Your Team Number: 492
Team Name, Corporate / University Sponsors:
Rottler Manufacturings' International School ASB+PTSA Titan Robotics Club

Briefly describe the impact of the FIRST program on team participants with special emphasis on this year and the preceding two years.

The International School (IS) is a small alternative liberal arts high school without electives such as shop or computer courses. As a result, students missed these opportunities until the Titan Robotics Club (TRC) was founded in 2000. The TRC not only allows students to gain hands-on experience with engineering, join with professional engineers, and understand the joy of science and technology, but the TRC strives to teach business and life skills to compliment those of science and engineering.

Examples of role model characteristics for other teams to emulate.

The TRC leads Washington’s FIRST community by example, holding events such as a two day open Autodesk Inventor Training donated by IMAGINiT, and a remote kick-off event with group strategy activities starting teams off well. The TRC’s goal to increase the performance of Washington state teams thereby inpiring more students, has lead to the release of the TRC’s php based scouting program for the past 3 years, robot code for the past 4 years, and hosting a pre-ship event for 3 years.

Describe the impact of the FIRST program on your team and community with special emphasis on this year and the preceding two years.

FIRST fueled the TRC's passion to mentor 16 FLL teams in the past 6 years (4 this year), build a solar car track for our school, participate in local robotics competitions such as Brickhead wars, and win the Judges' Award at the World Robofest Championship in 2007. The TRC’s outreach in the preceding 2 years includes demonstrations at a movie theater, malls, a fair, and to groups such as developmentally disabled Boy Scouts. This has led to coverage in local newspapers and a national magazine.

Teams innovative methods to spread the FIRST message.

Spreading the FIRST message is a daily ritual. Whether out salmon watching wearing funky polarized glasses, dressed in TRC attire at a school event, or picking-up parts from a supplier, we make a point of telling everyone we can about FIRST. Formally, we pass out fliers at the all-school back-to-school day, trick-or-treat for the homeless with our robot lit aglow, and hold demonstrations such as assemblies and a demonstration at Mercer Island High School.

Describe the strength of your partnership with special emphasis on this year and the preceding two years.

The TRC is partnered with the school community and several local businesses that share our vision of a future where scientists and engineers are cherished. In the past year we have shifted from working with Microvision, where an alumni is currently working, to an ever growing partnership with Sunstream Boat Lifts, who has donated a machine shop, engineering expertise from employees, and hundreds of dollars worth of materials to work with. Sunstream has already pledged support for next year.

Teams communication methods and results.

With the addition of online membership and mentor forms in the past year, which automatically subscribe members, parents, and mentors to mailing lists that interest them, the hundreds of e-mails sent out yearly keep all informed. Supplemented by friendly reminders in the halls, a few e-mail updates, and an online Google calendar displayed on our website, members, parents, alumni, and sponsors are kept up to date on what is happening and what is expected.

Other matters of interest to the FIRST judges, if any.

The International School has no high school sports teams; instead students participate in sports through the “normal” high school they would have gone to. The TRC, with its yearly participation in the FIRST Robotics Competition, is considered the school’s team - a common cause for the students to rally behind and be proud of. This year membership in the club has reached an all time high, 68 middle school and high school members making it the largest club in a school of 492 students.

