Chairman's Material

INTRODUCTION



Lamar DiscoBots have always taken to heart both the FIRST mission of “[inspiring] young people to be science and technology leaders” and the FIRST mantra of “Gracious Professionalism.” From our humble beginnings in December of 2007 we have been devoted to the task of exposing young people to science, technology, engineering, and robotics. Many of our team members had no robotics experience until the 2007 build season. With less than $1000 dollars, garage tools, and a small space in the back of a physics classroom, we built a robot that took us to Semi-Finals at the 2008 Lone Star Regional. In 2009, as a second year team, we won the Lone Star Regional and have collected over 8 FIRST awards.

As an inner-city public school, Lamar High School has a very diverse student population. The composition of our team reflects this diversity as it is composed of students of varying races and socioeconomic backgrounds. The DiscoBots team also spans all four grade levels, with nearly a quarter consisting of underclassmen. This diversity of ages illustrates the team’s school-wide outreach, and will also serve to sustain the team as members graduate each year. This year we have also benefited from our sustained involvement and increasing number of alumni. Those pursuing higher education in the Houston area have been invaluable during this build season while others have contributed ideas and advice from afar. In addition to racial and age diversity, the team involves many members of both genders. Female members have also consistently held important leadership positions over the years.

DiscoBots alumni have demonstrated the influence of their FIRST participation. Experience with FIRST has inspired many members, including those who were not initially interested in science or math, to pursue STEM fields. In the spring of 2008, five seniors were undecided on attending college; after participating in robotics, all five are pursuing degrees in science or technology at the University of Houston. Of our 31 alumni, 26 (83.9%) are pursuing degrees in STEM fields. A number of these students also received FIRST scholarships.

We have also made efforts to expose people outside of Lamar to FIRST and robotics. During both the FIRST season and off-season, we have been committed to enhancing the awareness of science, engineering, and technology by promoting robotics in our community. Our team is now includes a number of homeschooled students who would otherwise not have the resources to participate in FRC competitions. We believe FIRST robotics can be an immeasurable opportunity for students to learn about science and technology and experience a real-world engineering project.


VEX AND FLL

In the interest of increasing accessibility to robotics and FIRST we have promoted lower cost alternatives during the FRC off season. VEX Robotics met our requirements and goals for robotics in the fall. In 2008, our team created the first regional competition in Texas: Houston VEX. We also helped form rookie teams from Texas and Mexico to participate in this competition. Over the past three years, we have helped grow VEX robotics to over seven events in Texas with over 100 participating teams. In addition to organizing and running the Houston VEX Regional, our team also assists with other VEX events, such as the Austin and Dallas VEX Regionals, in both official and unofficial capacities. DiscoBots alumni and mentors assist with everything from inspection to judging, while current members aid other teams in programming and mechanics. We have held scrimmages at Lamar for teams to practice as we have an official field, providing opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable to smaller teams. At both scrimmages and competition we have sought to embody the FIRST motto of gracious professionalism, as we help teams design, build, and program, offering our skills and experience to new teams. We also plan to host and participate TSA-VEX events this coming season to help spread the word about VEX.

We are also involved in FLL; we volunteer at FLL events and mentor FLL teams. Demonstrations at elementary and middle schools have led to the creation of FLL teams such as Dark Prodigy (FLL 8170) and Circuit Breakers (FLL 7266). We also introduced these teams to the higher level robotics concepts that are used in FIRST. In addition to our demonstrations, we conduct tours of our facilities and offer FLL students opportunities to try their hand at the various different tasks involved in creating an FRC robot. Additionally, we have recently become involved with a robotics class at The Regis School, a combined elementary and middle school.

Most importantly, our promotion of these other engineering opportunities has directly increased participation in FRC competitions. Both VEX and FLL allow more students the opportunity to participate in robotics and gain the skills necessary for more complex engineering challenges. Remembering our own humble beginnings in 2008, we recognize the value of such opportunities for new teams, and have also used them to train new members in preparation for build season.


