On January 6, the team traveled to Waukesha County Technical College in Pewaukee to participate in the FIRST Robotics Kick-Off Event. At the event, they learned about the game for the 2018 season, and they will have until February 20 to plan, design, build, and test their robot before it has to be sealed for competition.

The game this year is modeled after a 1980’s video game, with the robot needing to pick up and distribute “power cubes” to various places on the field. To view the video presentation of the game, visit .

Team Ferradermis would like to thank their community sponsors including HSI Rentals, Generac, First Citizens State Bank, LS Power, Whitewater Manufacturing, the Salverson Family, Basin Precision Machining, The Knights of Columbus, Hudapack, anonymous community members, Whitewater High School, and the Kiwanis Breakfast Club. Ferradermis has also received generous grants from the Wisconsin Robotics League Participation grant program, the Argosy Family Foundation, and from Pentair this year. With these donations and grants, the team will be able to compete in two regionals this year as well as a pre-regional at Sussex Hamilton High School on February 18. From March 22 – March 24 the team will be in Milwaukee for the Wisconsin Regional, and from April 4 – April 7 the team will be in LaCrosse for the Seven Rivers Regional. The regional events are free and open to the public.

If the team can raise a little more money, their goal is to build two identical robots so that after the first is sealed for competition they can continue testing and debugging the second in preparation for changes to be made once the first robot is unsealed in Milwaukee.

Team Ferradermis would also like to thank the large number of adults who are assisting faculty advisors Ms. Laura Masbruch and Mr. Cody Watson in mentoring the team. Three graduates who founded the team last year are returning to mentor their former classmates; Justin Brantmeier, Roberto Soto, and Jacob Lee are all attending college but giving up their holiday break and driving back on weekends to assist. Also mentoring the team are Rob Prager from US Tanker, Lead Coach Carissa Petzinger from Generac, Dilpreet Randhawa, Allison Conrad, and Caleb Johnson from the UW-Madison Robotics Team, UW-Whitewater student and FIRST alum Sam Smith, and community members Jim McKenzie, Tony Tautges, Steven Sahyun, and Karen Korf. Thank you to the community for your tremendous support!