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Cal Combat Robotics Competition

August 2018 to March 2019

My Work as President of RoboBears

For the 2018-2019 school year, I served as President of RoboBears, the premier robotics club at UC Berkeley. Here are some goals I accomplished during my time as president:

  • Projects: The club finished three full robots, in comparison to only one the previous year. I trained and mentored all three robot teams.

  • Money: We raised over $4,000 in additional funds through appealing the school, ticket revenue, a GoFundMe campaign, etc

  • Members: We increased from a team of around 10 members to over 20 members. We also established a  new application process and instituted new officer positions including project leads and webmaster.

  • Outreach: RoboBears gained legitimacy as an established engineering club due to our first competition, increased social media presence, and ad campaign. 

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IMG_1463 (1).jpg

RoboBear's three combat robots 

Our initial goal at the beginning of the year was to compete at the annual International RoboGames competition, but unfortunately RoboGames got canceled this year, leaving no local combat robotics competition. My three project teams had already completed a large portion of their designs, and I decided to organize my own competition on the UC Berkeley campus.  

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Planning for the Competition

I singlehandedly planned the majority of the Cal Combat Robotics Competition. Here are some of the tasks I handled throughout the year: 

Organization

  • Worked with event coordinator on campus to book venue and to create a competition layout

  • Figured out arena logistics with BotBashParties

  • Found judges, volunteers, and referees for the entire day 

  • Contacted Berkeley Medical Reserve Corps to provide EMTs for event, created safety rules, and organized pit safety patrollers

  • Found photographer to take pictures and videos of event

Budgeting ​

  • Raised money for robot costs, arena cost, etc.  

  • Created registration system and ticket sales to bring in additional revenue

  • Budgeted money carefully to ensure that the club would break even

Outreach

  • Handled outreach to other university teams which included reaching out to several university teams and coordinating with their team captains

  • Contacted Battlebots veterans and other combat robotics veterans to judge and bring their robots to display

  • Created advertisements on Facebook and posts to reach out to the Berkeley community

  • Found graphic designer and worked with them to make posters 

  • Contacted other Berkeley engineering clubs to have them table during the event

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Competition Outcome 

Pictures from the competition

Event Successes

  • 21 total teams with ​​11 collegiate teams (UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Colorado Boulder, Laney College, Sierra College)

  • $950 in revenue from team registration 

  • Hundreds of people attended and had a great time

  • Competition ran only an hour late and was very safe 

  • Several veteran members of the combat robotics community conveyed that it was very well run for a first time event

  • All competitors enjoyed and many stated that they would love to attend again next year 

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