FIRST

Aside from our involvement other competitions during the off season, year-round, we run, update, and moderate the TXFIRST.org website, which provides information about the Houston and Dallas FRC regional competitions and various middle and elementary school competitions. Through TXFIRST, any team or individual can submit questions regarding the FIRST regionals, kickoff, and other events. Our team monitors these inquiries and assists where needed. We also monitor other online resources such as the official FIRST forums and the FRC resource Chief Delphi to aid teams. Additionally, this year all of our code is open source and available to the public on a Google Code Project.

When helping teams located within our general area, team members and/or mentors will physically visit and assist the team, and we have also invited teams to our own workshop; if we cannot physically reach the team, we offer the benefits of our experience and knowledge through forums and email. Specifically we have been corresponding with team 1493 in Albany and 3648 in Maine. We also maintain one of the few team websites that offers public training resources in addition to information about our team. Available on our website is a series of PowerPoint presentations, ranging from an introduction of pneumatics to website creation. We also mentor other teams including 2276, 3833, 3847, 3808.

We work to promote robotics and FIRST both within our direct school environments and our more general community. Our commitment to promoting robotics does not wax and wane according to the FRC season; to us, it as a perennial responsibility to be pursued both on and off season and in and out of school. Within school, we work to expose students of all grades to robotics, starting with those who are not even yet in high school. Lamar holds a "Freshmen Roundup" each year, in which clubs and teams can meet graduating eighth-graders from surrounding middle schools to promote their organizations. Since our formation, we have participated in the Freshmen Roundup to engender interest in the team and expose the many rising freshmen to the world of robotics and of FIRST. We have a working partnership with other Lamar organizations, such as the Technology Student Association (TSA). Some TSA students are also DiscoBots members while others assist the team with CAD modeling.


CLASS

The success of DiscoBots has led to a robotics class being offered at Lamar this year. Despite the Lamar administration's initial opposition to the idea, our success and perseverance demonstrated the value of a robotics program. The DiscoBots have been deeply involved in preparing the class, offering guidance to the students and in developing curricula. Students in this course will receive the opportunity to investigate the practical applications of their interests in science, math, technology.


SCRIMMAGES

We run the Texas Shootout Off-Season event, which we established in August 2009 in collaboration with the Woodlands team (FRC 1477). DiscoBots members volunteer as referees, field managers, and announcers; we also help set up the field and assist attending teams. By running the Off-Season event, we provide an opportunity for Texas teams to hone their skills during off-season and for members of the general community to become involved in robotics. In addition, we coordinate and organize practice scrimmages with other FRC teams such as Reagan Robotics (FRC 441) during FIRST season.


COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Since last year, the DiscoBots have welcomed non-Lamar students. Our team provides these students with an opportunity to participate in a robotics program that they otherwise do not have access to, and these students will carry their experiences with them as they return to their own schools. After their experience with FIRST, members who attend Carnegie Vanguard High School, a magnet school in the HISD system, has formed a robotics club. This club plans to maintain a close relationship with the DiscoBots and hopes to eventually establish its own FRC team.

We have also hosted demonstrations in order to spread the mission of FIRST to the corporate community. From this, and similar demonstrations, we have also received financing from various corporations on the strength on our previous successes.

Last year, our team was featured on Lamar Cable Television, a student-run program broadcasted during school hours. We have also been featured in local papers, such as the Houston Chronicle, River Oaks Examiner, Guidry News and featured on the local news Channel 39, and in Robot Magazine. As a team, we have taken advantage of this publicity to promote the idea of robotics and FIRST to our peers, neighbors, and other members of the Houston community.


MENTOR SEARCH

In 2008, we established MentorSearch (www.mentorsearch.us), a non-profit organization designed to help teams connect with willing mentors. The mentoring process is unique and an intrinsic part of the FIRST competition mentors constitute an invaluable resource as they educate students in engineering concepts and processes through their hands-on guidance. For rookie teams and teams in largely minority schools in particular, mentors are of inestimable benefit; however, many such teams lack the contacts or resources to find a mentor. MentorSearch seeks to redeem this problem, and since its inception, has had over 2,000 visitors and successfully connected over twenty mentors with teams.