Overview

Welcome to the Waterloo Aerial Robotics Group! This document outlines the process of onboarding new bootcampers to the team.

To become a member of WARG, a subteam lead will confirm your completion of a bootcamp. More information on the definition of a member of WARG: Member Definition

Questions/Feedback

For any general questions and feedback regarding bootcamper onboarding please use #⁠⁠bootcamp-general. If the information is subteam specific please use the specific subteam bootcamp channels within our Discord.

Instructions

The below instructions will walk you through the process of bootcamper onboarding!

Read the basic information on our website’s join page ( https://www.uwarg.com/join ), as it explains what a bootcamp is and some introductory information regarding the team.
1. Join our Discord using the link on that webpage.
To verify that you are a UW student, please type: /verify or $verify in the #verification channel.
1. For more information, including manual verification, please see https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/l/cp/fvFg74UH . Being verified will let you see the rest of the channels.
2. Please do not use the #discord-server-feedback channel for verification bot commands!
3. If you are not a current UW student please see the below section regarding eligibility for participation in the team.
4. Please note if you do not see the #verification channel you are likely already verified. Please check your discord roles to confirm this, the role is “Verified” or “Verified Manual”.
5. If you are having difficulties preventing verification for technical reasons please ping @director in Discord for assistance in #verification channel.
Change your Discord server nickname to [Firstname Lastname].
1. Preferably uppercase the first letter and lower case the rest of your name as you would with any proper noun!
Decide which WARG subteam you’d like to join initially (aka do the bootcamp for)!
1. See below for our subteam descriptions.
In ⁠#role-signup, assign yourself some discord roles
1. Please note the order in which you add roles is important due to some roles having pre-requisites
2. Add the “new bootcamper” role
  1. This may have been done automatically, but the bot we have doing this is unreliable
    1. If you were not automatically give this role are attempting this step and it is not working please ping a subteam lead or director in #verification and they should be able to give you this role. We have some issues with this step as of F23 term and are working on a long term solution.
3. Add the subteam role(s) for the subteam you want to start on the bootcamp for
4. Add the subteam bootcamper role(s) for the subteam you want to start on the bootcamp for
Send a message in #⁠introductions!
1. There's a pinned message you can follow as a template.
Send a message in the subteam’s bootcamp channel so that the subteam leads know that you are going to start the bootcamp.
1. Some subteams have more specific messages they’d like you to send as well, please follow the instructions below.
Go over to https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/l/cp/XXyg3PdY to get started on a subteam bootcamp!
1. In discord scroll down to find the bootcamp channel in the subteam categories.
Check out the links in #information and feel free to attend meetings. The meeting schedule is available on the Google Calendar and in the Events section of the Discord server. You are absolutely welcome to attend subteam meetings and/or work sessions even before you’ve completed your bootcamp.
After completing the bootcamp, follow these instructions to get up to speed: https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/l/cp/N8Kd6UPC
Subteam leads will provide further direction specific to the subteam. and please direction questions their way!

Here's to putting something great in the sky! 🍻

Subteam Descriptions

Sometimes newer members aren’t sure which subteam they should try out! Feel free to read the descriptions below and ask in discord if you have further questions.

Mechanical

The Mechanical subteam works on the design, construction, and testing of remotely piloted aircraft. Team members gain exposure to the design process and make justifiable mechanical design decisions based on project limitations and requirements.

Operations

Operations help with sponsorship outreach, finance management, marketing campaigns, and produce graphic designs. Team members can gain both administrative and managerial experience as the designated support division for our technical subteams, ensure the remainder of the team have access to sufficient resources to meet their project deliverables and succeed.

Electrical

The Electrical subteam designs custom aircraft and flight circuitry, including flight controllers, motor controllers, voltage regulators, and more. Learn the ins and outs of schematic and PCB design, manufacturing, and hardware testing/validation.

Embedded Flight Software

Embedded Flight Software (EFS) develops custom flight software supporting sensor interfacing, controls, and autonomy. This includes writing state machines for path management and telemetry, writing sensor drivers, and implementing control algorithms such as PID loops.

Autonomy

Autonomy writes software for our UAV to deal in its environment on its own and work for extended periods of time without the pilot's intervention. The Autonomy team trains YOLO models to run real-time object detection on the ground, write software for optimizing path routes for the UAV to follow, and develop our custom Ground Station software that interacts with our aircraft in the air.

Team Membership

To be a full member of WARG we require prospective members to complete a bootcamp for a single subteam. Once you complete a singular bootcamp you count as a full member of the team! For more detail please see Member Definition.

Multiple Bootcamps

You are of course allowed to complete multiple bootcamps if you want to (they are good fun!) and you can do multiple bootcamps simultaneously.

Subteam Membership

To become a member of a different subteam as per Subteam Member Definition we request that you embark on that subteam’s bootcamp as well though of course you are already a member of the team as per Member Definition.

Who is eligible to join WARG?

As far as official WARG members and bootcampers you must either be a current UW student or someone with an accepted (signed) UW offer. This is a requirement for our team due to funding being supplied by the university.

Advisors are not subject to these requirements as they are not necessarily, though can be, a member of the team.

Skipping a bootcamp

In extremely rare instances, WARG will grant permission for a bootcamper to skip completion of a subteam bootcamp. If you feel that you have completed a project requiring higher skill level than the bootcamp and would like to be exempt from the bootcamp, you can contact a subteam lead to explain and show them the project you have done. It will be up to the subteam lead’s discretion whether you qualify to be exempt from the bootcamp. If the subteam lead feels that you should still complete the bootcamp, it is because they think you can learn and gain skills from its completion. They may also ask you to complete a portion of the bootcamp instead of the entire bootcamp.

Note that the bootcamp is intended to be a valuable and/or fun design & CAD exercise for students of all skill levels! It can make a great addition to a portfolio and can potentially be a project to speak about in future interviews. The bootcamp is also designed for you to get used to the subteam’s work processes. For these reasons, it is recommended that students complete the bootcamp in all, however, if you still would like to be exempt, that’s okay too.

Bootcamper Onboarding