GalacTech’s season kicks off Jan. 7

Carla Clark | For The Republic Robots send their balls towards the goal at the start of a qualifying round during the Indiana Robotics Invitational, hosted by Team 4926 GalacTech at Columbus East High School, Columbus, Indiana, Saturday, July 16, 2022.

A local robotics team is just days away from beginning work on its latest competition bot.

The catch? They’ll only have two months to put it together — and they don’t yet know what the bot needs to be built to do.

Team 4926, also known as GalacTech, is inviting the community to their headquarters, located at 675 Reeves Way, to watch the 2023 For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Competition Kickoff on Jan. 7. Local community leaders, such as educators, city officials and business professionals, have also been invited.

The main event will take place from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m., but members of the public are also welcome to visit the workshop anytime from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Jan. 7 to see the team at work.

“It’s definitely the most exciting day,” said Columbus Robotics president and Team 4926 founder Sam Geckler. “…The vibe around it is positive and exciting. It’s always astonishing to see what they want us to do and imagine on that first day, what it could look like. And it always feels like a really tall mountain to climb. So it’s just a fun day.”

The local team will give a brief introduction to attendees prior to FIRST’s hour-long livestream, which begins noon. About 4,000 teams from around the world will be tuning in, said Geckler.

The broadcast typically includes some discussion about the upcoming season and the purpose of FIRST. Then, with about 10 minutes left in the stream, the organization presents an overview of the new FIRST Robotics Competition game.

“There’ll be an animation: a game animation video,” said Geckler, “Typically it’s around three minutes long and that’s pretty much what they end with. And they show you the field, how the game is played. They briefly describe the scoring systems and anything that’s new or unique about this year’s game.”

The presentation will end with FIRST sharing an encryption key that allows teams to decrypt a PDF file released prior to the broadcast.

The 2023 game for FIRST Robotics Competition teams is called “Charged Up” and is presented by the Gene Haas Foundation. According to FIRST, the challenge will inspire teams to “see the potential of energy storage in a new light.”

Geckler noted that each year’s theme is “loosely tied” to gameplay, with aspects of the game often symbolizing real-world elements. For instance, the 2022 game, “Rapid React,” was themed around transportation, with balls being referred to as “cargo.”

“Largely, these themes are incorporated to draw attention to important things going on in the world for the students because presumably, many of these students will, down the road, be working on some of these important challenges,” said Geckler.

For GalacTech team members, kick-off day will include team-building activities, introductions and getting organized before the livestream, he said.

Following the game reveal, the team will be divided up into different groups, who will each read different sections of the game manual — which is usually around 120-130 pages long — and present a report on what they’ve learned. They’ll also brainstorm how they can use the workshop space to practice the game. Sometimes, students try replicating the game with people, rather than bots, to get a sense of how it works.

“The most important thing is to read the game manual so you really understand the game and how to play the game,” said Geckler. “And I will give them a rules test on Monday night, the following Monday night, which I always tell them is the hardest test they’ll ever take, because no one’s ever gotten 100% on it. And I try to design it that way. But it’s really to challenge them to read the game and understand the rules so we know what kind of robot to build.”

Community members will be invited back to GalacTech’s workshop on Feb. 27 for the team’s “Robot Reveal,” where they will show off the bot they’ve developed to play this year’s game. Geckler described this as “the deadline before the deadline,” as it pushes students to be ready to demonstrate what they’ve created prior to competing against other teams.

In March, the team will compete at tournaments in Mishawaka and Lafayette. This year’s state competition is scheduled to take place at Anderson University in April.

“Given that we’re the defending state champions, we certainly plan to be there, but you never know,” said Geckler. “So the team has to work hard to conceive a good robot and build it with quality construction so it has an opportunity to make it.”

Last April, GalacTech was part of the winning alliance at the FIRST Indiana State Championship. The team then competed at the international FIRST Championship in Houston, making it to division playoffs but not the final tournament. More than 450 high school teams from all over the world competed at the 2022 FIRST Robotics Competition championships, including groups from as close as Indianapolis and as far away as Israel.

This year’s FIRST Championship is set for late April and will be held in Houston again.

In discussing this year’s team, Geckler said he’s not sure what to expect. He noted that they graduated a “really, really strong class” in 2022. And while there are several returning students, there are also a lot of new faces this year.

“An FRC team is like a box of chocolates,” he quipped. “You never know what you’re gonna get, right? … ‘Forrest Gump’ rules apply.”