FRC Roundtable

In this episode, Jess Birken, non-profit attorney and fabulous game announcer for the FRC Northland regionals, shares some legal advice on when you should and should not start a non-profit to support your team. Together we explore the requirements when starting this type of business and some things to consider for your team. You may also recognize Jess's voice as the person who introduces ever...

In this episode, Kevin N from Team 2052 KnightKrawler shares how his team organizes their CAD documents to improve document sharing and versioning. At the end of this short presentation multiple teams show their CAD for this year's robot and share some advice and information on how their team approaches CAD. A list of all links that were shared in the chat during the talk can be found in the YouTu...

Luke from Team 2530 Inconceivable shares his best advice for managing the electronics on your robot. Learn what teams are doing to improve the reliability of their electrical components.

The FRC Regional Director for the northland area leads the roundtable this week with information regarding the FRC Championship tournament. Mentors for several teams also share their advice.

In this episode Briley from team 3277 ProDigi leads us in a discussion about playing defense this season, the different ways teams can employ defense and the impact it has made on the game. "Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships" - Paul Bryant

The 2024 game Crescendo saw major shifts in how the game was played between week 1 and week 6. Now that we are at the halfway point, do we believe we have seen the optimal game play strategy or is the "meta" still evolving as it did two years ago? How are teams adjusting their drive team strategy? What design changes is your team making to their robot? Have we seen the optimal defensive play, or w...

Learn how Team 2052 KnightKrawler helps local Girl Scout troops earn their robotics badge, while exposing more girls to robotics and encouraging more girls and young women to explore STEM.

In this episode the roundtable discusses what we learned from Week 1 Regional competitions. How do we think game play will evolve and what changes are needed to our robots.

In this episode teams that participated in Week Zero share their experience and observations. Teams discuss what they are working to improve before Week 1 competitions and where they experienced challenges with this year's build.

Our Northland FIRST Regional Organizers share everything you need to know about getting ready for competition this year. Even if you aren't competing in Minnesota or North Dakota, there is plenty of good information for anyone getting ready to compete.

Our local Judge Advisors, Rachel and Jess return to share information and advice on the Impact Award and Dean's List Award process.

In this episode, Team 2502 Talon Robotics returns to talk business. Last month the team joined us to share how they restructured the engineering side of their team. During this episode, Talon will share how they run the business side of the team with discussions on processes, events and awards.

What did teams learn after their first week of design and prototyping? How are team's strategies evolving?

In this episode, mentors and students from many teams sharethoughts on what will be key match strategies, how the game may evolve as the season progresses, and how high, medium, and low resource teams can find success during the season. The 2026 FRC season should be an exciting fast pacedyear with REBUILT.

Team 2502 Talon Robotics returns to lead another FRC Roundtable. This time the discussion will be focused on organizing and training the engineering side of your team. Talon student leaders will share what they are doing this year and invites student leaders from other teams to share how their teams prepare for the season.

Northland Judge Advocates Rachel and Jess share and dispel common judging myths that will help your team improve.

UPDATE: Due to a technical failure, the first publish of this episode was missing half the presentation. Elise and Laurie very graciously offered to re-record the presentation. This is a republish of that presentation with the Q&A from the original recording added.  Continuity Best Practices through Process & Documentation A step by step resource for developing and implementing team contin...

On this episode of the Sunday night FRC Roundtable we discuss who travels and who stays home. Should the whole team travel? What are the advantages and disadvantages of sending a smaller group to competitions? How do teams handle the costs?

Bob Atkins simultaneously mentors 6 FRC teams, with a sprinkling of FTC and FLL on top. In this episode, Bob shares advice for running a successful build season and staying on schedule.

Mahi from Team 2531 RoboHawks shares his experience as Champs Dean's List winner. We explore the best advice he collected throughout his Dean's List experience and since. Tons of fantastic advice for both students interviewing and mentors preparing essays.

In the second of our roundtable sessions organized by FIRST, we discuss the importance of mental health. Mick Lynch, a Certified Mental Health First Aid Instructor, and a dedicated clinical and sport psychologist at Winona State University, shares his advice for approaching mental health and normalizing the importance of taking care of ourselves and each other.

Team 2472 shares their impressive leadership process and structure.

What do we do when we observe something inappropriate? Do we directly engage? Do we wait and address the problem later? Do we refer the situation to someone else? What are the ways to deal with situations we encounter in FRC and everyday life.

What is MinneTrials? How has it helped teams grow and improve? Tips and Tricks. Advice for first time teams.

An episode of the Sunday night FRC Roundtable for FIRST Robotics students and mentors. Team 7028 The Binary Battalion shares about their team members, how they run their team, the nonprofit that supports them. They talk about their community outreach with their tank bot t-shirt cannon. 7028 talks about the pros and cons of being a program of community education and not an official sport of the sch...