FAQ

What is FIRST?

FIRST (For Inspi­ra­tion and Recog­ni­tion of Science and Tech­nol­ogy), is an orga­ni­za­tion run by Dean Kamen ded­i­cated to bring­ing sci­ence and tech­nol­ogy into com­mu­ni­ties all over the world.  Dean has cre­ated sev­eral robot­ics pro­grams to help inspire stu­dents from ages 6–18 and prove that sci­ence and tech­nol­ogy is cool.

Who is FIRST Team 1425?

We are known as Wilsonville Robotics—Team 1425, Error Code Xero.  Com­prised of stu­dents from Wilsonville High School, Sher­wood High School, and West Linn High School (all in Ore­gon), we com­pete in the FRC—FIRST Robot Challenge—a yearly com­pe­ti­tion for high school stu­dents. The teams are given six weeks start­ing Jan­u­ary to build a robot that will com­pete in that year’s game.  The game typ­i­cally involves two alliances com­posed of 3 teams going head-to-head to score points in a fast-paced challenge.

What does FIRST Team 1425 do?

This year, the “Chal­lenge” all FIRST teams—including ours—must accept is called “Rebound Rum­ble”.  The goal of the game is to shoot (or dump) foam bas­ket­balls into four hoops at three dif­fer­ent heights while try­ing to maneu­ver around other robots.  A larger point amount is given if the bas­ket­ball is scored in a higher hoop rather than a lower one.  Teams also have a chance to score addi­tional points in the last 30 sec­onds by bal­anc­ing their (team’s) robot(s) on the tip­ping bridges in the cen­ter of the arena.  For addi­tional infor­ma­tion on this year’s game, check out:

Why would some­one want to join?

You will be a part of a larger com­mu­nity, gain friends, and have fun!  If you have ever won­dered why you are learn­ing math or sci­ence, this gives you an oppor­tu­nity to actu­ally use those skills on a real prob­lem.  Because of the lack of tech­ni­cal edu­ca­tion classes, this is one of the only oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn how to use machines.  You will gain expe­ri­ences that many col­lege stu­dents do not even get a chance to have. Even one of our lead men­tors, Mr. Troha, says, “The robot­ics chal­lenge is a big­ger project than I had dur­ing the 4 years of my mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing degree.”  You have access to $12 mil­lion in schol­ar­ships and be more eli­gi­ble for inter­views at top com­pa­nies like Xerox and Boe­ing.  This is a chance to set your­self apart from every­one else on your col­lege appli­ca­tion. Col­leges are impressed by the lead­er­ship and tech­ni­cal skills that FIRST Robot­ics stu­dents bring with them.

Does FIRST Team 1425 only meet dur­ing the build season?

Absolutely not!  Our team con­sis­tently par­tic­i­pates in com­mu­nity ser­vice activ­i­ties out­side the build sea­son, such as Wilsonville’s local WERK day and Wilsonville’s annual city parade.  In addi­tion, we annu­ally host an “Energy Fair” at our school, in which we offer sev­eral dif­fer­ent games for kids, as well as hav­ing greener alter­na­tive energy demon­stra­tions.  Also, our team gets together for “Team-Building Activ­i­ties”, which could range any­where from work­ing together at the Tilikum Ropes Chal­lenge Course to sim­ply going bowl­ing at the local alley and hang­ing out.

Does the robot get to destroy other robots?

The FRC com­pe­ti­tion is more like a sport­ing event in which  teams work in coop­er­a­tion with other teams.  Gra­cious Pro­fes­sion­al­ism is the key to FIRST Robot­ics and destroy­ing an expen­sive robot that took 40 stu­dents 6 weeks to build would not be very good sports­man­ship.  How­ever by join­ing the team, you can learn how to build your own robot to destroy on your own time.

How much time does FRC Robot­ics take up?

We want every­one who is inter­ested to be able to find a spot on our team. We
under­stand stu­dents have busy lives, but there are min­i­mum time expec­ta­tions for team members.

Dur­ing the off sea­son, mem­bers of the team are train­ing in an area of inter­est. (i.e. mechan­i­cal design, elec­tri­cal, soft­ware, mar­ket­ing, web design, ani­ma­tion) These sub-teams meet usu­ally once a week for 2 hours. Dur­ing the build sea­son (January/February), the team meets five days a week. Each mem­ber is expected to attend a min­i­mum of two days a week for a total of about 6 hours. Some of the team lead­er­ship will attend every day and put in over 25 hours a week.

How much does it cost?

As you can imag­ine, build­ing a robot can be expen­sive. Luck­ily, the stu­dents are able to raise most of the money through dona­tions. Xerox has been very gen­er­ous to fund a large por­tion of our bud­get. In order to cover some mis­cel­la­neous costs, mem­bers pay $50. The $50 activ­ity fee pays for a team shirt, some spirit gear at com­pe­ti­tion, and food dur­ing Sat­ur­day meet­ings. Schol­ar­ships are avail­able for fam­i­lies in finan­cial difficulty.

How can some­one join the team?

There are no try­outs for the team, but you need to let us know that you want to be a part of Robot­ics. If you are inter­ested or have ques­tions, you can con­tact (Click name to send message):