Vt. Tech Donates Spacious Quarters For Randolph-Area Robotics Team
Monday, February 28, 2011
From the Randolph Herald, 2/24/11
The Randolph area Robotics Team, formally known as the FIRST 885 Team, or The Green Team, has been operating out of spacious new quarters this year.
Vermont Technical College has long donated space for the group of techie wizards, who compete each year in a national robotics challenge, building weird little machines that will perform specified tasks. The local team has been operational for 12 years, often competing against highly funded teams sponsored by major businesses like IBM.
The group is led by a dozen volunteer mentors, who work with the students to help expose them to hands-on science and technology.
The Team had previously been meeting at the machine shop area at Vermont Tech, but this year it moved into much larger quarters in the Catamount Park building (formerly ClearSource), which is leased by the college.
“In the new space, we needed some equipment and bought our own Bridgeport vertical mill, a lathe, a cut-off saw, and hand tools,” explained Joe Woodin of Sharon and Gifford Medical Center, who is a long-time volunteer. “We’ve been thankful for the new location, in that we can spread out on weekends while we work with the kids,” he said, “and now we’re responsible for our own equipment, which is a good lesson for the students.”
Woodin offered the Team’s thanks to Vermont Tech staffers John Kidder, Jack Daniels, Dwight Cross and Acting President Pat Menchini.
“Vermont Tech has been a great partner, and we’re looking forward to nurturing this relationship with the new president,” he said. “We’re always looking for support and volunteers. It is quite expensive to provide tools and register the team.”
This year the fee was $5000 just for the entry and the “kit of parts,” he said.
