At a Glance: FTC Team #8395 (The A-Team) We are an after school program based at Allegany High School in Cumberland, Maryland. However, we strive to get as many youth as possible excited about STEM. Therefore, we recruit students from other area middle and high schools, as well as homeschooled students. Our team participates with the FIRST Tech Challenge and strives to meet all facets and ideals of that program. Therefore, our team is involved with more than just robotics’ competitions. We promote STEM in our community with open houses, attending STEM Festivals, and giving presentations to youth groups.
Team History Allegany Robotics (or now known as “The A-Team”) was founded in 2013 and originally had about 12 members. It had begun as an after school extracurricular activity. At first, we built robots to complete certain challenges as set forth by our advisor/coach, Mr. Dennison. As the club continued to grow, we hoped to begin competing and participating with FIRST. Our team began in the FIRST Tech Challenge’s 2014-2015 season. To help spread our love of robotics and STEM, we then began to recruit students from other area schools and homeschooled students. Over seven years now, we have grown our community connections with mentors (engineers and technicians), strong sponsorship from charitable organizations and local businesses, and with various youth groups. We have updated to a larger workshop with various tools and equipment to be able to fabricate our own parts –creating an environment that reduces the limits of a student’s imagination.
Mission Statement Our mission is to inspire our peers and community to be more involved in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), prepare for the future, be college and career ready, compete and collaborate alongside our peers, and not only improve ourselves as a team but also as individuals. Date our team began:August 2014 Location: Allegany High School, Cumberland, Maryland Team and Program Summary Our team is a member of FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). In particular, we compete in The FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC). FTC is designed for students in grades 7-12 to compete head to head, using a sports model. Teams are responsible for designing, building, and programming their robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams. Teams, including coaches, mentors and volunteers, are required to develop strategy and build robots based on professional engineering principles. Awards are given for the competition as well as for community outreach, design, and other real-world accomplishments.