NOTE FROM TEAM CAPTAIN

OUR STORY

Fairfax Roarbotics is the FIRST Tech Challenge robotics team at Fairfax High School in Fairfax, Virginia. The team was originally named "Rebel Robotics," eponymous of the school's mascot, but had to adapt when Fairfax High School disassociated themselves from the "Rebel" mascot. "Fairfax Roarbotics" is a combination of what we do and the new school mascot of "lions." The team is entirely student-run so students are more independent and there are more leadership positions available. Additionally, since the team raises its funding through sponsorship from companies, our members have a chance to network with professionals and have access to internship opportunities.

Fairfax Roarbotics was founded in the last semester of the 2018-2019 school by students who wanted to participate in the FIRST Tech Challenge. They faced many challenges when they attempted to found the club. School officials told the founders that starting an FTC team would be impossible since there was not any space in the school to store the 12' by 12' playing field and other equipment. Not to be deterred, the founders contacted a local middle school and met with Fairfax High administration and made a unique arrangement. Immediately after the students were dismissed from Fairfax High School, students would take the public bus to the middle school and work out of there. With the club status now official, the team had its first election and by unanimous vote, Dhruv Batra was elected team captain. Now with elected officials, the founders faced one large issue, funding. The founders emailed dozens of local tech companies and applied to grants until they accumulated enough funding to get started. The founders also received funding by teaching at the Innovation Camp at Lanier Middle School over the summer. Once the 2019-2020 school year began the founders did some recruiting and the size of Rebel Robotics ended up doubling. With some guidance from mentors such as Jeff Kelbick (FIRST Referee) and Aashray Manchanda (Team #10515), MEATS Robotics built and programmed a robot for the 2019-2020 game, Skystone. In our rookie year we qualified and competed at the Virginia State Championship and were the recipients of a 2nd Place Connect Award at that competition. This year we held elections and We are optimistic about our future and hope you will consider joining us on our journey.