About Us
Innovators Robotics is a FIRST® Robotics Competition team with the goal of getting High School students interested in STEM fields. Our team was established in 2009. Innovators Robotics is free to join and gives students a chance to experience many different types of engineering and business opportunities. With the guidance of mentors, the team builds a robot in six weeks and then competes in competitions across the nation. Innovators Robotics also participates in many events outside of the competition to spread interest in STEM. These events include helping children complete STEM activities in camps, volunteering at other local robotics competitions, and displaying the robot to recruit members. Innovators Robotics not only helps the community become involved in STEM, but it also gives its students valuable experience that will help them chose a career and get a job in the future. Graduating students from the team have earned over $1.8 million in scholarships and most have been inspired to pursue STEM or business related careers. Innovators Robotics is partnered with RaiseSTEM!, a 501(c)(3) organization.
Team History
The Beginning
Innovators Robotics officially began in early September of 2008. A few weeks earlier, high school freshman Josh Adkins found FIRST Robotics Competition online and gathered a group of friends to start a team. The five students, Josh Adkins, Drew Madison, Brandon Miller, Dane Potter, and Andy Woodruff, quickly realized they did not have the time or support to start a FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team. Instead, the students set out to establish themselves as a FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) team. Although FTC requires less money, they needed a minimum of $900 to buy a Kit of Parts and pay the registration fees. So, the five students sent many letters into their community, requesting support so they could start a team. By the middle of October they had only raised $350, so the team decided to contact the FTC Regional director Linda Neenan from iSPACE science. With Linda's help, they were able to receive a grant that paid for half the Kit of Parts and acquired a sponsorship from BAE systems. Innovators Robotics officially became FTC team #3311.
In the beginning of December, Innovators Robotics set out to build an FTC robot to compete in the Cincinnati Regional event in late January. The team, including the two mentors, had no previous robotics experience and they were already at a disadvantage by receiving the kit of parts almost two months later than most teams. The team spent many late nights in Josh Adkins' basement teaching themselves the NXT-G programming language and learning how to make the robot move. After many more weeks without sleep, Innovators Robotics produced a low budget robot that was able to complete the task given to them. The team was finally ready to attend the Cincinnati Regional, but they soon found out anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
Cincinnati Regional
At the Cincinnati Regional event, the Innovators Robotics team faced many problems. The combination of an entire arm of the robot being snapped off, the power switch getting bumped during game play, and many code errors caused the team finished 20th out of the 22 teams. Despite their errors, the team won the Think Award for their innovative design that allowed them to complete the task regardless of their low budget.
The team did not consider their performance at the competition a failure but a learning experience. The same day the team returned to the basement and completely disassembled the robot. They decided to attend the Pennsylvania Regional event for a second chance. The competition was only a month away and the Innovators needed to completely rebuild and re-program their robot. The team modified their robot to be more efficient and changed their programming language to RobotC. The changes did not take long so the drivers were able to practice for the competition.
Pennsylvania Regional
At the Pennsylvania Regional event, Innovators Robotics won first place, the Innovate Award for a clean and efficient design, and the Inspire award for the team's Gracious Professionalism. Winning these awards allowed the team to advance to the World Championship event in Atlanta, Georgia. However, the combination of travel and registration fees was more money than they had available, but Linda Neenan (FTC® Regional Director) helped the Innovators receive sponsorships from BAE Systems and Booz Allen Hamilton. The Innovators were ready for the World Championship.
World Championship - Atlanta
In Atlanta, the Innovators performed very well. The team finished 2nd place in their division of 50 teams and entered the tournament bracket. They lost in the last match of the semifinal round by only 15 points placing them in third place for the world. Due to their success, the Innovators decided start an FRC® team for the next season.
Transition to the FIRST Robotics Competition
After a successful 2009 season in FTC, the Innovators, with the encouragement from Andrew Stelmack of Booz, Allen, Hamilton, made the decision to move to FRC for the 2010 season. During the summer, plans were put in place to establish a non-profit organization, incorporate a strategic plan, apply for grants, and seek funding.
Everyone gathered at Mark and Lisa Adkins home to get started while the team searched for a build Space. In early fall, First Baptist Church of Vandalia, graciously allowed the team a meeting room in their youth center “The Hangar” and later a build space in an office building the church owned.
The team set up an open house to recruit additional students. Then, training was established with another local rookie team: Team 3186, Dayton Early College Academy (DECA). The session included CAD (Computer Aided Design), electronics, and programming training designed to expose the students to the skills they would need during build season. The recruiting was successful and the team increased from five to twelve students.
The game for 2010 was called Breakaway and was soccer themed. After the kick-off meeting, the Innovators met and brainstormed ideas with Team 3186 (DECA). Both teams developed a close relationship throughout the season. Taylor Chenoweth, a FIRST® Alumnus, was a dual mentor for both Team 3138 and 3186. Josh Adkins, Innovator’s team captain, programmed Team 3186’s robot and the Innovator’s continued to help mentor the DECA team throughout the season.
2010 Pittsburgh Regional
The Innovators won seven matches, lost three, and tied two. The team was picked for the second alliance and became Regional Finalists with Teams 1279 Cold Fusion, and 2656 Gateway Robotics. The Innovators won the Highest Rookie Seed and the Rookie All-Star Award.
2010 Buckeye Regional
The Innovators were again successful during qualifications winning seven matches, losing one, and tying one. Innovators were selected by the second seed team their good friend Team 1038 Thunderhawks, and they chose Team 3201 Ross Robotics. Innovators were again Regional Finalists and won the Gracious Professionalism Award, the Highest Rookie Seed, and the Rookie All-Star Award.
2010 World Championship - Atlanta
At World’s, Innovators had more successful qualification matches with seven wins and four loses. The team was picked for the third alliance, with teams 2056 and 1625. Innovators alliance was the Galileo Division winner, but lost in the semifinals on Einstein with one win and two losses to the Einstein winners. Also, Innovators won Galileo’s Highest Rookie Seed and the World Champion Rookie All-Star Award.
COVID-19 and “Innovation Vault”
The 2020 FIRST Robotics Competition season started as usual with the looming threat of the COVID-19 pandemic spreading throughout the United States. While at kickoff, no COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States, we observed the threat overseas. The Innovators build season continued as usual, and after building our competition robot, we attended the Miami Valley Regional hosted in our hometown of Dayton, OH. However, on February 25, 2020, just one day before the Miami Valley Regional occurred, the CDC announced the nation should expect mitigation efforts to contain the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which may include school closings, workplace shutdowns, canceling of large gatherings and public events, stating that the “disruption to everyday life may be severe.” On March 12, Larry Cohen, President of FIRST, announced the immediate suspension of the current FIRST season and the cancellation of both Championship events.
Back to 3138
While we enjoyed our time joined with, and are eternally grateful for Team 6936, our team wanted to return to our roots, and bring back the 3138 team. Still heavily short-handed with students, our team marched on. With the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic behind us, we have been allowed to recruit at local schools and once again demonstrate our robot at community events. Our recruiting efforts have yielded a very young, and very motivated team of 8th graders and freshmen. While times are currently tough, the future looks bright as we aim to build our team.