About Outer Galaxy

Overview

Outer Galaxy (FTC 18241) is an FTC team based out of Marlton, New Jersey. 2020 year was our rookie season. During the rookie season we were able to build two versions of our robot which gave us lot of opportunities to learn about key mechanisms. So far this year has been a tremendous learning experience not only from the technical perspective but also on various ways our team can make a positive impact to the community.

Team Members

FTC 18241 is a community team comprised of five versatile middle and high school students. We are an all girls team covering broad spectrum of roles and responsibilities that are integral part of FIRST Tech Challenge.

Shruti: Shruti is a high school senior and is 16 years old. Besides robotics, she is passionate about tennis, singing, and playing the piano. Over the years, she has been participating in different robotics competitions in which she has developed a strong fascination with robotics. Specifically, Shruti is interested in the programming and design aspects of robotics. She joined this team because FTC encompasses everything that she loves about robotics. Being part of a FIRST team allows her to explore all of her interests and more in robotics and being a part of a community. On this team, she hopes to gain leadership skills being the team captain for last 3 seasons. In addition, she is looking forward to learning more about different sensors to make our robot as robust as possible. In the future, she aspires to go into the biomedical field and knows that her cooperation and teamwork skills will only improve being part of an FTC team.
Ashna: Ashna is a high school senior. She likes reading, dancing, and playing the flute. She is interested in the mechanical and design parts of the robot and hopes to soon learn more about programming. Ashna loves working on a team and wishes to open her horizons through FTC. She wants to go into a STEM-related career in the future.
Nidhi: Nidhi is an high school freshman and has been into robotics since age 6. She enjoys baking, reading, and painting. Nidhi joined FTC because she enjoys robotics as she has participated in FLL and WRO and loved the experience she had. Nidhi cherished being able to be a part of a community that embraces her love for robots. She also really enjoyed watching her sister, Shruti’s FIRST experience while she was on an FTC team for two years before they formed their own team. Nidhi is interested in the building, design, and outreach aspects of FTC plus robotics in general. On this team, she hopes to improve her design skills, learn to build complex robots, learn CAD, and Outreach. Nidhi has always loved robotics and STEM and one day hopes to be a Robotic Engineer at Space-X or NASA.
Shreya: Shreya is a high school freshman and part of build team on Outer Galaxy. More details coming soon.
Laya: Laya is the newest member on our team. She is in Grade 8 and aspires to be a programmer on our team.

Outer Galaxy has 3 core sub teams i.e. (A)Strategy & Programming (B)Design & Build or (C) Marketing & Community Engagement. All team members usually collaborate with each other and assist in all aspects of the FIRST Tech Challenge competition including outreach, marketing, technical, documentation, etc.

Strategy & Programming: Develops strategy for the season as well as leads the discussion to define a team strategy to achieve the season game mission. Team brainstorms different algorithms and approaches to meet mission tasks. Programming team develops the software for the robot to navigate as well as to operate the various mechanisms installed to execute the mission. The programs are developed in incremental manner to start with smaller simple tasks advancing on to complex autonomous and teleOp programs.

Design & Build: Collaborate with other teams to evaluate different robot design ideas. Design the robot using Onshape CAD software. Build the robot using wide array of parts from kits, custom made, etc.

Marketing & Community Engagement: MCE team will develop materials to showcase the FTC team to various audiences including sponsors, social media, prospective team members, etc.

We are currently recruiting new team members for 2022-23 FTC season. Please contact us at team@outergalaxy.org if you are interested in joining our team for the upcoming season.
Click here for more details on New Team Member Recruitment.

COACHES & MENTORS

Deepak M - Head Coach & Mentor

Mr. Deepak is the coach and advisor for our team. He provides guidance, support and advises the team on various aspects of First Tech Challenge. His aims to provide the team with lots of learning opportunities.