Kai Turner

I currently participate in two major robotics competitions. With both being team-based competitions, I also undertake different roles and responsibilities. The two competitions are categorised as such:

First Robotics Competition (TDU)

What is First Robotics Competition?

The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition. Each year, teams (my team is called the Thunder Down Under, Team 3132 or TDU) of high school students, coaches, and mentors work during a six-week period to design, manufacture, build and program robots capable of competing in that year’s game that weigh up to 57 kg. Robots complete tasks such as scoring balls into goals, placing inner tubes onto racks, hanging on bars, and balancing robots on balance beams. The game, along with the required set of tasks, changes annually.

Teams are generally split into 4 different categories, Design, manufacturing, electrical and software, however, students can learn and be apart of multiple disciplines. For example, I am primarily a design student, but also have extensive manufacturing experience and a small amount of knowledge in electrical.

Robots I’ve worked on/co-designed/constructed:

What do I do on the team?

During my 5 years on the team, I have taken on a variety of roles but most prominently, roles centring around the design sub-team. During my first two years on the team I became the design leader for the in-training division of the team, this influenced my later decision to follow the design path. For 2 years now I’ve been the lead design captain, responsible for leading a design team, including myself, to ensure all systems and subsystems of the robot will properly address the challenge and integrate with the entirety of the robot.

Additionally, I’ve been involved more on the management side as I co-founded and have been a part of, for 2 years, the student council of the team where we convey and collate opinions and data from all levels of the team to the mentor management to implement effective solutions.

During the FRC season, I’m also the lead robot driver, operating the robot in high-stress environments on a competitive level. In the off-season I was also tasked with the role of drive-coach where I was required to take strategic calls and decisions for my student drive-team during high pressure matches.

Significant achievements

Placed 3rd in the World – 2019

In 2019, our team placed 3rd place in the world out of more than 8000 teams and tens of thousands of students worldwide. After qualifying from the Australian regionals, our team went on to compete against the winners of every other world division at Houston, Texas. The robot which I worked on and selected to drive won the third position, the highest level which our team has ever placed and the highest level an Australian team has ever placed.

Placed 1st in Australia – 2021

In 2021, the robot I co-designed placed 1st in the South Pacific regionals

Won Design Creativity Award – 2022

During our time at the nationals, my robot, out of 32 other robots, won the prestigious “Creativity in Engineering and Design” award, given to a to a team with a robot that used creative and innovative mechanisms and methods to solve given challenges of the game.

Placed 2nd in Australia – 2022

This year, the robot I co-designed and drove placed 2nd in the Southern Cross regional where teams from around Australia competed in a round-robin tournament.

Timeline of my Involvement

MY INVOLVEMENT IN TDU

2022

Southern cross competition – Design captain

Placed 2nd, Won Creativity in Design & Engineering

This year, once again, we qualified for the international play-offs in Houston but were unable to attend due to COVID complications. I was the lead design student and lead robot driver, managing design objectives and project direction while coordinating students’ design work (including design work for myself). Additionally I was on the student management council to create team meetings and effectively convey student information and data to the managing mentors.

2021

Southern cross competition – Design co-captain

Placed 1st

Unfortunately during 2021, our team did qualify for the international tournament, however we were not able to attend due to COVID complications. I was design co-captain and oversaw and managed the Zip-Chain project, additionally doing CAD work for the main robot superstructure. During this year I was appointed as a member of the student management council. During the off-season I also spent over 52 hours in volunteer work to aid and assist other young students from around the world with STEM education and advice.

2020

Design Student

Design student, Undertook manufacturing training

In 2020, unfortunately COVID cancelled all competitions worldwide, however, our team still managed to create a robot in the limited time we had. As a design student, I was in charge of designing the colour wheel sub-system. Due to the lack of a competition, I was able to partake in manufacturing training, learning to use the lathe, CNC router and other heavy metal working machinery.

2019

World Championships – Design student

Placed 3rd Globally, Design student and Drive captain

This was my first year on the main team (3132) where I chose to be part of the design sub team, additionally I also went through a series of trials against other team members where I was chosen as drive captain to drive the robot and coordinate with the robot operator. After qualifying from the Australian regionals, I competed at the World championships where our team placed 3rd globally, the best an Australian team has done in the entire 32 years of the competition.

2018

Australian regionals – Training team

Placed 4th

This was my second year on the training team (5331), by this time I had picked up a lot of skills in manufacturing and design, to a lesser extent. During the Australian regionals the robot I helped construct placed 4th, getting eliminated in the semi-finals.

2017

South Pacific regional – Joined the team

Placed 5th

This was my first year on the team and unfortunately, I joined mid season so did not have a major input in the construction of the robot. However, we did end up placing 5th in the South-Pacific area. Later in the off-season I began training for the next season, learning a lot of skills in design and manufacturing.

First Tech Challenge (3MB)

What is First Tech Challenge?

It’s way more than building robots. FIRST Tech Challenge teams (up to 15 team members, grades 7-12) are challenged to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge in an alliance format.

Guided by adult coaches and mentors, students develop STEM skills and practice engineering principles, while realizing the value of hard work, innovation, and working as a team.

The robot kit is reusable from year to year and can be coded using a variety of levels of Java-based programming. Teams design and build robots, raise funds, design and market their team brand, and do community outreach to earn specific awards.

Robots I’ve designed/constructed:

What do I do on the team?

Alongside co-founding the team (named 3MB), I am currently one of 3 Team leaders as well as the Lead Design, Mechanical, and Electrical mentor for NBSC Manly Campus’s Nationally competitive FTC team. I work with students of all ages to teach them practical skills from project planning and management to mechanical engineering and design. In early 2021, I worked with 2 fellow students to generate funding, manage, and create all aspects of the team from the ground up to help other students of all ages in our Highschool to have both an inspirational and a highly educational experience that offered practical industry knowledge the school curriculum did not provide.

Significant achievements

Competed in Australian Nationals 2021

In our first year of competing, our entirely student-run and managed team competed in the Australian Nationals.

Won Connect Award 2021

During our time at the nationals, our team won the prestigious “Connect” award for our dedication to inspiring the younger generation of engineers and our STEM influence in not just our school, but our local community and beyond.

As described by FIRST: “This judged award is given to the team that most connects with their local science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) community. A true FIRST team is more than a sum of its parts and recognizes that engaging their local STEM community plays an essential part in their success. The recipient of this award is recognized for helping the community understand FIRST, the FIRST Tech Challenge, and the team itself. The team that wins the Connect Award actively seeks and recruits engineers and explores the opportunities available in the world of engineering, science, and technology.

Timeline of my Involvement

MY INVOLVEMENT IN 3MB

2021

Competed in Australian National FTC Competition

Placed in top 20

In our first year, under the knowledge, leadership and direction of my fellow leaders and I, our students created a robot which made it to compete in the Australian National FTC competition.

2021

Established sub-teams and trained students

Approximately from March – September

I preparation for the upcoming season later in the year, the three leaders, including myself, began training and dividing students into three categories: Mechanical & Electrical, Software and design. I managed primarily the design students, however I also assisted in overseeing the Mechanical students and provided knowledge and training with heavy machinery such as the lathe.

2021

Inception of the Team

Founded the team and gathered funding

During January of 2021, the team (dubbed “3MB”) was founded by two fellow students and myself. Founding the time during the start of year 11 was quite the task, acquiring funding from the P & C council and from local business while managing costs to buy tools and all the necessary equipment took many long hours and nights. After a month or two of hard-out management and funding, we began teaching students and running demo’s by the end of the first term.