FRC Team 303: The TEST Team

Testing… Please stand by

▲

Who Are We?

FIRST

Who are We?

FIRST Robotics Competition Team 303: The TEST Team is the robotics team of the Bridgewater-Raritan High School. The team participates in two robotics competitions each year: FIRST Robotics Competition(FRC) in the winter/early spring and FIRST Tech Challenge(FTC) in the fall. Teams involved in the competition find out about the game at the same time worldwide. They have six weeks to design, build, and test their robots before traveling to a variety of venues, competing with other teams from all over the world.

Team 303 is supported by many corporate and local sponsors. These sponsors support the team financially, supply mentors and services, such as sheet metal fabrication, enabling the team members to have the best possible experience, and learn many skills that are applicable to many future professions.

FIRST

What is FIRST?

FIRST, or For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is an organization founded "to transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders”. FIRST was founded in 1989 by inventor, Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers. It started with only twenty eight teams in a New Hampshire high school gymnasium, and now it reaches 250,000 young people every year. Students can compete in four different levels of competition ranging from first grade through high school.

Competitions

FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC): The largest scale competition featuring robots that can weigh up to 120 pounds. This is what Team 303 focuses most of its resources on. It starts in January, and runs through April.
FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC): A smaller scale competition with a smaller price tag. The team has three FTC teams and uses them to train rookie members in the fall.
FIRST LEGO League (FLL): A competition focused on building a LEGO Mindstorms robot to solve a series of challenges quickly and efficiently. Team 303 mentors several FLL teams.
FIRST LEGO League Jr. (FLL Jr.): A simpler LEGO competition aimed at younger children to show them the importance of engineering.

Get involved

Whether you're a student, parent, teacher, or professional, getting involved in FIRST is a life-changing decision. Students have the opportunity to be part of an unconventional school team, learn a massive amount, have opportunities to get a piece of the twenty million dollars of scholarship money that FIRST gives annually, and just have an amazing high school experience. Parents have the opportunity to work with their kids and others. Many team mentors used to help for the sake of their children, but once their kids graduated, they remained with the team. Professionals have the chance to practice their skills in a unique setting and pass them along to the next generation.

Visit the FIRST Website

History

The Story

Beginnings (1999 - 2006)

FRC Team 303: Vulgen's Heroes was created in 1999 as a partnership between Bihler of America, the Midland school and Pingry Academy. After the first season, Pingry decided to not participate in the following season so the Bridgewater-Raritan High School took their place. Throughout the next several years, the Midland-BRHS-Bihler partnership was incredibly successful. The BRHS and Midland students had the opportunity to work along side real engineers to solve the fun challenge that FIRST created every year, and then Bihler engineers enjoyed the challenge of building the robot with the very tight deadlines. After the second season, the team also changed its name from Vulgen's Heroes to Panther Robotics (the panther being the mascot of BRHS). Throughout this time period, it was not uncommon for team 303 to take home robot awards and event victories.

Relocation (2007)

After the successful first several seasons for the team, Bihler unfortunately came to the point where they could no longer allow their facilities to be used by the team. This was massively problematic to the team since their workspace, mentors, and funding all came from Bihler. The team went searching for a new sponsor to replace Bihler, but unfortunately, due to the search and other reasons, Midland decided to leave the team also. Team 303 was now exclusively part of the Bridgewater-Raritan High School. As the 2007 season approached, things began to lookup; while the team did not have one big sponsor to replace Bihler, many smaller donations were starting to fill the gap, but the team was still in despeerate need of a build site. After looking at classrooms, students' garages, and other solutions, Pressure Tube Manufacturing (PTM), stepped in, and allowed Panther Robotics use of its facilities.

303 Renaissance (2008 - 2010)

With their newfound stability, team 303 went through an era of massive growth and development. They continued working to give back to the community, like they had done with the Midland run, in new ways such as raking leaves and shoveling snow for the elderly and creating an engineering program for fourth/fifth graders to attend after school. The team also started an off-season event called the Bridgewater-Raritan Battle Royale or BR² that occured every year in late May and was usually attended by around thirty teams. The team also started several green initiatives such as recylcing metal scraps and cans, collecting old cell phones and electronics, and cleaning up its high school. These activities both benefited the team and the community. The growth of the team culminated with its successful 2010 season, in which it made waves in both the New Jersey and Conneticut Regionals by making it into semi-finals and quarter-finals respectively, and running a strategy booth to help every team maxamize their scouting information.

A New Era (2011)

At the end of 2011, team 303 became homeless once more when, after an ownership change, PTM decided that they could no longer provide a workspace for the team. Fortunately, the team quickly found a temporary workspace at STS Tire & Auto Center that would give them a place to work during the build season. That temporary workspace turned into a strong partnership and a permanent home for the team that the still bulid in to this day. 2011 was a huge year for the team; it won both the New Jersey and Philadelphia Regionals and made it into eliminations at the World Championship. The summer that followed that season, the team formed the Student Leadership Council (SLC). The creation of the SLC was a huge milestone that marked a large transition of power from the mentors/advisors to the students

Testing... (2012 - Present)

The team's transformation was complete when in 2012, they decided that neither the red/black color scheme nor the panther mascot were very unique and went through a big image change. Panther Robotics became the TEST Team with a unique teal color and festive test pattern logo. TEST stands for Technologists, Engineers, Students, and Teachers, the major groups that make up the team. The change was a massive success that lead to the team winning an Imagery award at their second competition of the season. 2013 was an even better season for the team, especially after a lack-luster robot performance in 2012. The team was one of the top teams in their region, qualified for the World Championship, then ended up being the captain of the alliance that went on to win the entire division. The team had another monumental year in 2014, not only winning the Chairman's award for the first time ever at a district event, but they won it again at the regional championship, beating teams who have been winning it consistantly for years. The future only looks good for the TEST team, they recently acquired a major new sponsor that will bring their robots to the next level by adding metal fabrication to the team's tool kit. But, no matter what happens in the future, the team has shown its ability to conquer any challenge and be a source of inspiration in its school, community, and world.

The Robots

History