Essay

Based at the International School, a small public alternative high school in the Bellevue School District in Washington State, the Titan Robotics Club provides important opportunities for the school’s 492 middle and high school students. The school’s small size and focused curriculum means that electives like metal shop and programming are not available. The Titan Robotics Club not only provides these opportunities to interested students, but also generates more interest for studying and learning the art of science and engineering through its involvement in exciting robotics competitions like FIRST. Founded in spring of 2000 as the 4th team in Washington, The Titan Robotics Club (TRC) has grown to be a leader in the state and the region. During the club’s first three years, the TRC built up its standing by developing roots to grow upon such as an FLL program, dedicated mentors, and an award winning website. Our main mission is to excite and motivate students to pursue careers in science, engineering, and technology, and to develop leadership, business, and life skills. The TRC in the FIRST community The TRC has not only done this within itself, but has expanded with a focus on encouraging a friendly competitive spirit for all state teams. We strive to accomplish this goal by planning events such as the 2006, 2007, and 2008 Bellevue Remote Kick-off event hosting over four-hundred students and 19 teams this past year. At all three of these event we have organized for concessions and building use, enlisted the sponsorship of DeVry University in 2006 and 2007 and from the Seattle Robotics Society in 2008, and arranged the making of a playing field that was displayed at the event. In an effort to jumpstart ideas we have also coordinated multiple breakout sessions where eight to sixteen random sampling of about 25 students from different teams come together with the game section of the rules to discuss possible strategy ideas, establishing a firm handle on the challenge and fostering friendly competition. The goal of furthering friendly competition has been furthered by the organization and implementation of a Joint Practice Field in 2007, and its continuation by team 1983 in 2008. The JPF, fosters mentorship of rookie teams, such as our aid to team 2046 in 2007, by donating tread material and advice. The JPF also allowed for a community location where anybody can access a field if needed. Fully equipped with carpet, players stations, and a full playing field, the JPF is a commodity that we hope to continue into the future in Washington State. In addition, the TRC has hosted the pre-ship event in 2005, 2006, and 2007, made our robot code public, allowed other teams to use our membership forms for their teams use, made our chairman’s award submissions public, coded and plan to continue coding a php scouting application that is released and has been used by team 93, 180, 1538, 1577. We were also able to gain an over two-thousand dollar Autodesk Inventor training session from IMAGINit Technologies, a leading supplier of Autodesk Inventor Software, for twelve students in the Washington State FIRST Community. Teams that attended included team 488, 1983, 1778, and 2522. We are also excited that IMAGINit has expressed an interest in sponsorship beyond Washington State next year. The TRC has also volunteered to lend our FLL playing field to another FIRST Lego League Team this spring, lent 4 NXT kits and two mini sumo fields for a mini sumo event, and have given 900’ of neutrally buoyant cable to Santa Clara University for their ROV project. Furthermore, the TRC has been working on Dean Kamen’s homework for this year by e-mail senators and writing to governer Chris Gregoire who’s secretary has written back expressing that regrettably, governor Gregoire will not be available to attend the Microsoft Regional. The TRC and Community Involvement In the past year the TRC has carried out a school assembly to introduce our school to FIRST and engineering, watched Salmon at a local stream, recruited members at our school’s back-to-school-day, Trick-or-treated with our robot for the homeless, introduced FIRST to the visiting School Board of Canterbury School in Connecticut, and created a fishing line solar car track for our school’s solar car project. This involvement has resulted in a spike in our FIRST Lego League program, which now is composed of 4 teams, 6-8 high school mentors, and 34 middle school students including a 2nd place robot performance trophy at the state competition in December of 2006 and a trophy for robot design. Also at the 2007 World Robothon Championship Competition our team was able to take home the Judges’ award. We have furthered our mentorship by creating a curriculum for our own Lego sumo summer camp over the summer of 2007. We were able to raise $2000 by a student mentored flash and Lego sumo summer camp. We also have actively participated in thinking green by participating in a two hour training session for Salmon counting. This training session allowed us to count the salmon that ran through a stream near our school and report what types of salmon we saw. By watching the river for thirty minutes, twice a week from September to December we know that we help to contribute to research that can make a difference in preserving our local salmon populations. An additional benefit to this activity was that we were able to talk to passersby who were interested in what we were doing by the stream about FIRST and the environment. Community work continued as we completed our second annual trick-or-treated for the homeless on Halloween night. We were able to collect cans by using a strobe light and cathode tubes connected to our robot as a flashlight, and the hopper in it as a storage bin to go trick-or-treating around our school. We were able to collect over twenty pounds of food while informing the surrounding community about FIRST and our robot. The TRC and Sponsorship Within its lifetime the TRC has developed relationships with sponsors such as McIvor Consulting, who has aided the team in business operation. Advising and donating the materials to launch a mailing campaign to every family at the International School for the past three years. Our Student Leadership team also uses McIvor Consulting facilities for meetings and gains advice on business activities such as how to best sell Baguettes at school, helping to make a profit of over six-hundred dollars in four weeks this year. We also have learned how to write a new club constitution this year and have also been able to take in three-hundred and twenty dollars selling hex bugs in only one day of sales. McIvor Consulting’s help has been invaluable when carrying out business relations, and we are thankful for their help over the past six years. In order to give back to our sponsors we have hosted a Banquet for the past three years, giving awards to dedicated mentors, members, and plaques to sponsors. Here we are also able to introduce the robot to the sponsors and to parents who have not yet had a chance to see it. Conclusion The TRC will continue to strive for excellence as a club and improve the Pacific Northwest and larger FIRST community by offering guidance and mentorship. We are proud of how far we come in our seven years of existence, and we hope other FIRST teams can learn from our missteps and our successes. The unique opportunities provided to students, our year-round activities, and our competitive excellence year after year is turning a small alternative public school into an epicenter of inspiratiosn in science and technology.

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