Technology High School Robotics Team #675 Business Plan

Introduction The Technology High School, located on the campus of Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California, is a small school that specializes in engineering, sciences and mathematics. A public high school, Tech High attracts students from all over Sonoma County. With a capacity of 240 students in 9th through 12th grades, the curriculum is designed to be project-based as well as cross-curricular which fosters teamwork, requires creation of products and makes a connection between school, work and the world at large. In April of 2009, Technology High School received California’s Distinguished School Award for the second time in four years and in the same year was named by the US News and World Report as One of the Best High Schools in America.

Tech High is recognized for its FIRST® Robotics Team 675. The FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Program is a character building, career inspiring, exciting and fun experience. Working together as a team with mentors students gain practical knowledge in writing and implementing a business plan, manufacturing, programming, digital media, fundraising, web design, public speaking and many other life skills as they compete with over 40,000 other high school students at 45 regional events worldwide.

This year is Tech Highs Robotics’ eleventh season in the FIRST program. The process of building and competing with the robot is the mechanism that inspires the students to push themselves beyond expectations. “Going above and beyond the standard is our standard.”

Each season FIRST provides all competing teams with a specific challenge built into a game.

Every team will design, fabricate and program a robot to perform the tasks for that year’s challenge, executed within the specification that FIRST sets forth. Teams have only a six week “build season” to complete and ship a fully functional robot to the regional competition.

In order to accomplish this task, as well as meet their financial needs, the team operates like a startup company. A coherent business plan guides multiple divisions to assure success. Divisions comprise both students and mentors with the main divisions being: Manufacturing, Programming, CAD, Safety, Fundraising & Budgeting, Animation, Marketing and Presentation.

As a public school we are bound by state laws and district policies with regards to fundraising.

Tech High Robotics and the Robotics Advisory Board, with the approval and support of Principal Adam Littlefield, recently completed the formation of a “Tech High Boosters” group with 501c3 status.

The 2010 game was robot soccer and Team 675’s robot was made to kick soccer balls, guard goals and maneuver quickly around the field using mecanum wheels. At the Sacramento Regional we finished as Semi- Finalists and won the Innovation in Control Award for our line detection sensor, a unique feature among competing robots.

We were Finalists at the Silicon Valley Regional and won the Creativity Award. We won this award for having one of three deployable ramps in the United States. The concept of the ramp is unique