Lab 204 Fall Hackathon: Training 28 New Recruits on ESP32-S3 FreeRTOS & LiPo Safety

28 rookie cadets spent the last weekend of summer break in Lab 204 for our annual Fall Hackathon, split into 7 junior teams of four.

Saturday covered ESP32-S3 fundamentals and FreeRTOS task scheduling; Sunday moved to hands-on LiPo battery safety, covering proper charge rates, storage voltage, and what a thermal runaway actually looks like on a thermal camera.

By Sunday evening, every one of the 7 junior teams had their Arduino-based rover completing a basic autonomous obstacle course — the same benchmark every current club officer once had to clear as a rookie.