Welcome to the home of FIRST Robotics Team 1829!
Eastern Shore Robotics
In 2008, Team 1829 of Arcadia High School (Oak Hall, Virginia) founded Eastern Shore Robotics (ESR), a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting robotics and STEM education of the tri-state Eastern Shore. Throughout the 2008-2009 season, in effort to publicize and establish ESR as as independent organization, Team 1829 became synonymous with ESR.
Team History
Team 1829 was founded in 2006 by Arcadia High School of Oak Hall, Virginia. After competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) for three years, Team 1829, or the Firebots, spun off a non-profit organization, Eastern Shore Robotics (ESR), months prior to the 2009 season. Team 1829 adopted ESR in order to ensure its success. Throughout the season, Team 1829 competed under the name Eastern Shore Robotics in order to spread awareness of the organization throughout the local and FIRST communities. The Arcadia High School members also decided to reach out to other schools in the community in order to inspire and encourage others to become involved in FIRST. In 2008, there were only two schools on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia competing in robotics: Arcadia and Northampton High School’s Team 1908; by the end of the 2009 season, Team 1829 had students representing four public schools, Arcadia, Pocomoke High (Pocomoke, MD), Bennett High (Salisbury, MD), Wor-Tech (Salisbury, MD) and homeschooled families.
While attempting to establish a new coalition team with rival schools, Team 1829 (also known as the Shore Bots during the 2009 season) built a robot to compete in the 2009 game, Lunacy. Using a carbon-fiber material they innovated, the Shore Bots created a robot that successfully played the game without using an aluminum structure. In fact, their robot, Bubbles, was the only robot to be created using a carbon composite material.
Team 1829 experienced great success during the 2008-2009 season. The Shore Bots were awarded the Xerox Creativity Award for their unique carbon-fiber design and the 2009 NASA/VCU Regional Engineering Inspiration Award for effectively inspiring students and exposing them to professional engineers and engineering principles. Little did they know, but the Engineering Inspiration Award is the second highest award given at the regional level and their achievement qualified the team for the FIRST Robotics Championship in Atlanta, Georgia last April. This was the first time that a team from the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland advanced to the World Championship level!
Team 1829 worked directly with the new-born Eastern Shore Robotics to host several open houses and events to promote FIRST. Most noticeably among these was the PEP (Potential-Energy Propelled) Car Challenge in which students and adults of all ages from the community worked with Team 1829 students and mentors to design and build a car propelled by some form of potential energy. The event was very successful, especially with several finalists winning a $100 cash prize in a variety of categories, all paid out of pocket of Team 1829, which was still synonymous with ESR.
Throughout 2009, Team 1829 made it a point to be active in the community, attending events such as the Nandua High School Truck Touch, a Town Council Meeting, orientations at two elementary schools, Club Day, Super Hero Day, and the Cyprus Festival. Through these events, Team 1829 started to gain momentum in the community and took several other schools under its banner, namely Snow Hill, Chincoteague, and Nandua High Schools and Holly Grove Christian School.
In August 2009, Team 1829 and Eastern Shore Robotics separated. ESR became the umbrella organization for all robotics programs on the Delmarva Peninsula and began supporting Team 1829 and Northampton High School Team 1908, the Shorebots. Team 1829 worked with ESR to start Team 3389 Strikeforce and a FIRST Lego League team, Team 9900 Beachbots Jr.
At the start of the 2009-2010 season, Team 1829 justly renamed themselves Evolve to signify their evolutionary formation and growth into a flourishing team. Team 1829: Evolve continues to be unique in their use of carbon composites in the design of their robot. The leadership of the team believes that by using cutting-edge composite materials, they can attract students and professionals, as well as sponsors, to become a part of the team. Working with Eastern Shore Robotics, they hope that they can teach other teams the methods of creating and using carbon composite structures and inspire the FIRST community to follow in their footsteps. This year, while designing their robot to compete in the 2010 game, Lunacy, they will utilize carbon fiber panels and polonia wood, an exotic wood known for its excellent strength to weight ratio. The use of these unique and relatively inexpensive materials has effectively generated excitement in the team and their community.
Team 1829 currently spans two states and multiple counties, and invites students from various high schools on the Eastern Shore to participate. Their past success and high hopes for the future is due in large part to their philosophy. Using the motto “Because we’re too awesome for one state”, Team 1829 utilizes a network of professional engineers, teachers, and other mentors to inspire students to succeed and challenge themselves.