The Flaming Chickens after winning the 2008 Oregon Regional

The Catlin Gabel Robotics Society is a club at the Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon. Each year, our society competes in the FIRST robotics competition (learn more about FIRST by visiting our About FIRST page) as Team 1540 - The Flaming Chickens. In our rookie year, 2005, Team 1540 won the Rookie Inspiration Award and the Best Website Award at the Pacific Northwest Regional. We also won the Best Website Award at the Championship. Last year, in 2007, we were a finalist at the PNW regional and we had the great fortune of winning the Chairman's Award! We were also a semifinalist in San Diego. Our Chairman's Award win qualified us for the World Championship in Atlanta, GA. In this 2008 season, we and the other two teams on our alliance were crowned champion of the Oregon Regional. We also picked up the Website Award and the Engineering Inspiration Award. View a complete list of our awards here.

The club has grown significantly since its rookie year, and for the 2008 season, we have a record 23 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 fourth consecutive competition season, and we look forward to the challenges and excitement that the 2008 season will bring.

In addition to our high school FIRST team, Catlin Gabel has had FIRST Lego League Teams for many years. These middle school teams provide a great foundation for our high school team. We host an FLL regional tournament at Catlin Gabel every year, and the middle schoolers get a chance to tour Team 1540's lab and see what high school robotics is all about. And on the flip side, we high schoolers have a great time mentoring the middle schoolers and watching their excitement grow as they see the kinds of things FIRST robotics makes us capable of.

Our team is organized into departments that specialize in different areas. These departments include Software, Fabrication, Control Systems, Marketing, and Animation. 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. After achieving a certification or two, members build practice robots. Some of these robots are used to test new ideas, while others teach new members the basics of how FIRST robots work. The practice robots also serve as a test bed for new software projects. After the kickoff, we concentrate on the competition, and nearly everyone is in our lab almost every day after school.

This year, our pre-season emphasis on obtaining certifications and hands-on lab practice has resulted in a highly qualified team of well-trained students. We built a few practice robots, and our competition robot, christened "Nemo" after a team vote, has so far proven himself very worthy. We expect more great things from him in the coming competitions!