The Cookie Clickers #18650 and the Manchester Machine Makers #16221 are hosting a party at the Manchester Community Library to celebrate the FIRST Tech Challenge AGE – DECODE kickoff on Saturday, September 6, 2025, 11am – 1:30pm. We hope that you all will join us for this second annual Southern Vermont kickoff!
We will begin at 11am in the community room at the Manchester Community Library:
138 Cemetery Ave., PO Box 1105 Manchester Center, VT 05255 Phone: 802-362-2607
As teams arrive, we will form a panel of team representatives to discuss last year’s experiences and this year’s goals.
At noon, the challenge will be released by FIRST, and we will watch the livestream on the big screen to learn the rules of the new game. (If you can’t make it and want to sign up for a reminder to watch the livestream on your own, you can do that here).
Then, we open up the brand new field (thank you, FIRSTinVT!) so that everyone can experience the genius of the AGE: DECODE game, with whatever robots we have from last year, or from the summer’s experiments. Feel free to bring your own robots as well!
There will be pizza for lunch, and each team will go home with a printed manual and a few game pieces.
We hope that you’ll all come and bring your expertise, ideas, and gracious professionalism to share!
Please let us know that you’re coming as a team so that we have enough manuals and game pieces on hand for you!
On Saturday, January 11, 2025, we went to the invitational scrimmage hosted at the University of Vermont. Our team has collaborated with another southern Vermont team, Bennington’s Cookie Clickers, this year, but this invitational served as a good chance to get to collaborate with everybody, as we don’t get many opportunities to work with teams from northern Vermont. This year’s challenge is rather complex, and to our surprise we saw that many teams had similar solutions to the challenge. A frequent design that we saw — and the one that we chose for our robot — is a linear slide system to allow the robot to reach this year’s higher scoring bins. Despite many robots having a similar base idea, it was interesting to discuss the smaller differences between every robot. We saw, for example, a number of different claw designs and strategies for how to pick up game pieces. We discussed with different teams about how they designed their claws, and we found things we hadn’t even thought of such as having the claw aligned horizontally rather than vertically.
After we compared our designs, it was time for a round of judging! Many of us hadn’t experienced a judging session before, so it was a great practice for the new members. We discussed our process in designing the robot and our current hardware, as well as our intended strategies. We started the presentation with a strong overview of our different hardware mechanisms, featuring our linear slides, rack and pinion servo, and our wrist and claw mechanism. To follow up our hardware presentation, we discussed our developments in our robot’s software this year. This year, we started by integrating the PedroPathing algorithm for pathfinding, a departure from our previous strategy of writing everything ourselves. Later in the season, though, we found that PedroPathing’s (at that time) lack of a proper Gradle library, and our lack of proper knowledge of the internals, was holding us back. So, at the last minute, our software lead sat down and wrote a block-based pathfinding autonomous, combining ideas and routines from previous seasons, which worked brilliantly. In the presentation as a whole, something that we plan to improve is how we distribute the information presented between team members; some spoke too much, others not at all. Our presentation was decent overall, though, and we have definite targets for improving it.
The last part of the invitational that we were able to attend was the practice matches, which led us to useful discoveries about our robot as well as potential game strategies. The scene was set: our robot waited, ready for action, on the full-sized playing mat, with the other teams standing ready. The suspense grew as the referee counted down the seconds to the moment of truth. Then, as the autonomous portion began, our robot was the only one that moved. We came to the realization that we were the only team with the foundations of a working autonomous. Our autonomous wasn’t anything too fancy yet, as it was just a simple parking mechanism we had recycled from a previous year, but nonetheless we managed to scrap it together for this season. The tele-op portion of the game, though, was a bit more interesting, as all teams had some sort of prepared tele-op system. Many different game strategies were used, but the main one that we saw was the usage of baskets. Our team designed our robot to be able to both score a basket and score specimens on the rungs of the submersible, so we were flexible with our scoring techniques. We tried a variety of different scoring methods, but we focused on getting better at hanging specimens, as the other teams wanted to prioritize basket scoring. We ran into a few technical problems, such as the traction of the claw not gripping pieces fully, though we hope to fix those in the coming days. The last part of the match struck and we raced over to the ascension zone, unrivaled again. In the final section of the game we discovered that we were the only team able to complete a level two ascent, which shocked us again as our ascension system used a similar design to many other teams’.
