For our third ever invitational, the lovely town of Amherst gifted us a blizzard, just in time for tournament day. Leading up to February, we felt as prepared as we had ever been for our annual tournament. With over 30 organizers across 7 different teams and two years of past experience, our tournament preparation felt closer than ever to a well-oiled machine.

So of course, we found ourselves panicking when we saw the weather forecast just 5 days before the tournament. Multiple emergency meetings were arranged, and we did our best to create multiple plans to keep teams safe given the forecasted weather conditions. Despite the heavy snow, we were happy to successfully run our tournament in-person, and we are grateful to all the teams who were able to attend.

This year, we began to put more emphasis toward build events, offering innovation challenges with custom awards on top of existing build events in order to recognize teams with unique and creative builds. We were also able to expand our outreach events, visiting several high schools in the local area during the fall and spring to perform engaging science demos. In addition, we held some internal events as well, where organizers studied together, made ice cream from liquid nitrogen, and sang karaoke.

Thank you so much to our Event Supervisors and volunteers, whose help allowed us to run all our events smoothly on tournament day. We also sincerely appreciate our wonderful sponsors and their continued support and belief in our organization. Lastly, thank you so much to the 28 teams and 325 competitors who were able to attend UMASO 2025, as well as all the teams that supported us but were unable to attend due to the weather. Your continued support means the world to us, and we are honored to be your tournament organizers.

Despite the miraculous success of the first invitational, we knew we had a lot to improve on for UMASO 2024. To start, our organizing team grew to around 17 people, allowing us to achieve more than we had before. In the fall, we coordinated our first-ever outreach events, where we performed exciting science demos at local high schools. With our outreach initiatives, we hope to inspire a love for STEM in students and mentor them in preparation for higher education.

The fall also marked when Hasbrouck Laboratories became UMASO's unofficial headquarters thanks to the Physics Department. Although this was no longer the first time we had run a tournament, this did not reduce the number of challenges and complications we faced. From arguing with an online vendor in Lithuania to hunting down a package at a UPS warehouse in Springfield the day before the tournament, the months leading up to UMASO 2024 were filled with unexpected events.

Thank you to our outstanding Event Supervisors and volunteers for dedicating their time and support to our competition. Thank you to our generous sponsors and their faith in our organization's mission. And of course, thank you to the 33 teams and 492 competitors who attended UMASO 2024. You all are what inspires us to continue improving our tournament each year.

Where it all began. At the start of the 2022 fall semester, UMASO did not officially exist. But a month later, UMASO became a Registered Student Organization and grew to a team of 10. Then, within six months of its formation, UMASO held its inaugural invitational at UMass Amherst on February 18th, 2023. Although every step was uncharted territory and numerous unexpected setbacks occurred, our dedicated organizers worked tirelessly to accomplish something we admittedly thought was too ambitious.

Thank you to our wonderful Event Supervisors, volunteers, and sponsors; your support was crucial to the success of our first-ever invitational. And lastly, thank you to the 30 teams and 422 competitors who attended our competition. Your interest and faith in our competition gave us the opportunity to run our inaugural tournament. We sincerely hope you enjoyed the tournament as much as we did.