It’s not about people building robots – it’s about robot’s building people.
FIRST Team 2085 Robodogs, from Vacaville High School, has competed in FRC for the past 5 years. The 2010/2011 season is their fifth competition season.
During their first two seasons, 2006/07 and 2007/08, they were a rookie team predominately sponsored by NASA. Phil Jenschke, the Robotics Teacher had the team compete in the Sacramento Regional both years and the team started learning how to become a part of FIRST and the FIRST culture.
During the 2008/09 season, the Team again competed at UC Davis in the Sacramento Regional and won the Xerox Creativity Award for their unique design of using a bicycle brake on their robot for the Lunacy game. The team made it to quarter-finals prior to being eliminated.
In the 2009/10 season, the team had a large contingency of new students and had to learn the FIRST culture from the 4 team members from the previous year. The team also competed in two regionals, Los Angeles and Sacramento. They won the Imagery Award for their attractiveness in engineerirng and outstanding visual aesthetic integration from the machine to team appearance. In Sacramento, they once again made it to quarter-finals in the Breakaway game prior to elimination.
The team not only competes in FRC but also helps to build playing fields and assist with local FLL Competitions. This is the second year they have assisted with the FLL Regional competition.
During the offseason, the team works hard at fundraising and spreading the word of FIRST to the local community. They have been featured in numerous local newspaper articles and have presented to local county Board of Supervisor members as well as School Board Members.
The team enters their robots and associated CAD Drawing in both the California State Fair and the Dixon May Fair. They have won numerous ribbons and awards for their projects.
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