After some matches, we discussed claw designs with another team, along with the benefits of a horizontal claw versus our vertical claw. They showed us that they too had a vertical claw at one point, but got rid of it because after running some tests the horizontal claw proved to be more effective in sample collection. We hope to re-think our claw to make our collection easier. Since they were nice enough to help us out with our claw design, we helped them out with their difficulties with ascension. They also used a linear slide system to reach the higher collection bins, so we discussed how they could repurpose their slides as an ascension mechanism like we did. It was fun and constructive to provide feedback for each others’ robots, and, overall, we gained a lot of insight and ideas from our discussions. We hope to implement what we’ve learned as we continue to improve our robots, and to continue connecting with other teams to learn as much as we can. These collaborative events allow us to gauge our progress and improve our designs much more than we would be able to do otherwise. As such, we’d like to thank UVM for providing this incredible opportunity for all Vermont teams.
Overall, we are proud of where we are as a team and are on track to perform well in the state competition. We want to go as far as we can, and achieve the best we are capable of. We’re in a good place for this point in the season, and we hope to progress to regional competitions in Massachusetts again as we did last year.
We hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving, enjoying many good things. We certainly did! The Green Mountain Girls will be supporting us again this year; I encourage you to also support them as a great non-profit organization that helps fundraise for other local non-profit groups (including us, yay!)
The Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering has also provided us a grant to further outreach to the Greater Manchester community, with which we plan to design a robot “kit” to give hands-on experience during limited-time, casual workshops. After we finish building our competition robots, Cordelia and Cornelius and Thomas, we will use that experience along with the grant to put together some open house opportunities.
We have also been the beneficiary of several private donors – you know who you are, and thank you so very much!
All donations go 100% toward supporting our FIRST Tech Challenge program. All mentors and coaches are volunteers, and as we charge no membership fees, all of our funding comes from grants and donations.
This Giving Tuesday, please consider donating to the future of humankind. We are a club that teaches the next generation of innovators how to build robots and work with the technology of tomorrow, building robots out of repurposed Android devices. Help us shape the next generation of engineers, entrepreneurs, and visionaries – donate to your local robotics club, the Manchester Machine Makers, today with PayPal here.
Join us at the library on September 7th between 11:30am and 2:30pm to kick off the next FIRST® Tech Challenge ocean-themed competition season: DIVE: INTO THE DEEP!
Manchester Machine Makers (MMM), a 4-H sponsored FIRST Tech Challenge team, is hosting the annual kickoff of the 2024-2025 competition season for Southern Vermont at Manchester Community Library. At noon, we will watch the FIRST® live-streamed announcement and game animation. With a couple of basic robots, we can drive around the full game field provided by FIRSTinVT and will share printed copies of the new game’s Competition Manual. After the announcement, there will be time to brainstorm!
R.S.V.P.here, orto ftc16221@gmail.com so that we know how much pizza to bring. Donations to cover food and drink are graciously accepted, as are donations to help us fund our robots.
As a 4-H club, MMM is open to all students grades 7-12 (ages 12-18) in the local area who are interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) and/or robotics. MMM invites anybody interested in STEAM to join us for the kick off and learn more about what is being done to promote STEAM education in the community.
During the 2024-2025 FIRST® season, FIRST® DIVEpresented by Qualcomm, teams will use their STEM and collaboration skills to explore life beneath the surface of the ocean.
Along the way, we’ll uncover the potential in each of us to strengthen our community and innovate for a better world with healthy oceans. Join us as we explore the future.
Manchester Machine Makers at Lamoille Union High School
Today was the day! We all travelled north to attend the Vermont State Championship FIRST Tech Challenge competition, where the team had a successful and eventful day.
