Blog

Since the season began on January 10, Team 10257 at Vector Space has focused on preparing for the 2026 FIRST Robotics Competition, REBUILT presented by Haas, released that day as the official kickoff. In this game teams design robots to collect and score foam balls called fuel into their alliance’s hub and climb to score additional points. Scoring fuel and climbing effectively are key tasks for earning match points and improving rankings. This year’s game includes a short autonomous period where robots must act without driver input followed by a longer teleoperated period where drivers control the robot to score and play strategy elements involving active and inactive hubs.

The team has been prototyping several mechanisms to manipulate and shoot fuel into the hub in order to score consistently under both autonomous and driver control.

Alongside their prototyping team members, students have been building a full-size version of the hub, this season’s main scoring field element. Other students have been working on a new battery cart for this year, with the purpose of both storing and charging batteries at competitions.

This year marks a transition from last season’s mecanum wheel drive to a swerve drive system. To support learning swerve, the team is assembling a mock robot base that lets them practice driving and begin coding the control system before the main robot is complete.

With seven new members on the team, Team 10257 has expanded its capacity and set higher goals than last season, focusing on both tactical subsystems and strategic understanding of this year’s game requirements.
 

11 Students, 2 Projects, Big Impact

This January, as for the last two years, we have welcomed high school students from New Covenant Schools to the makerspace for a 7-day J-Term. This year, we expanded the offering to include Blacksmithing, as well as the previously offered Woodworking intensive. Students all spent 40+ hours over the program learning to use tools, practice techniques, and produce some impressive finished products.

Blacksmithing

4 upperclassmen worked with instructor Ken Pritchett, a certified Level II Blacksmith by the Artist Blacksmith Association of North America. Starting with beginner techniques, each student learned to work with the metal to slowly shape it into their desired artpiece. The goals of this course were to ignite a love of making and build confidence in forging steel for each student. Participants started with important safety concerns and terminology of the blacksmith shop. Throughout the course, students used the forge, anvil, hammer, vise, tongs and punches to create an artistic blacksmithing project. Their finished project was a decorative frame and scrollwork that is riveted together. Once completed, students took advantage of their new skills and extra time in the shop to create work of their own design.

Woodworking

In another area of the shop, 7 students embarked on an ambitious woodworking project. In collaboration with Rush Homes and Old Dominion Furniture Company, the students worked with instructors Alex Klingen and Elise Spontarelli to build a childs playhouse. Each year Rush Home hosts a Parade of Playhouses to bring community together in support of their mission to provide affordable housing to individuals with disabilities. In just 7 meetings, students learned basic carpentry skills, cut, assembled, and designed interior and exerior details of the structure. To fit with the space theme, students tapped into their own childhood memories to create a playhouse that invites imaginative play. "[This playhouse] will not only provide for those who need special and/or affordable housing," said freshman Mac,"but it will also serve as a tutor to some child’s imagination." Laser engraved designs sit against a space-blue backdrop on the exterior. Inside, a command center and 3D printed items encourage imagination. "I made my design decisions by thinking about what a kid would like and what would be fun to a kid while also thinking about weather resistance," said Mitchell. Materials for the playhouse build were sponsored by Old Dominion Furniture Company, where students also had a chance to tour and see what woodworking can look like as a career. While building their own skillset, students also chose to create a playhouse that is wheelchair accesible. "Every time I used a tool in the woodshop it was a first for me," says senior Graden. About working collaboratively with classmates he added, "[I] tried to lead and listen to suggestions while staying on theme." With the playhouse now complete, students and families will reconvene on April 25 for the Parade of Playhouses event! 

As 2025 comes to a close, Vector Space is reflecting on the seasons that shaped our year and the people who made it meaningful. Every project completed, skill learned, mentoring moment shared, and well-tuned tool relied upon is the result of a community that consistently shows up with curiosity, generosity, and care.

To celebrate, we recently gathered for one of our long-held traditions: the annual Handmade Ornament Exchange. This event gives each maker a moment to share the story behind their work, including their process, challenges, accomplishments, and the reasons they chose a particular project. Year after year, it serves as a reminder of how much growth takes place here, not only in technical skill, but also in confidence, creativity, and a willingness to take on new challenges. Seeing the progress and new heights reached by our members continues to be a highlight of the season.

Our celebrations would not be complete without recognizing the volunteers who generously contributed their time and expertise to Vector Space throughout the year. Their commitment sustains our programs and strengthens the community as a whole.

Our Shop Captains played a critical role in volunteering to mentor members, improve our spaces, and help us provide programming to the public. Sixteen captains each contributed approximately sixteen hours of service over the course of the year.

