Here is a history of every season of our club from our conception in 2005. For a list of the achievements of this club, see the Achievements page.
2011-12 Season
2010–11 Season
This year, the Saints Robotics team participated in the 2010–2011 FRC season. At the 2011 Seattle Olympic Regional, we were part of the winning alliance in the elimination matches along with team 2990 and team 3393. We also won the regional Chairman’s Award, given to the team that best represents the values of FIRST. We advanced to the FRC Championships for the first time in the history of the team, where we placed 38th in the Archimedes Division.
In addition, we have experienced a great change in leadership this season. Several of our most experienced club members have become officers, including Larry L. (Treasurer), Vivek P. (Build Team Officer), Bobby P. (Build Team Officer), and Tyler O. (Media Officer). Our first VEX competition took place on November 20, 2010 at Redmond High School.
2009–10 Season
Though we started with only five students, we’ve since grown into a vibrant club with over 40 members. Right after the 2009 season our team underwent momentous changes, including reorganization of the leadership team, as well as changes in how the public relations and programming team was run. For the off-season project, the team decided to build a simple second robot for the programming team to work on, as well as modify the “Om-bot” to make it presentable. We also started a Support-Group mostly run by parents in order to help with the organization of carpooling as well as food and chaperoning. In the beginning of the year, the VEX team won at the VEX Jumpstart Competition and qualified to go to the Worlds competition in Dallas, Texas.
During build season, the team decided to try a new process for designing the robot, in which the team was split into four sub-teams and each team came up with different ideas for a robot. Through this process, the team was able to come up with many diverse robot designs. Once the team decided on a design, drawing and CAD drawings were made. The team split into the previously determined subteams and started working in parallel on the robot. The final robot uses mecanum wheels, has a powerful kicker, and an arm to lift the robot onto a pullup bar.
2008–09 Season
The 2008–2009 season started with the construction of our off-season project: a robot with four omni-wheels. This was an experimental design with a completely new drive train for our club. 2008 was also the inaugural year for the VEX Robotics team, which competed in the Elevation challenge. The hands-on learning “classes” set up before build season attracted a whole new wave of dedicated members, eager to learn from the veterans. While the build team practiced building, the public relations team hosted multiple events. Interlake High School was the site of the preseason workshop in November, which was attended by about 1000 students from local teams. The kickoff in January, once again hosted in our school, was a tremendous success. Saints Robotics participated in the FIRST Robotics Lunacy Competition with their robot, nicknamed “Om-bot,” and attended the Microsoft Seattle Regional in Key Arena on March 26-28.
2007–08 Season
The 2007–2008 season of Saints Robotics was a long adventure. The year started off with a flurry of pre-season planning and activity. Team membership boomed to 43, the website was redesigned, and the team has acquired the support of the Bezos Family Foundation again as well as two new partners: Magellan Architects and Case Engineering. The design division planned an updated drive system even before the kickoff event. Saints Robotics participated in the brand-new Microsoft Seattle Regional in Tacoma with the robot codenamed “Boten Anna” and was able to compete in the finals and bring back home the Second Place Alliance trophy! A huge thanks to all our sponsors, Bezos Family Foundation, Magellan Architects and CASE Engineering without whom we would not have been able to succeed.
2006–07 Season
The 2006–2007 year was led by an entirely new leadership that had little to no previous experience on the competition. Despite the rocky start, the robot “Ultimate Novice” was created. Team 1899 was able to enter the Pacific Northwest Regional again due to a grant from the Bezos Family Foundation. Even though the robot was mostly built of parts from the kit, team 1899 finished in 27th place in the Portland Regional.
2005–06 Season
Saints Robotics was started in 2005 by David Ayele. Able to attend the Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland, Oregon due to the NASA grant for rookie teams, the team built “Nubcake,” a robot meant to play the 2005–2006 game “Aim High.” While Saints Robotics lacked experience for much of the short six-week-long build season, Ayele and his four teammates attended the competition, placing 35th for their first try. “Nubcake” suffered from a loose drive chain, but little else. The robot has since been decommissioned.