Menlo Atherton Robotics Team Manual

Welcome!

The M-A Robotics Team is a team of high school students who participate in the FIRST^® Robotics Competition. The team is based at Menlo-Atherton High School, and usually consists of 30-40 students. Each year, with the help of professional engineering mentors, the team designs and builds an 120 pound, 5-foot robot to compete in FIRST’s challenge for the year, with these challenges usually taking the shape of a “robot sport” – examples from previous years include basketball and ultimate frisbee. To keep the team running, we maintain a team website, take photos and create videos of our achievements, meet with corporate sponsors, represent ourselves to our community at events like the Maker Faire, and are supported by a non-profit foundation.

NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY: all you need is interest and willingness to learn. Participation in robotics can also open doors to scholarship and employment opportunities..

Mission Statement

Team 766 will:

• • Compete at a global level through fostering partnerships with other teams.

  • Go “toe-to-toe” with the best teams in competition.

  • Be a self-sustaining emulation of a business.

  • Build interest in STEM in our community.

Core Values

We practice safety, patience, respect, integrity, determination, and empathy so our students build the confidence and conviction needed to be leaders in their community throughout their lives.

While we do build robots, FIRST isn’t just about building robots, it’s about developing life skills. Students learn skills in relationships, teamwork, finance, fundraising, budgeting, and project management. The partnership between academia, the community, and industry will build the problem solvers of tomorrow. The team provides a great opportunity to learn about technology and engineering, but it also provides an opportunity simply to be involved in something hands-on and team-oriented. There is a wide variety of ways to be involved: from using power tools to creating animations, from programming to working on publicity.