From July 15th – 17th, Team Neutrino members volunteered at the Story County Fair, serving food, providing directions and support to fair go-ers, and supervising the Community Building. Huge thanks to 4-H for hosting, and we can’t wait to be back next year!
From July 15th-17th Team Neutrino held a manufacturing camp for upcoming and returning members to learn more about the machines present in Boyd Lab and ISU. All of the members have been certified to operate five machines in the Boyd Lab. Each member was able to take home a sheet box that they made through the experience they gained from ISU mentors. Due to extra time, attendees were able to start learning how to use the lathe at the end of the camp.
On July 7th, members of Team Neutrino gave a presentation to John Deere employees. We introduced our team, highlighted our 2026 season and accomplishments, and went over this year’s FRC game, REBUILT. We also briefly talked about our outreach activities and explained how we design and manufacture our robot. Furthermore, we enthusiastically presented our competition robot to the staff and demonstrated the robot functions. The John Deere team was impressed by the presentation and the robot, which led to lots of questions. We answered their questions in detail, which led to more specific discussions. We all had a great time and are extremely grateful for this opportunity and for the chance to share our passion for STEM and robotics with John Deere!
Huge thanks to the John Deere staff for their time and support because this would not have been possible without them!
P.S. They also handed out free snacks and ice cream afterwards!
From July 6th to July 9th, students interested in programming attended Team Neutrinos Intro to Programming camp, where they learned how to code in Java. From learning how to code basic words, to coding simple programs that can add numbers, and even coding lights to flash certain colors. These students learned how we use Java to program our robot and how to code in Java. Thanks to everyone who attended and helped out with this camp, we hope they enjoyed learning about programming!
Team Neutrino participated in the annual Ames 4th of July Parade this year, showing off our 2026 robot Halcyon while throwing candy to onlookers. In keeping with the patriotic theme, our team members dressed up the robot with flags, streamers, and topped it off with Uncle Sam’s hat. Afterward, students walked through downtown Ames, carrying Team Neutrino’s banner and tossing candy to hundreds of spectators. This event was a great opportunity to display our robot to the wider Ames community, and our team members had a great time being part of the parade. We’re excited to be part of next year’s parade!
From June 29th to July 2nd, NEWtrinos attended Team Neutrino’s scouting camp, in which they learned how to perform all of the responsibilities of the Scouting subteam. During our four day long camp, students learned the basics of scouting, how to set up spreadsheets to track our scouting data (and cookie orders!), the fundamentals of website creation (HTML/CSS), and on the last day, they were given the opportunity to design their own webpages to scout this year’s FRC game Rebuilt.
We’ll be scouting to see how these students apply their new skills on our team!