History
This page describes how the team was formed and also provides highlights of the team’s accomplishments and struggles from year to year.
2008 FIRST Robotics Season
In the cold winter of 2007, the Discobots team was formed. It was a desolate time for the team as funding was short, and most of the team was inexperience. Funding was the biggest obstacle in the Discobot’s path to achieving their dream of beginning a robotics team at Lamar High School. During the following months, the team scurried to find sponsorships so they could register for the competition. Eventually, the team was able to get funding assistance from their first sponsor, Houston Robotics, which helped pay the fee for their first competition, the Lone Star Regional in Houston, Texas. Most of the sponsorship money went to the registration fee with very little left over for tools and other instruments needed to build the robot. It was then left to the members to chip in, which involved bringing and paying for their own tools and materials. After much time and effort, the Discobots were finally able to build a working robot. This robot eventually brought them to the final round of the FIRST Lone Star Regional.
2009 FIRST Robotics Season
Who are the people wearing the shiny capes at the Lone Star Regional Competition and FIRST World Championship? They are team 2587, Discobots, of course! In 2008, not only were the team’s capes shiny, but the team outshined many of their competitors as well. 2008 was a record year for the team as the robot they built ultimately led them to the championship alliance at the Texas Lone Star Regional and also the only team in Houston who participated in the FIRST World Championship. In order to achieve these accomplishments, the team put everything into over drive. During the six-week build period, members worked an average of 6 hours per day for 6 days a week. While the team spent a tremendous amount of time on building robots, academics were not neglected. 100% of the Discobots alumni went to college and 90% of the alumni majored in Science, Technology, Engineering, or a Mathematics field. The team also grew in momentous ways, which included getting access to a technology classroom, gaining $24,000 in grants and funds and an increase in membership of over 50%. Additionally, in order to spread the word about FIRST, the Discobots established 2 FRC and 3 FLL teams. They shared their knowledge with 5 FRC and 3 FLL teams and managed to build two websites: TXFIRST.org and MentorSearch.us which have thousands of unique visitors every year.
2010 – “More than one”
The 2009-2010 season started with VEX Robotics as a warm-up for the FIRST Completion. Three sub teams were formed which focused on different categories such as website, multimedia, and CAD along with building the robot. All three of the VEX robots qualified for world championship (one team even won in their division of over a hundred robots) with different VEX awards, including 2 Excellence Awards, Robot Skills Award, Autonomous Award, and Think Awards.
2010 was also an incredible year for FIRST! They not only had a functioning drive train early on in the year, but it was a video of the robot was viewed all over the nation on YouTube and provided inspiration for many other teams. It was also the first year the team used Java to program—in fact, they were one of the first teams to use Java in the nation to program their robot. During the Post-build-season, the Discobots participated in two regionals for FIRST, one which was outside of Texas—giving them exposure to the outside FIRST world. In the Lone Star Regional, the Discobots’ robot made it all the way to the finals—where they were merely a few points shy of pulling off total victory. Our 2010 website was also awarded best website in that regional, and they also won the animation award with their “Save Fred the Fish” animation.