Greetings from the Olympia Robotics Federation, team 4450! 🖖
The Olympia Robotics Federation is a high school student-led organization based in Olympia Washington that uses robotics as a tool to encourage youth to become science and technology leaders. The team is comprised of students from all three high schools in the Olympia School District. Every year members compete in the FIRST program's high school division, the First Robotics Competition's new game. The team has 8 weeks (the build season) to construct a robot capable of competing in the league, typically weighing well over a hundred pounds.
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In the summer of 2022, we flew our team to Cairo and ran Camp Cairobots, a free 6-day camp covering FTC robotics, along with all kinds of FLL and Arduino activities. We have supplied them with REV robotics packages, an FTC tile complex, EV3s, Arduino kits, and a 3-D Printer, for the Egyptians to jumpstart their metal-robotics programs. Camp Cairobots triggered a boost in STEM interest, and we have since expanded to assisting 11 teams in the Cairo area this season. We intend on returning to Egypt this summer to run an even larger, with over 100 kids.
Starting in ‘21, ORF embarked on an incredible journey of bringing FIRST to the global stage by starting/mentoring the FLL team, EgyRobo, in Cairo. Our 6-month virtual mentoring efforts and EgyRobo’s success and passion inspired us to take our next step: introducing FTC to Cairo. We worked hard to fundraise the needed $60k, create curriculums, and prepare for our travel to launch our camp: Cairobots. CairoBots lasted 6 days in ‘22, teaching students the STEAM skills to compete with an FTC robot in teams, emphasizing Gracious Professionalism (GP). CairoBots boosted interest and opportunities in STEAM and provided the groundwork for FTC programs in Cairo and will eventually help create the foundation for FRC teams in Egypt. In the summer of ‘23, we used our profits ($3.5k) from Camp Khitomer to finance more FLL teams in Egypt along with EgyRobo for the Masterpiece FULL season. We’ve started some and virtually assisted all 11, who won various honors at their event in Alexandria. We’ve developed a special bond with the Egyptians and are moving forward with ambitious plans to level up the advancement of FIRST in Egypt in the summer of ‘24. This includes 4 programs made by us tailored to the students, an FLL and FTC game, how to use Arduino, and a video game program.