On Saturday, October 11, 32 members of Ferradermis traveled to Muskego High School for the third-annual TWIST FIRST Robotics Offseason Event hosted by Team 6421 WarriorBots.
TWIST (Together Women in STEM Thrive) is a unique competition meant to help girls step into roles on their robotics teams that they might not otherwise experience, and the event implements one rule to do so – the drive team must be entirely female. Male team members may participate in any other role. Ferradermis has always had a strong female presence and continues to do so in the 2025-2026 school year with 17 females on the team, many more than most teams in the state.
The drive team leading the Ferradermis 2025 season robot Chief of the Reef onto the field at TWIST included Drive Coach Erison Dreksler, Driver Margaret Brown, Operator Alex Nelson, Human Player Vivian Harris, and Technician Zoey Ambrose.
Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition, essentially helping every team be the best they can be, are tenets of FIRST Robotics. In that spirit, 5 Ferradermis members filled in gaps on drive teams for other teams who did not have enough female members to fulfill the all-female drive team requirement. Ferradermis has done this each year of the event, and other teams have come to know they can enter their robots by adopting Whitewater High School students onto their team for the day. Nina Heim alternated as Technician and Drive Coach for Team 8701 GRAFFITI from Greendale High School, and Charlotte Trautman served as Technician for Team 2062 CORE from Waukesha, Wisconsin. Rae Breisath and Shae Onstott served as Drive Coach and Human Player for Team 6318 FE Freedom Engineers from Freedom High School. The Freedom Engineers were a part of the eventual champion alliance, winning their first ever event in their 10-year history. Georgia Esch stepped in as Human Player for Team 1675 UPS (Ultimate Protection Squad) from a medley of Milwaukee High Schools including Bradley Tech and Rufus King. UPS was a part of the eventual finalist (runner-up) alliance. Even though Ferradermis wasn’t playing in the finals, team members had a great time cheering on Rae, Shae, and Georgia, and watching them gain valuable experience, as the event concluded.
Ferradermis finished the qualification matches ranked #2 out of the 30 competing teams from across Wisconsin and Illinois. They were tied with the #1 WarriorBots on ranking points as well as the first tie-breaker, but lost the 2nd tiebreaker of average match points. Ferradermis then became the captain of the #2 seeded playoff alliance and alliance selection representatives Erison Dreksler, Alex Nelson, and Mily Zeferino-Hernandez invited Team 93 NEW Apple Corps from Appleton and Team 1739 Chicago Knights Robotics from Chicago, Illinois to join them.
The playoff matches were rough for Ferradermis, with multiple alliance robots breaking down or getting temporarily “beached” on top of the large green playground balls that serve as algae in this year’s ocean-themed game. After the first playoff loss, the alliance needed to replace the Appleton robot and were joined by Team 9669 Regina Riveters from Wilmette, Illinois. A second loss quickly knocked the Ferradermis alliance out of the double-elimination playoffs.
TWIST offers many other opportunities for students including a college fair and the chance to run workshops. Ferradermis members Nina Heim and Cooper Housel offered a workshop entitled “Circuit Playground” where they used SNAP Circuits to allow exploration of electricity. Tyler Olds, CEO of FIRST Updates Now (FUN) Robotics Network, was at the event filming selected teams for his Behind the Bumpers series, and Ferradermis member Margaret Brown was asked to do an interview. Ferradermis collected donations of new LEGO Kits prior to the event for a donation for Children’s Hospital. The teams that brought in the most donations were able to have one of their mentors don an inflatable unicorn costume for a human match, and Ferradermis Head Coach Mark Zimmermann was a good sport for the second year in a row. In the FIRST Robotics Competition, a unicorn match occurs when all available ranking points are earned by both alliances, and TWIST has adopted that theme for its charity matches.
FIRST Robotics Competition events are run entirely by volunteers, and Ferradermis provided several for the event. Mentor Tori Breisath worked the pit administration table, parent Sarah Downs worked on the field reset crew, and Team Advisor Laura Masbruch served as a judge.
Throughout the day, judges roamed the pits interviewing teams for a variety of awards. Ferradermis members were pleased to get multiple visits from teams of judges interested in hearing about their robot. Programming Subteam Lead Ace Hudec enjoyed explaining the team’s new button board to the judges. The button board, a summer team project first tested at the MROC offseason event in July, allows the drive team to execute autonomous alignment routines during matches by making use of a vision system utilizing April Tags (similar to QR codes) on the field.
Additional Ferradermis members rotated through other roles throughout the day including pit crew, scouting, safety, and media. Chacha Binagi, Emilie Bruns, Asher Downs, Alex Fletcher, Mason Genung, Eli Gonsior, Jayden Kehrer, Colby Long, Wyatt Meyers, Carson Miller, Preston Miller, Alex Perez-Aguilar, Sam Raupp, Julian Rennells, Johan Servin, Owen Taylor, Elora Wildermuth-Breitzman, Talon Wildermuth-Breitzman, and Paxton Wilson all contributed to the team’s success at TWIST.
Ferradermis will take part in a training day at Waukesha County Technical College in Pewaukee next Saturday, where they will also offer two presentations for other teams. The following weekend, they will travel to Tremont, Illinois for Roboteer Rumble, an event that will feature 36 teams from across the Midwest.
On Saturday, November 15th, Ferradermis looks forward to hosting the second annual Whitewater FIRST LEGO League Challenge Regional, and on Sunday, December 7th, they’ll host the first annual Whitewater FIRST Tech Challenge Qualifier. Look for robotics teams from the Whitewater elementary schools and Whitewater Middle School to compete at these events which are free and open to the public.