One of the best parts of attending a large high school like FVHS is the variety of clubs and extracurricular organizations that we offer. One of these clubs is the SLICE robotics team.
SLICE is a team of students that create robots and use them to compete against other robots in competitions. Last year, SLICE made it to the world tournament, a rare experience.
Last year’s success was fueled by the many seniors and other experienced members giving it their all. This year, SLICE wants to expand and recruit more members to their decorated team.
To do this, they are holding a series of workshops that will cover all of the main points and different jobs SLICE members can participate in.
The first workshops have already been completed. The inaugural sessions were for the mechanical and electrical fields. These workshops were an overall success, which forecasts a bright future for SLICE and their other workshops.
While many think that electrical and mechanical workshops would cover most of what SLICE has to offer, there are still many other parts that have their own workshops.
The next one is the CAD workshop. CAD, Computer-Aided Design, is what members use to make a 3D rendering of the robot that they will make. This is best for people who are creative and like designing things. The CAD workshops will be held Sep. 26-27
After the CAD workshop, there are the marketing workshops held Sep. 30 and Oct. 1. Marketing is one of the hidden heroes of the SLICE team. The marketing side of SLICE is what is responsible for all of the shirts, posters and any other materials that advertise SLICE. This is again for people who tend to lean on the creative side of things, but they don’t necessarily have to know how the engineering of a robot works.
“On the marketing team, we establish our brand through any kind of design, whether that be our website, social media or our merchandise,” said marketing lead Caroline Parker.
That same week, the programming workshops begin. Programming is a big part of robotics, because it tells the robot what to do with its many different parts and pieces. SLICE uses Java to program its robots, so if you have experience in that area, or just like the idea of programming, check out the programming workshops Oct. 2-3.
The last workshop is another behind the scenes component of SLICE, finance. Finance keeps track of SLICE’s budget and fundraising. As anyone can imagine, building a competition ready robot is very costly, which is where the finance section comes in.
“The finance team practices budgeting, fundraising, and making business pitches,” said business captain Alexa Stokes.
All of these workshops are an opportunity to learn more about SLICE and what they do, as well as see what section of the team is best suited for any prospective members. All of the workshops will be from 2:18-3:30 p.m., in room 1510.