It was a rough start- Rufus, our robot, suddenly began having connection issues, switch problems, and more! We had to return at the last minute to finally pass the field inspection, but even after we thought it was working, the next thing we knew it had stopped again. With the help of the Mansfield Mechanics United, our first alliance partner, we learned that the way we had connected our hubs together wasn’t the best way, and they loaned us a cable to get working.
The first match was rough, with the hurried debugging process having reversed cables and left some hardware uninitialized. But in the few moments before the next match the team dove in and got it fixed up, and from there our ranking steadily improved.
The judges gave the team an excellent evaluation on their presentation, and came around during the day between matches to talk further about the robot and the design and build process.
We followed up with successful match partnerships with Insufficient Power, the Cookie Clickers, the Wired Cats, and a CVU team. After the last qualifiers were done, we were in fourth place!
After a variety of negotiations, we agreed to pair with the Wired Cats again for the semifinal round, where we won two of three matches to proceed to the finals. Although we were knocked out of the final round, the Drive team did a fantastic job with Rufus. Despite irregular steering, our alliance built two mosaics in each of our last two games and worked together nicely.
In the end, the team brought home medals as the second place alliance partner, and was honored with the Design Award, and first runner up for the Control Award – and we will advance to the regional tournament in Massachusetts in April!
We have several improvements to make in hardware and software, and Rufus is going to be amazing – but a huge congratulations to the team for their incredible accomplishments today and throughout the season!
We’re on our way! We’ve polished up our portfolio, practiced our presentation, and now we just need to pack everything into the car tomorrow for the early morning drive up to Hinesburg, VT.
We encourage all our friends and supporters to stop by and cheer for all the Vermont FTC teams.*
Early morning arrival at the Vermont State FTC Championship, March 19, 2022. Left to right: Zach, Jacob, Isaac, Charlotte, Takoda. Photo credit: Coach Meg.
On Saturday, March 19, 2022, we took our robot, Freya, to the Vermont State FIRST Tech Challenge Championship competition hosted by the CVU RoboHawks in Hinesburg, VT. The competition involves several rounds of Qualification Matches, followed by the Semi-Final Matches, followed by the Final Match based on the rankings earned during the previous matches.
The team started out the day with an interview with two judges. We presented the season’s work, represented in our Engineering Portfolio and our larger Engineering Notebook. These had been polished up over the course of the previous week.
Freya was called up for the first match of the day, bright and early, partnered with the Ringers on the Blue Alliance. After a serious fumble in the Autonomous period, she was able to recover well enough to deliver ducks in the Endgame and score points for the Alliance. However, her delivery system was broken beyond on-site repair, and the remainder of the matches were played without it.
Charlotte and Coach David with FreyaJacob, Isaac, Zach, Charlotte at CVUFreya in the Blue Alliance
Our next Alliance was with the Cookie Clickers, our friends from the Bennington Area Makers. Both robots gave a creditable performance. We went on to play in a total of 6 matches, with each match improving as the drivers became adept at running Freya without her delivery slides and chute. They were able to use her intake to push freight all the way through, delivering to the bottom level of each hub.
The team was interviewed in the pit by the judges, who stopped by with each team to discuss their robots and their approach to the problems posed by the game challenges.
While Freya did not advance past the qualifying matches, she impressed the judges with her design and her modularity. She was able to compete without all her assemblies, and she was able to swap out her alliance markers between red and blue with a little Velcro™. The judges were also impressed by the team’s resilience and their engineering process through the season.
Congratulations to our Team on a Season and Game that was well thought, well designed, and well-played!
Judged Awards
The team came home with three awards – Second Place for the Think Award, Second Place for the Control Award, and First Place for the Design Award.
The Think Award: Removing engineering obstacles through creative thinking.
This judged award is given to the Team that best reflects the journey the team took as they experienced the engineering design process during the build season. The engineering content within the portfolio is the key reference for judges to help identify the most deserving Team. The Team’s engineering content must focus on the design and build stage of the Team’s Robot.
