Team History

In the Fall of 2001, Mountain View High School Physics Teacher Todd Andresen received a cold call from Oregon State University offering a $10,000 grant to start a robotics team and participate in the F.I.R.S.T. FRC program. He said yes. With a team of 8 students led by Kyle Wiens (who went on to be the founder IFIXIT) MVHS traveled to Seattle, Washington to take part in the inaugural Pacific Northwest Regional. The team got to meet Woody Flowers and have their robot (epiI+1) signed by Dean Kamen. They also drafted a team from Hawaii after the qualification rounds and were regional champions. They were such newbies they didn't even have team shirts, just some Hawaiian shirts their teacher mentor had picked up on a whim from Palm Springs. That team then raised the funds and traveled to Orlando for the National Tournament.

For the last 22 years Team 753 has continued to grow and attract students from all over Central Oregon, getting as large as 45 students and raising over $30,000 annually in a predominately rural community. We have multiple alumni who have become successful engineers and even have a couple of PhD's. As one of the original 7 teams in Oregon, the team has ebbed and flowed with the economy and the student population. We have always prided ourselves in providing an alternative to the normal sports and other high school activities in an environment that welcomes everyone and ecourages them to solve problems, take ownership and challenge themselves.