ART840 » Aragon Robotics Team 840

Who Are We?

The Aragon Robotics Team is a student-run, student-built, and student-based robotics team centered at Aragon High School in San Mateo, CA. We usually meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the school year, from after school until around 5:00 PM. Our current members and mentors are listed below.

What Do We Do?

Aragon Robotics Team (ART) is an organization that brings together students, teachers, parents, and private contributors to encourage intelligent, innovative, and collaborative activities in young people such as Aragon's students. ART is truly a team in which our members work together, which is especially evident in our culminating project: constructing a robot able to complete certain tasks in the annual U.S. FIRST (stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology") Robotics Competition and W.R.R.F. California Robot Games.

Though projects are developed and built entirely by the students, ART welcomes professionals and mentors to help teach and cultivate pertinent skills. Not only do we learn those applied technically in the field, but we recognize and learn the importance of skills in management and team dynamics as well.

The Aragon Robotics Team started in year 2000-2001 when a group of students came together and decided to create the team. It as started with only several members and now it has grown to around 30 members.

Now with more experienced members, ART "veterans" are able to pass on their knowledge, during their stay at robotics, to the newer members. While the veterans teach the new members their skills, the new members continually surprise the veterans with their enthusiasm and fresh ideas.

The original team Mission Statement, as written by the founding members:

The Aragon Robotics team is a group of students motivated by an interest in science, math, and technology. Our goal is to unite a team of students, engineers, teachers, and adult volunteers to accomplish the central goal of constructing a robot to capable of competing in the U.S. FIRST Robotics Competition. By doing this, we hope to gain experience in the fields of computer science and electrical and mechanical engineering, and an understanding and appreciation of the cooperative process of design and engineering. In addition, we intend to establish a robotics program at Aragon High School that will continue to thrive for years to come.

• 2007 FRC Silicon Valley Regional: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award
• 2007 FRC Silicon Valley Regional: Underwriters Laboratory Industrial Safety Award
• 2006 WRRF CalGames - Finalist
• 2004 FRC Silicon Valley Regional: Imagery Award
• 2002 FRC Silicon Valley Regional: Highest Rookie Seed Award
• 2002 WRRF CalGames: Rookie Award for Excellence

To be updated...

The Aragon Robotics Team is located at Aragon High School. We can generally be found in either the Andrew Dang Memorial Machine Shop, Room 150, the workroom next door, or Mr. Richmond's room, 321, on the other side of campus.

Training is an ongoing event throughout the year for all members, as team members are constantly learning new things from teachers, mentors, and each other. However, we do focus more on training for new members at the beginning of the year, to prepare them for the build season that lies ahead. 'Build' members gain experience using machinese in the shop, practice designing with industry-standard CAD software, and also learn how to effectively brainstorm and prototype. 'Media' members learn how to use design software they will need later on in the year, such as Photoshop and InDesign from Adobe's Creative Suite 4, and also gain valuable experience in the business aspect of running the team, such as soliciting sponsors and dealing with finances, among many other things.

Many members join the team with little or no experience in many of the areas we focus on, but by the time they graduate, they can walk away with many skills and experiences that will prove to be valuable later on in life, but are hard to acquire through regular school and everyday activities. Training while on the team is really what allows for this invaluable gain.

What Is FIRST and FIRST Robotics Competition?

"FIRST is a multinational non-profit organization, that aspires to transform culture, making science, math, engineering, and technology as cool for kids as sports are today." -excerpted from FIRST

The FIRST Robotics Competition is a multinational robotics event in which teams, consisting of high school students and their mentors and advisors, tackle challenges designed by the FIRST community, in form of different team competitions, each year. Six weeks are given between the unveiling of the game and shipping date to design, program, and build a radio-controlled robot capable of scoring in that year's game, whether it be hanging on a nine-foot high bar, pushing and stacking boxes, or transporting and launching balls.