For the Madison Robotics team, district competition includes opponents from Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and the District of Columbia. On April 9, the Madison team, known as FRC Team 620, earned first place at the district competition, earning the title of the 2022 Chesapeake District Champions. This is the first time in school history the team has earned the title of First Place at the District competition, which earned them an invitation to the World Competition.

While the building of the robot cannot begin until January, the team’s pre-season starts in the fall of the school year. During this time, club members work on building a mini-bot and are taught how to weld, code, build and project manage. These skills are taught by a team of mentors that have a background in engineering and coding.

Team 620 is a member of FIRST, which provides the guidance for design and the rules for the competition. Once these guidelines are released in January, the team enters what they call “build season” during which they have 4-5 hour daily sessions to construct the robot. The funds for the training and building come from extensive fundraising the team completes during the year. Total expenses to build the robot range from $6,000-$12,000 each year.

FIRST has more than 4,000 teams that compete, with only a couple hundred teams that qualify for the World Competition. International participants will convene in Houston from April 20-23 at the annual event. Among them, will be our warbot! 

More information can be found here: https://jmhsrobotics.org/Home/Index