Adi Dutta’s Role as Design Lead

Who is Adi Dutta? 

Adi Dutta is a senior at Northview High School who joined the team as a freshman in the Electrical sub-team. In his sophomore year, he transitioned to the Design sub-team and has led the Girl Scouts Merit Badge outreach event for two consecutive years. Beyond robotics, Adi is also a Boy Scout and enjoys going to the gym, playing pickleball, watching sports, and eating.

What is Design? 

Design is divided into Beginner Design and Advanced Design. Beginner Design is made up of members who are new to robot design. During bootcamp, they learn the basics of CAD and complete the FRCDesign.org course, a comprehensive robot design tutorial that prepares them to take the CSWA (Certified SolidWorks Associate) exam. Throughout the game season, Beginner Design members contribute by working on smaller robot projects.

Advanced Design consists of members with prior robot design experience. At the beginning of the year, they identify and work on projects that will prepare the team for build season. Once game season begins, Advanced Design members take on leadership roles in designing the robot, often splitting into sub-teams based on their strengths. They focus on more complex projects compared to Beginner Design.

Q&A 

Q1: What got you interested in joining robotics? 

“I’ve been interested in robotics since I was five years old. I used to build Legos and robotics kits for fun and would always ask for them as gifts. Even before that, I was always interested in cars, and when I was younger, and wanted to build a car. I found our team by participating in the Techno Titans summer camp beginning in 2019, and found it fun, so I joined in high school too.”

Q2: How would you describe your leadership role to someone not in robotics? 

“In bootcamp, I prepare Beginner Design students by teaching and involving them in projects. Then, right after kickoff, I take ideas from everyone on the team and what they think our robot for the season should include. Then, I plan how to design a full robot from scratch and delegate tasks to members of my sub-team.”

Q3: What prior design experience did you have before becoming leadership? 

“I attended the 2022 OnShape summer camp as a rising freshman, and although I joined electrical for my first year, I really enjoyed the activities in camp. My favorite one was modeling a plan for my entire gaming setup room, which actually became a reality thanks to CAD. I ultimately switched to the Design sub-team in my sophomore year after participating in a workshop about designing subsystems with parametric sketching and found it very fun and interesting."

Q4: What personal goals do you want to achieve this season? 

“I want to be proficient enough in CAD to the point that I can design whatever I want, whenever I want, obviously with limitations. I want it to be a tool in my life outside of work that I can use whenever I need to make something."

 Q5: What sub-team goals do you want to achieve this season? 

“I want freshmen and less experienced students to be more involved in our design process during the build season. It can be as little as the camera mounts and bumpers, as long as they are gaining experience. I want everyone to be able to say that they did something on the robot and think of it as more of a team project than an individual effort.”

Q6: How do you balance your time with so many extracurriculars while also being Design lead? 

“Junior year was my busiest year with extracurricular activities almost every day. Before the year started, I planned out and made sure I was able to do those activities and not cut into each other. For example, I knew that robotics in the first semester was only two days a week, while in the second semester, it was nearly every day, so I planned my schedule around that. Managing a lot of workloads was hard, and I was a bit more stressed than I’d consider healthy, but I averaged 6 hours of sleep, which isn’t terrible. I’d say I prioritized the extracurriculars based on which one was “in season” at the time.”

Adi Dutta's passion for robotics and design is evident in his leadership. As Design Lead, he is responsible not just for developing an effective robot but also for training younger students. His dedication to teamwork and improvement ensures the Design sub-team's success this season and in the future.