Volunteers who supported the First Robotics Competition, contributed an extraordinary number of hours. A few standout contributors:

 Nick Lonce volunteered 173 hours.

 Ancel Carson volunteered 135 hours.

 Emily Griffen volunteered 99.5 hours.

In addition, Vector Space member volunteer Randy Sass contributed 48 tracked volunteer hours, offering consistent support where it was needed most. Randy is among several other committed, ready, willing, and enthusiastic members who contribute meaningfully within the broader membership cohort.

As we close out the year, we extend our sincere thanks to everyone who made Vector Space what it is today. This community is built by people who invest their time, knowledge, and enthusiasm, and we look forward to continuing that work together in the year ahead.

It’s time once again to celebrate one of our own — and this month’s Maker of the Month is someone whose energy, humor, dedication, and volunteerism have made him a cornerstone of our community. You’ve probably seen him at nearly every build session or event, gloves on and ready to help. Some even joke that he must live at Vector Space.

Our featured maker this month is Randy Sass.

Randy embodies the spirit of what it means to be a maker: curiosity, collaboration, and an unshakable enthusiasm for learning. He dives into every project — from group builds to solo experiments. Whether he’s teasing a fellow maker or lending a much-needed hand, Randy keeps morale high and progress steady.

Beyond his work here at the Makerspace, Randy’s commitment to growing as a craftsman extends far and wide. In October, he traveled to Maker Camp in upstate New York — a step toward accessing mentorship and new skills that, until now, only Vector Space staff had taken. Maker Camp is an adult maker’s candy shop, and Randy was able to expand his skill set with everything from stone carving to stained glass. His eagerness to learn from other makers and bring that knowledge back to our community truly sets him apart.

Other theories about Randy include the possibility that he might just have clones — because not only has he been to Maker Camp and joined in at nearly every event or group build this year, but he has also, and perhaps most notably of all, distinguished himself as a volunteer. His unparalleled commitment to helping is known throughout the makerspace and beyond. He’s played a mentoring role at nearly every First Friday this year, comes to events ready to lend a hand, and goes out of his way to help members of his Makerspace community when they need to move a fridge, lift something heavy, or just need a friend.

Cheers to Randy — a maker who proves that creativity, generosity, and a good sense of humor can go a long way in building not just projects, but community.

Over the past two months, a dedicated group of seven makers have been working on an unusual group build. In this latest collaboration at Vector Space, members challenged themselves to create something unexpected: a giant cardboard sculpture.

After years of constructing massive cardboard boats for Parks and Rec’s Great Cardboard Boat Race—which is, sadly, on hold —the team felt compelled to broaden their horizons. Without the restrictions of a boat race to adhere to, they were free to stretch in unprecedented directions. They didn’t yet know what to build, only that they needed to build, build something for building’s sake. Build something as a team and build something to delight their own sense of wonder.

Naturally, a Pandora’s box of ideas arose—ranging from a grand castle to a Mississippi River steamboat with a working paddlewheel. After much fantasizing, the team’s imagination finally led them into a dark Eastern European forest, where they voted to bring to life the mysterious house of Baba Yaga. If you know the lore, you’ll recall that Baba Yaga’s home has a sentient gate and stands on giant chicken legs—very special circumstances indeed. You’ll also know that you don’t want to offend her, so building her house with respect and integrity at towering heights was no small task. Did the team choose it for the challenge? I like to think so.Shifting their focus in this feat of cardboard and with tedious and laborious amounts of love, detail and plenty of debates over structural design would eventually result in a sculpture that stands precariously—yet proudly—at just over sixteen feet high.

Aesthetically, the piece embodies the team’s collective vision of Baba Yaga’s infamous home — a figure both fearsome and wise, cruel and just. Our members come from all walks of making — some new to the space, some with us since the beginning; some engineers, some homemakers — most hesitant to describe themselves as artists at the start of this build. I hope that now they can at least see it as a possibility, after considering the scope of this project, the impact it’s had on audiences, and the artistic bravery it took to collaborate on something so grand.

Similar to our ragtag assembly of makers, cardboard as a medium captures the spirit of the project perfectly: humble, accessible, and sustainable, yet capable of inspiring awe. With imagination, skill, and teamwork, even the simplest materials can transform into something extraordinary — and the most unexpected group of people can come together to create something truly magical. The dedication to excellence was evident in every stage of the process: the countless trials and mockups, the patience required to build and repair each toe, and the shared persistence that carried the team through from concept to completion.

Artists: Robyn Troyer, Randy Sass, Allison Swede, Reese Preston, Paul Van De Graaf, Nicholas Grummon & Mollie Walsh

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             #makersgonnamake