I’m a parent of a daughter who is active in her high school robotics club.  I highly recommend this activity to anyone, and there’s plenty to do beyond hard-core techie stuff.

The club designs robots to compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition, the top tier of the FIRST robotics programs.  Each year there is a new challenge, and teams around the world build a new robot to meet that challenge.

Here’s a video summary of the team working toward the 2011 competition:

FRC encourages parents and even non-parents to get involved as coaches and mentors.  And they can always use sponsorships from companies, so there’s a way for everyone and any business to get involved.

Match Videos

My main role is taking photos and videos.  Here are some full-length matches from past competitions – you will find many more on YouTube by searching for things like FRC Competition”.

SVR 2010 – finals match 2.  Our team – 971 – is the robot with the red bumpers that is doing all the scoring in the far end of the field.

CalGames 2011 semifinals match 1-2.  An especially high-scoring game.