Phase 2: Specialization Pathways

Objective: Pick one primary subteam for your first build season, meet that lead, and start its modules in order.

Prerequisite

Phase 1: Rookie Foundations is complete. That means shop basics, the XRP starter bot, and current safety certifications. Phase 2 does not replace those sign-offs. Fabrication and robot power still require the clearance named in those modules.

Phase 1 was the shared floor: how FIRST works, what a robot is made of, how build season runs, and how to power on without hurting anyone. Phase 2 is the job.

An FRC team is a small firm. Team 2064 cannot have every student design, machine, code, and run awards in the same six weeks. You will be placed on a pathway. Pick one primary path for the first season. You can help another subteam on a shop night. You do not collect four half-finished trainings and call that a specialty.

Tip

How to move through Phase 2

1. Pick one primary pathway. Use the descriptions below, or the Pathfinder quiz if you are stuck. Exploring is allowed. Mastery for year one is one path.
2. Do the modules in order. Finish 2.1.1 before 2.1.2. Later modules assume the earlier sign-off.
3. Tell the lead. Introduce yourself to that Subteam Lead or mentor before you start a hands-on project. The modules do not assign you a machine or a repo.

Note

Unsure where to start? Take the Pathfinder Assessment. The quiz recommends a pathway from how you already solve problems. It is a starting point, not a placement. A lead can still move you.

Take the Pathfinder Assessment

What each pathway owns

Pathway	You leave Phase 2 able to	You are not cleared to
2.1 Advanced CAD	Model a part in Onshape that fabrication can cut	Skip the prototype and send a pretty model to the CNC
2.2 Advanced Fabrication	Run the machine you are signed off on, to a drawing	Use the lathe, mill, or CNC because you watched someone else
2.3 Software & Controls	Deploy code, bind a button, and explain a failed status light	Enable the competition robot alone
2.4 Media & NEMO	Do a real non-robot job: imagery, scouting, business, or outreach	Treat NEMO as the path for people who are not allowed near the robot

NEMO means Non-Engineering Member Opportunities. It is a primary path, not a leftover. Scouting, sponsors, imagery, and outreach are how the Panther Project gets picked, funded, and judged off the field. Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition show up here as much as they do in the pit.

Specialization selections

Pathway 2.1: Advanced CAD

Design the machine. Onshape workflows, the design process from Phase 1, and mechanisms that can actually be built in this shop. A model is done when fabrication can hold it, not when the render looks finished.

Start Pathway 2.1: Advanced CAD

Pathway 2.2: Advanced Fabrication

Build the machine. CNC router, lathe, mill, and 3D printers. Every machine has its own sign-off. Phase 1 safety is the ticket into the room, not a license for the spindle.

Start Pathway 2.2: Advanced Fabrication

Pathway 2.3: Software & Controls

Bring the robot to life. Java, WPILib, autonomous, sensors, and the button map the drive team actually uses. Code that has not been deployed and driven is not done.

Start Pathway 2.3: Software & Controls

Pathway 2.4: Media & NEMO

Build the brand. Imagery, scouting, business, and outreach. These jobs run during build season, not after the robot is finished. A missing scouting sheet loses matches the same way a missing wire does.

Start Pathway 2.4: Media & NEMO

After you click a pathway

1. Open module 1 of that path and finish it before the next.
2. Find the Subteam Lead on a shop night and tell them which path you chose.
3. Ask for the first hands-on job. Do not wait to be discovered, and do not start a machine or a deploy you are not signed off on.

Note

Core value check Mastery is not knowing every subteam. It is being useful on one, and willing to learn the next skill that subteam is short on.