The Team must be able to share or provide additional detailed information that is helpful for the judges. This would include descriptions of the underlying science and mathematics of the Robot design and game strategies, the designs, redesigns, successes, and opportunities for improvement. A Team is not a candidate for this award if their portfolio does not include engineering content.
The Manchester Machine Makers earned Second Place at the Vermont Championships for the Think Award. The team created an Engineering Notebook with detailed and elaborate descriptions of all the systems of the robot, including the design and engineering process of both hardware and software, and the support systems provided by fundraising and community partnerships. This is the third year running in which the Team has been recognized in the Think Award category.
Control Award sponsored by Arm, Inc.: Mastering robot intelligence.
The Control Award celebrates a Team that uses sensors and software to increase the Robot’s functionality in the field. This award is given to the Team that demonstrates innovative thinking to solve game challenges such as autonomous operation, improving mechanical systems with intelligent control, or using sensors to achieve better results. The control component should work consistently in the field. The Team’s engineering portfolio must contain a summary of the software, sensors, and mechanical control, but would not include copies of the code itself.
The Manchester Machine Makers earned Second Place at the Vermont Championships for the Control Award. The team was able to show its consideration for improving the driver controls, and effective use of sensors and algorithms in its software.
Design Award: Industrial design at its best.
This judged award recognizes design elements of the Robot that are both functional and aesthetic. The Design Award is presented to Teams that incorporate industrial design elements into their solution. These design elements could simplify the Robot’s appearance by giving it a clean look, be decorative in nature, or otherwise express the creativity of the Team. The Robot should be durable, efficiently designed, and effectively address the game challenge.
The Manchester Machine Makers earned First Place at the Vermont Championships for the Design Award! The team put a lot of thought into the design of Freya, considering all aspects of how she would need to be both used and maintained. The judges appreciated the swappable Alliance markers as well as how well the robot performed on the field after having removed one component. The modularity of the design and flexibility of the robot’s performance were a key factor in the team’s success.
Isaac Vernon, a sophomore at Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester Vermont and a member of the Manchester Machine Makers 4-H Club and FIRST Tech Challenge Team #16221, was recognized at the Vermont State Championships held on Saturday March 19 at Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg Vermont as one of two FIRST Tech Challenge Dean’s List Finalists representing Vermont.
Isaac Vernon, a sophomore at Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester Vermont and a member of the Manchester Machine Makers 4-H Club and FIRST Tech Challenge Team #16221, was recognized at the Vermont State Championships held on Saturday March 19 at Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg Vermont as one of two FIRST Tech Challenge Dean’s List Finalists representing Vermont.
States the FIRST website: In an effort to recognize the leadership and dedication of FIRST’s most outstanding secondary school students, the Kamen family sponsors an award for selected 10th and 11th grade students known as the FIRST Robotics Competitionand FIRST Tech Challenge Dean’s List.
FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”. Similar to National Merit Scholarship Award Winners, there are three categories of FIRST Dean’s List Award students: FIRST Dean’s List Semi-finalists, Finalists, and Winners. The Semi-finalists are compromised of the two students in their 10th or 11th grade school year nominated by each team. FIRST Dean’s List Finalists are comprised of the the students selected at each state/regional championship (Vermont has two Finalists).
FIRST Dean’s List Winners are comprised of the 10 FIRST Robotics Competition and 10 FIRST Tech Challenge students selected from the applicable FIRST Dean’s List Finalists at the FIRST Championship being held April 20-23, in Houston Texas.
All of those Team members who are Semi-finalists, Finalists, and Winners are examples of student leaders who have not only achieved personal technical accomplishment, but also have led their Teams and communities to increased awareness of STEM and of the FIRST organization. It is important to recognize the contributions they have made and will make as they pursue further education, going on to become great leaders, student alumni, and advocates of FIRST.
This is the second year that the Team has been home to a Dean’s List Finalist for Vermont. We are proud of our Team members and grateful for their inspiration and dedication!
Isaac is a founding member of the Manchester Machine Makers and this is his third year on the team.
FTC 16221 Manchester Machine Makers 