Outer Galaxy

About Outer Galaxy

Overview

Outer Galaxy (FTC 18241) is an all-girls FTC team based out of Marlton, New Jersey. 2020 year was our rookie season and we are currently into our 6^th season. Our team has progressively grown to become one of the top performing unit amongst the 180+ competing FTC teams in the state of New Jersey. Including 2024-25 season, team Outer Galaxy has advanced into the New Jersey State Championship for the 4^th consecutive season and has won 31 FIRST Tech Challenge awards including the top honors such as the Inspire, Think, Connect, Motivate and Innovate awards.
We have benefited as a team with a lot of learning experience not only from the technical perspective but also on various ways our team can make a positive impact to the community. We have multiple initiatives to empower girls and young children in STEM through robotics.

Team Members

FTC 18241 is a community team comprised of five versatile middle and high school students. We are an all girls team covering broad spectrum of roles and responsibilities that are integral part of FIRST Tech Challenge.

Nidhi Mandrekar Team Captain  |  Build Lead  |  Software Mentor  |  Drive Team Nidhi is a senior at Cherokee High School and the Captain of FIRST Tech Challenge Team 18241 Outer Galaxy (OG), where she has been leading the team since 2023. She began robotics at age 6 and has won several individual and team awards at both national and regional levels. Recognized as the 2024 New Jersey Governor's STEM Scholar and a two-time FIRST Dean's List Semifinalist, she brings both technical excellence and leadership to OG. She also serves as the Build Lead and Software Mentor, where her primary tasks include mechanical design, build, fabrication, CAD development in Onshape and guiding the software team in TeleOp and autonomous programming. When she is not busy with the bots and school activities, you will most likely find her reading, playing tennis, dance, singing or exploring her baking skills.




Subhashri Vasudevan Prototyping Lead  |  CAD Design  |  Drive Team Subhashri is a junior at Cherokee High School and this is her fourth season on Team Outer Galaxy. As the Prototyping Lead, she oversees the early development and testing of robot mechanisms and helping transform conceptual ideas into functional prototypes. Her responsibilities include brainstorming design solutions, building subsystem mockups and evaluating mechanisms for performance and reliability. She is also a key member of our design team, where she leverages her skills in Onshape to create custom 3D-printed parts. Subhashri is also a member of the OG drive team.




Anshithaa Shrie LN Programming Lead  |  CAD Design  |  Drive Team Anshithaa is a freshman at Cherry Hill High School East and serves as the Programming Lead on our team. 2025-26 will be her third season with Outer Galaxy. She specializes in developing autonomous routines in Java, where she integrates advanced control systems using encoders, sensors and vision detection to navigate and perform tasks with precision during competition. Her role extends beyond programming as she is actively involved in subsystem prototyping, CAD design using Onshape and team outreach initiatives. She also leads regression testing of autonomous code to ensure reliability and consistency whenever software, hardware or structural changes are made to the robot. Outside of team, Anshithaa volunteers with FTC New Jersey to help support FTC robotics events. She is also a member of OG drive team.




Sreespoorthi Goddeti Build Team | Planning Sreespoorthi is a sophomore at Lenape High School and join our team in December 2024. She is part of our build team there by contributing to brainstorming, CAD and structural assembly of the robot mechanisms. She actively tries new concepts on our research bot. Sreespoorthi plays an active role with design using Onshape to model custom components and refine design concepts that enhance the robot’s performance.




Shivi Goddeti Programming Team Shivi is the newest rookie member on team Outer Galaxy. Shivi is a rookie member of her FTC Robotics team and a rising talent on the Programming Team. She has quickly immersed herself in learning the fundamentals of robot control and autonomous coding while also contributing to the programming and testing efforts in the DECODE season.




Outer Galaxy team (2024-25 Into The Deep Season)
[R to L] Anshithaa, Subhashri, Nidhi, Nishi, Aditi and Brooke


Outer Galaxy has multiple sub teams and focus areas i.e. Design, Build, Software, Strategy, Analytics, Prototyping, Outreach, Sponsorships, Industry Engagement and Marketing. All team members usually collaborate with each other and assist in all aspects of the FIRST Tech Challenge competition including outreach, marketing, technical, documentation, etc.

Strategy & Programming: Develops strategy for the season as well as leads the discussion to define a team strategy to achieve the season game mission. Team brainstorms different algorithms and approaches to meet mission tasks. Programming team develops the software for the robot to navigate as well as to operate the various mechanisms installed to execute the mission. The programs are developed in incremental manner to start with smaller simple tasks advancing on to complex autonomous and teleOp programs.

Design & Build: Collaborate with other teams to evaluate different robot design ideas. Design the robot using Onshape CAD software. Build the robot using wide array of parts from kits, custom made, etc.

Marketing & Community Engagement: MCE team will develop materials to showcase the FTC team to various audiences including sponsors, social media, prospective team members, etc.


We are always interested in passionate new members to join our team for 2024-25 FTC season. Please contact us at team@outergalaxy.org if you are interested in joining our team.


TITAN: 2024 Centerstage Robot

Mr. Deepak is the coach and advisor for our team. He provides guidance, support and advises the team on various aspects of First Tech Challenge. His aim is to provide the team with lots of learning opportunities.




2024-25 Season Mentors

• New season mentors to be added here soon
  
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