January 2022

Lansdale Catholic Robotics
FRC 272 The Cyber Crusaders
NEWSLETTER

Celebrating our 25th year
FRC 272 was first started in the fall of 1997 at Lansdale Catholic High School. The team was started by Frank Larkin, who remained an important part of the team until his retirement in 2019. 

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FLL Summer Camp
Over the summer, we held two summer camps. They were each one week long. We had one in June and one in July. Approximately 30 kids attended the camp. They were able to learn FIRST values along with how to build and program a Lego robot. During breaks between building and programming, the kids watched videos and presentations about leadership and listened to 272 team members talk about their roles on our team. At the end of the week, we invited the families of the kids to join us to see what their children learned and accomplished that week. 

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Mater Dei Summer Camp
Over the summer we visited the Mater Dei Summer Vibes Camp. We showcased our FLL, FTC, and FRC robots with over 100 kids in attendance. Not only did we demonstrate our robots, but we let the kids drive and test out features on them. The kids had the opportunity to learn about our robotics program, ask questions and get a fun hands-on experience. 

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Mater Dei Preschool Summer Camp
One of our last events for the summer was at a preschool summer camp. Eight preschoolers got to see a FIRST Lego League robot demonstration up close and each one got the chance to run a mission all on their own. They also had fun programming a small We-do device. We ended the day by giving each child a coloring sheet, which are pictured on our instagram! It was a great day to finish out our summer events and we were so glad to add a new demo to our list! 

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St. Stans Summer Festival
We were so excited to demo our robot at the St. Stanislaus Summer Festival in August of this past summer. This was a great opportunity for our team to talk about what they built and show off their robot. The kids in the crowd always love the opportunity to interact with our robot. We are proud to say that this was our fifth year participating in this festival! This is a great experience for our team and we have so much fun there! 

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Ramp Riot
This past October, Team 272 went to Wissahickon High School to participate in Ramp Riot 2021. Simply put, we had a blast being able to run our FRC robot for the first time in a real competition. This was an opportunity to allow our new team members from this year and the year prior to gain experience for upcoming competitions as they were not able to participate in any in-person competitions before now. It was nice to see and compete with other teams since they also haven’t been able to participate at events such as this. We would once again like to thank Wissahickon High School for giving us and other teams the opportunity to compete! 

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Cannoneers Block Party
Team 272 had the opportunity to demo our robot at Cannoneers Block Party in Lansdale. The Cannoneers, who are one of our sponsors, brought the party outside and gave us space to show the community what we built this past September. The kids in the crowd enjoyed playing with our robot by catching the “power cells” that were being lobbed in the air !! The Cannoneers have been a strong supporter of our program for the last 7 years and we enjoy participating in their special day. 

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Open House
On November 4, 2021, Lansdale Catholic held an Open House for seventh and eighth grade students in the area. We were lucky enough to have a whole classroom to ourselves and showed off our robot to the new incoming students that attended the Open House. Future LC students and their parents both enjoyed watching our robot and asking questions. It is always amazing to see our community and the entire Lansdale Catholic community growing! We love getting to meet future Cyber Crusaders. 

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Tune Up
In November, LC Robotics hosted the 24th Annual TuneUp! We were so happy to be able to host the event in person this year, after holding it virtually last year. We hosted 15 teams and they were able to compete against other teams on six different fields. The teams met with groups of judges for robot design, innovation project, and team-work awards. This is always a great scrimmage experience for teams together ready for competition season. 

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12th Comcast FIRST Robotics Bootcamp
The 12th Annual Comcast FIRST Robotics Bootcamp, created in collaboration with Comcast and FRC 272 occurred on December 14th through December 16th. Due to Covid restrictions, we were unable to meet in person this year, but we held the Bootcamp virtually over three evenings. There were contributing lectures from 1640 Sabotage, 433 Firebirds, 1712 Dawgma, 5401 Fightin' Robotic Owls and 272 The Cyber Crusaders and FTC 14133 The Cyber Crusaders. The event was kicked off with a keynote talk by Comcast's own Sherita Ceasar, a Cable industry leader and SVP of the Technology Environments and Strategy (TES) department at Comcast. She spoke about her award winning career, how she became an engineer, and the critical role TES plays in Comcast's success. We had discussions on utilizing a Mock Kickoff which 433 successfully uses to prepare their new students each year. 5401 shared tips and suggestions to improve your safety program. 1712 reviewed the importance of prototyping. 1640 discussed their award-winning swerve drive. 272 and FTC 14133 reviewed the importance of CAD. We hope to have copies of all the lectures on our YouTube Channel later this month for anyone interested. We want to thank Comcast and the teams that participated for another successful Bootcamp. 

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Newsletter Staff:
Emily Durning - Senior - 5th year on the team and co-captain
Tara Moore - Junior - 3rd year on the team
Grace Forbes - Junior - 3rd year on the team and Engineering Lead
Connor Williamson - Junior - 3rd year on the team and Safety Captain
Ryan Evanik - Sophomore - 2nd year on the team
Lyla Cossman - Freshman - 1st year on the team