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.

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.

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

Competition Outcome

Mini Arena for Spectators

1/9

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