Already back at this keyboard? Crap.
Hey everyone! Today’s a very special day: it marks the first real day of work! Alright, alright, hold your applause; it had to happen some day. However, this also signals a major shift in the functioning of this team. Today, we come out of idle “Summer Mode” and turn on the jets of getting stuff done. We have the honor of welcoming about 40 new students to our team, alongside the 20 now seniors, juniors, or sophomores from last year. In fact, this is the largest the team has been since its inception in 2007! We are more than delighted to have all of these dedicated, or, “dedicating” students on our team.
Fall Training started a few weeks ago, and although the veterans likely deny it, it was as useful to them as it was to the newbies. For many returning students, these introductory weeks have allowed for a reinvigoration for their love of robotics and STEM. With programming-, manufacturing-, business-, and CAD-related stations, every subgroup member, new and old, got the chance to define what made their love of robotics.
Veterans weren’t the only ones that benefitted, though. Our new recruits, which almost outnumber our returning students, also got the chance to explore their extracurricular interests during Fall Training. After all of our rotations finished, they got the chance to nominate themselves for whatever subgroup game them the most invigorating experiences or demos. While business and CAD only gained about 25% of their original occupancy, manufacturing and programming’s numbers absolutely shot up with the presence of the new members, almost doubling the amount of members in each.
Overall, although the end of summer and the start of a new season means getting the team up and running, we couldn’t be happier with the struggle. Eventually, our veteran members will return back to our prime, and the new members will be at or surpassing the level that we were at last year— and we’re going to bring you along every step of the journey.
And with that, I’ll have to bid you adieu, reader. See you next time on…
the ausTIN CANs!
