Engineering Boldly – Day 0 Prep Guide

For: FRC fabrication-focused students joining High School Engineering Boldly cohort
Platform: macOS (with SSH access to Linux/ROS 2 robot or dev box)

Non-negotiable outcomes by the end of the prep day:

1. Can navigate around in Terminal (cd, ls, pwd, mkdir, rm).

2. Can open a sandbox repo in Cursor, run a Python script, and change it.

3. Can do the basic git loop: status → add → commit → push.

4. Can SSH into a remote Linux machine (robot / dev box) and run a ROS 2 demo like talker/listener or a pre-made launch file.

5. Have a 1-page cheat sheet printed or saved.

Proposed Day 0 Schedule (≈ 6 hours of focused work)

1. Terminal & Unix Basics on macOS (60–75 min)

Goal: Terminal feels like a new—but friendly—tool.

Open Terminal.app and work through:

Where am I / what’s here?

pwd          # print working directory
ls           # list files

Move around & make stuff

cd ~                 # go to home
mkdir dev_prep       # make a folder
cd dev_prep
mkdir projects notes
cd projects
touch hello.txt
ls

View & edit

open hello.txt       # opens TextEdit

Delete (with respect!)

rm hello.txt
ls

Slightly more advanced

cd ..
ls
mv projects code_projects
ls

History & tab-complete

• Up arrow = previous commands

• Tab = auto-complete names

Mini-mission:
Create dev_prep/playground, make 3 text files, rename one, delete another.

2. Cursor + Python + GitHub Sandbox (90 min)

Goal: You can open a project in Cursor, run a script, edit it, and commit/push.

Prep (do in advance)

• Create GitHub repo: engineering-boldly-day0-sandbox.

• Add hello.py:

print("Hello from Engineering Boldly!")

• Add README.md with 3–4 short tasks.

• Ensure Git is installed:

git --version

Clone the repo

cd ~/dev_prep
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_ORG/engineering-boldly-day0-sandbox.git
cd engineering-boldly-day0-sandbox
ls

• Repository = a folder that git is tracking.

• Remote (GitHub) = cloud copy.

Open in Cursor & run the script

From the repo folder:

cursor .

In Cursor:

• Open hello.py.

• Run in the integrated terminal:

python3 hello.py

Mini-mission:
Change the print message to include your name, then run it again.

3. Git in One Hour (Beginner Mode) (60 min)

Goal: One loop internalized:

edit → git status → git add . → git commit -m "..." → git push

After editing hello.py:

git status           # see what changed
git add hello.py
# or:
git add .
git commit -m "Personalize hello script"
git push

Refresh GitHub in a browser to see the change.

Analogy:

• add = putting parts in the “ready to weld” staging area.

• commit = doing the weld and stamping this version.

• push = sending that version to the team repository.

Mini-mission:

Add math_test.py:

a = 5
b = 7
print(a + b)

4. Linux + SSH + ROS 2 Demo (90 min)

Goal: Bridge from Mac dev → robot brain.

Assumptions:

• Pi or Ubuntu box ready with ROS 2 installed.

SSH into the robot/dev box

On your Mac:

ssh rcr@192.168.1.1   # or your hostname/IP

Once connected:

pwd
ls
cd ~
ls

Basic Linux flavor

mkdir day0_test
cd day0_test
touch robot_notes.txt
ls

ROS 2 “just run it” demo (recipe-driven)

source /opt/ros/kilted/setup.bash      # or your setup script
ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp talker

In a second SSH terminal:

source /opt/ros/kilted/setup.bash
ros2 run demo_nodes_py listener

In a third SSH terminal:

source /opt/ros/kilted/setup.bash
ros2 node list
ros2 topic list
ros2 topic echo /chatter

Map to FRC:

• Node = a subsystem.

• Topic = a data channel.

• Message = the packet going over the channel.

Mini-mission:

• Start talker + listener.

• Confirm /chatter with ros2 topic echo /chatter.

• Then Ctrl-C everything cleanly.

(If you have an RCR bringup launch file, you can substitute that here, but still end with node list/topic list.)

5. Wrap + Teach-Back + Cheat Sheet (30 min)

You can teach back live:

• Show: how to clone a repo.

• Show: where you put code on the Mac.

• Show: the git loop.

• Show: how you'd SSH into the robot and start a ROS 2 demo.

Day 0 Cheat Sheet

Terminal (Mac)

• pwd – where am I?

• ls – list files

• cd folder_name – go into folder

• cd .. – go up

• mkdir name – make folder

• rm file – delete file

• open file.txt – open with default app

Git (inside repo)

• git status – what changed?

• git add . – stage changes

• git commit -m "message" – save snapshot

• git push – upload to GitHub

• git pull – download latest from GitHub

Cursor

• Open repo: cursor . (from terminal in repo folder)

• Use sidebar to open files

• Use built-in terminal to run:

python3 file.py

SSH to robot / Linux dev machine

• ssh 192.168.1.1 (or your hostname/IP)

• Then use the same commands: pwd, ls, cd.

ROS 2 basics

• source /opt/ros/kilted/setup.bash

• ros2 node list – see running nodes

• ros2 topic list – see topics

• ros2 topic echo /chatter – see messages

Demos:

ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp talker
ros2 run demo_nodes_py listener