FRC Team 293

Summary

Team 293 SPIKE is a student-focused team from rural New Jersey. SPIKE is an acronym, which stands for Students Participating In Killer Engineering (or Kickass Engineering dependong on who’s asking). Their head and long time mentor is Ed Petrillo. Notable Alumni include Peter Mitrano (FIRST Alumn 2014), who now works on the WPILib and FRCSim projects for FRC.

History

Team 293 was born in 1998, coinciding with the launch of the New Jersey Regional - in the back corner of an old metal shop. Made of wood, the first robot was cleverly dubbed “Woody.” The second year, the team named itself the “Bullbots” (adapted from the bulldog school mascot of course) and named their robot SPIKE, eventually picking up the acronym SPIKE. SPIKE soon broke free of its constrained quarters, moving into donated space provided by World Water and Power Corporation. In 2006, we were glad to be allocated space within the school building. An old wood shop was generously given to us to convert into a functional metal-working shop for the students. Team 293 has participated in regional competitions ranging from New Haven to Annapolis. In the 2005 FIRST season, SPIKE VIII proudly participated in the New Jersey and Philadelphia Regionals, and made its way to Atlanta for the Championship event.

In 2007 the team went to Trenton and placed first in Annapolis, thus continuing on again to Atlanta. During the successful national competition, Team 293 got as far as the quarter finals, placing third in the United States. In 2008, the wood shop was given a complete makeover and became a fully functional Robotics Shop. In 2009 there were many changes in administration as the team tried to clean up the way things are run; the effects of seniors and mentors leaving had the remaining members scouting for recruits. Despite hardships due to lack of spirit and funds, the team was able to pull through and participate in both Trenton and Philadelphia regionals. This year, the team plans to continue fixing up the inner workings and to come out better and stronger then ever. Team 293 is proud of its commitment of participation in FIRST Robotics and to create a primarily student-built (and functional) robot. They also qualified for the Championships in St. Louis in 2013.