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Prospective Nashoba Team Members


Welcome to all those thinking of joining the Nashoba Robotics Team! Whether you are a NRHS freshman or a senior, we appreciate all levels of talent and experience.
The only cost for being a team member is a $50 donation that we ask every family to make for each student that participates. This is used to help cover the costs of our hotel rooms during the competition in March. We recommend that new robotics team members take the robotics class offered at Nashoba. This class teaches basic skills, such as how to use CAD (Computer Aided Design) software, that will enable you to participate and contribute to the team at a higher level. We also recommend the shop classes offered at the high school. Metalworking and other shop-related skills are used frequently in the production of our robot. We have several introductory meetings for new members at the beginning of each year. Listen to the school announcements for further details or contact Mr. Fordiani (our staff advisor). If you have any questions, feel free to contact us through the contact page of this website. We look forward to meeting you and welcoming you onto our team.
The Nashoba Robotics Team is one of the most intensive extracurricular activities offered at Nashoba Regional High School. It is also one of the most fun! Nashoba Robotics Team members meet about once per week throughout the entire school year, except for the months of January and February. In January, the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics organization issues its yearly challenge to all affiliated robotics teams (see the “About FIRST” page for more information). From the day the challenge is issued, teams have six weeks to design and build a robot to complete that challenge. During this period, the Nashoba Robotics Team meets seven days per week, usually until about 6:00 on school nights and all day on the weekends. Then we compete with our newly constructed robot in the Boston Regional FIRST competition held annually at Boston University’s Agganis Arena. Throughout the rest of the year, the team participates in several community events to display the robot as well as various fundraisers to help raise money.
The team is organized into several sub-groups based on the different parts of our robot. Examples of team groups would include our pneumatics group, which deals with all air-driven actuation on the robot. The drive train group designs and builds the robot frame along with the propulsion system. The electronics group is responsible for wiring all sensors, motors and other devices on the robot. The programming group is responsible for writing the computer code that makes each individual part of the robot run. Each year, we adjust the number and type of sub groups to meet the needs generated by the FIRST challenge. For example, if we needed to pick something up, we might have an arm sub-group. As a team, we generally try to assign people to sub-groups based on their interests, but we also consider where a person will be most effective during the build process. In spite of the fact that most of our in school time is spent learning about robots, this team is not just for students interested in engineering. We also need people to help with publicity, fundraising, website management, etc. which demands an entirely different set of skills.