In our first year of competing, 2005, Team 1540 won the Rookie Inspiration Award as well as the Best Website Award. IN 2007, we won the most prestigious of FIRST's awards, the Chairman's Award. Our Chairman's Award qualified us for the World Championship in Atlanta, Georgia. In the 2008 season, we won the Oregon Regional along with the two other teams on our alliance. We also won the Engineering Inspiration Award. In 2009, we won the Engineering Inspiration Award. In 2009 , we won the Engineering Inspiration award again at the Oregon Autodesk Regional, as well as the Website Award at both the Las Vegas and Oregon Regionals. In 2010, we won the Chairman's Award at the Oregon Autodesk Regional, and after later traveling to Denver, Colorado, we won the Colorado Regional with our two alliance teams! Both of these awards qualified us to go to the World Championships. View a complete list of our awards here.
This extra-curricular activity has grown significantly since its rookie year, and for the 2011 season, we achieved a record 26 members. For pictures and more information about these dedicated students, visit our members page. We have acquired a wealth of knowledge and experience as we now enter into our seventh consecutive competition season.
In addition to our high school FIRST team, Catlin Gabel has many FIRST Lego League (FLL) teams. These middle school teams provide a great foundation for our high school team. We host two FLL regional tournaments at Catlin Gabel every year, where middle schoolers get to compete as well as get a change to tour Team 1540's lab to see what high school robotics is all about. IN return, Team 1540 members have a great time coaching the middle school students and watching their excitement grow as they discover what FIRST Robotics enables us to achieve.
Our team is organized into departments that specialize in different areas. These departments include Software, Fabrication, Control Systems, and Marketing. Students interested in joining a particular department are encouraged to work to earn certifications in these areas. To learn more about our departments, check out the departments page.
We are active year-round which allows us to work on a variety of projects. In the fall, members go through a certification process unique to each department. Ater achieving certifications, members build practice robot called "BunnyBots" to compete in the BunnyBot scrimmage Team 1540 hosts. Some of these robotics are used to test new ideas, while others teach new members the basics of how FIRST robots work. After they are build, we engage in a competition with other teams around the greater Portland area. After kickoff when we learn this year's challenge, we concentrate on the competition and on building the best robot we can. Nearly everyone is in our lab almost every day after school, working hard to design and create a masterpiece in the 6-week build season.
