torque hosted one of the kickoff events of the Houston area for the new 2020 season. Teams viewed a live kickoff show, where they were introduced to the new game manual and field set-up. They also received a speech from the new FIRST president, Lawrence Cohen.

The following video released by FIRST explains this year’s challenge:

Following the kickoff, members of Texas Torque reviewed the new game manual. Current students, mentors, and alumni all worked together as a team to create a vast array of innovative ideas and strategies for this year’s FRC game—Infinite Recharge.

We look forward to the new season, and wish all teams the best of luck!

On November 14, members from the Texas Torque team delivered over twenty bedding sets to Angel Reach, a non-profit organization that helps young adults transition out of the foster care system. These bedding sets were generously donated from FRC teams attending the 2019 Remix on October 26th, 2019. 

Thank you to all contributors for supporting this great cause!

Last Saturday, 32 teams from Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Mexico met at The Woodlands College Park High School to compete in the sixth annual Robot Remix.

The Remix raised approximately $1500 for the Montgomery County Women’s’ Shelter and collected over fifty small LEGO sets for a local children’s hospital. More than twenty bedding sets were collected for Angel Reach, a program that supports youth who have aged out of the foster care system.

This year’s competition was one of the fiercest ever! Torque finished qualification matches sixth, allied with team 5892 Energy HEROs and team 624 CRyptonite, but was eliminated after some tough defense played by team 118 Robonauts.

Congratulations to the winning alliance—team 118 Robonauts, 5261 Cyber Shock, and alliance captain 2468 Team Appreciate! The Robonauts, although routinely superb, was unable to play offense for the majority of the event due to technical issues. Instead, they became one of the most terrifying—and loudest—defense bots ever. While 5261 had a rough start, they rounded out the alliance and contributed to one of the most formidable offensive alliances at the Remix with Team 2468’a speed and precise maneuvering.

We would also like to give a big thank you to the volunteers that helped ensure the event ran smoothly. Special thanks go to our sponsors, Russo’s NY Pizzeria, and team 4610 BearTecs, 624 CRyptonite, 5417 Eagle Robotics, and 5414 Pearadox for running workshops.

Thank you to the teams and audience members that attended the Remix. We hope to see all of you next year!

Texas Torque’s last event of the 2019 season was the Houston World Championship at the George R. Brown Convention Center and Minute Maid Park. This was the biggest event of the year with over 400 teams attending.

Texas Torque was in the Hopper Division along with 67 other teams to compete for a chance to play during Einstein rounds. After many successful qualification matches, Texas Torque ended with an 8th rank and a 7-5-0 win-loss-tie record. Texas Torque picked team 4020 Cyber Tribe, 4063 TriKzR4Kidz, and team 3635 Flying Legion to complete the 8th seeded alliance.  During the playoffs, our alliance was eliminated in the quarterfinals.

Congratulations to the World Champion finalists in the Turing division alliance! We would also like to congratulate team 973 Greybots, team 1323 Madtown Robotics, team 5026 Iron Panthers, and team 4201 the Vitruvian Bots for winning the Houston World Championship! We would also like to congratulate team 1902 Exploding Bacon for their induction into the Hall of Fame.

Last Saturday, students, mentors, alumni, parents, and supporters of Texas Torque met up in The Woodlands College Park High School LGI to watch the FIRST Robotics Competition 2019 game reveal. This much-anticipated webcast revealed the year’s challenge and marked the beginning of the new FRC season, DESTINATION: DEEP SPACE.

The 2019 competition involves a space themed game in which two teams of three robots compete to grab disk shaped “hatch” panels to place on a “rocket” or a “cargo ship”, then place “cargo” kickballs afterward. In the first 15 seconds of the game, a sandstorm, or black curtain, is lowered in front of the drive teams, instead of the autonomous periods in past years. At this time, teams can control the robot using visual feedback from the robot and its cameras and sensors. After the initial sandstorm, the curtain is then raised for the tele-operated period. In the last 20 seconds of the match, teams return their robots to the habitat platform and scale different levels of steps to gain additional points.

The following video released by FIRST further explains the challenge.

Following the exciting reveal, Torque members spent the next few hours brainstorming and discussing design and strategy for the game. Students collaborated with mentors and alumni to come up with prototype ideas and strategies to maximize match scores. For the next six weeks, team members will work to design, prototype, construct, and program a new robot for the season before the seven week competition season begins.

Texas Torque wishes all teams the best of luck and hopes that everyone has fun this season!