History
The Environmental Energy and Education Center was an after school technology program at St. Mary Central High School where the students built and raced cars powered by electricity. This included solar panels on the roof of our building and a small windmill to generate power The school was looking for a volunteer to work with the students to explore some other areas of technology education (that's when Greg C (god father of robotics to SMC) was approached in 2002 and was asked to volunteer to help get something going). This was the beginning of our new program which currently stands as TEC ( Technology and Engineering Club) At that time Battle Bots on television was popular so they decided to explore robotics. They tried to build a robot out of scrap metal and other parts but were unsuccessful that first year.
In the fall of 2003, they saw in the newspaper that there was a meeting at Fox Valley Technical College (local college) to hear about a robotics program that was being planned for area schools. Greg C attended that meeting where he met Marc Couture who was planning this robotics program. A local robotics league was soon started after that using a little kit called Robovation. Our school formed a team and we competed locally against about six other high school teams. We did well winning several matches.
At the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year, FIRST Robotics partnered with VEX Robotics and introduced the FIRST Tech Challenge using the VEX Robotics Design System. The FIRST Tech Challenge was an intermediate level and more affordable robotics competition that FIRST trialed with a demonstration tournament at the 2005 FIRST Championship in Atlanta, GA. SMC was one of fifty teams selected from around the world to participate in this demonstration tournament. Because they were selected, six VEX Robotics Design Systems were donated to use to build the robot for the competition. In Atlanta, they made it to the semifinals but were eliminated. We placed fifth overall in the Atlanta FIRST VEX Challenge World Championship.
The experience in Atlanta and the kits that were donated to the club helped to kick start our robotics program at SMC and the club qualified and competed in Atlanta the next two years making it to the finals both times. We started to attract more students each year and needed to form more teams to accommodate their interest. After a few years, VEX Robotics formed the VEX Robotics Competition. In 2008, the club took three teams to Dearborn, MI to compete in the BridgeBattle Tournament. Syntax Error was on the winning Alliance. In 2009 and 2010 the club took three teams to Dallas for the VEX World Championship. Also, in 2011, six teams went to Orlando where Syntax Error won the Amaze Award. Lastly, in 2012, two teams went to Omaha where Z-Fense won the Amaze Award and four teams went to Anaheim where our mentor, Greg Cheslock, was selected as the Mentor of the Year, Mainframe Meltdown was awarded the Support Award, and Technical Breakdown was honored with the World Championship Technology Division Excellence Award.
VEX Robotics Design System helped us get an affordable technology education program going at SMC. What is unique about our program is that it is entirely mentored by parent and other adult volunteers who have various skills in technology and engineering. TEC started with five students ( Calvin Andersen, Andy Pociask, Brian Rappl, Josh Schanke, and Joe Schneider) who were interested in learning about robotics and has grown to what it is today.
The Mountain Dew Suit
_ The World Famous "Dew Suit" was made during the second year of TEC (2006) primarily by Joe Schneider, but with help from most of the team. Every week, it was tradition for someone to bring in a few 12-packs of Mtn Dew. During 2005 and 2006, we started collecting empty cans, and filled up a lot of space in the cabinets. Joe decided that he would start working on the team mascot and dedicated most of his time to cutting up the cans and taping them together in a chainmail-like costume. This year we plan to do some minor restoration to help it hold up better to use and to make it look better.
We are well known for this suit.
We are well known for this suit.