The Northville Robostangs, Team #548, are a dedicated group of 76 students from Northville High School who share a passion for robotics and innovation. Siemens and Electro-Matic are proud sponsors of FIRST Robotics, supporting the innovation and success of teams like the Northville Robostangs. As one of the many outstanding teams in the program, the Robostangs exemplify the power of STEM education, teamwork, and community outreach.
Meet the Team
Since their inception, they have aimed to foster STEM education and leadership within their community. You can follow their journey on social media:
- Instagram - (@frc548)
- TikTok - (@frc_548)
- Facebook - (@Robostangs 548)
- LinkedIn - (@Robostangs - FRC 548)
- YouTube
How long has your team been competing, and what are some of your past achievements?
The Robostangs have been competing since 2001, and in the past years, we have won the Excellence in Engineering Award, District Chairman's Award, and the District Sustainability Award. Last year, we also won the Milford District Impact Award, Michigan States Impact Award, and the Judges’ Award. The Impact Award is one of our proudest achievements which honors the team that best represents the mission of FIRST. The Robostangs have consistently strived toward earning the Impact Award by expanding our outreach initiatives. This award holds the most merit in FRC, and the Robostangs have won it for two consecutive years at the Michigan State Championship.
The Robostangs are divided into two main groups: business and build. The business side is split into six subgroups: Finance, Outreach, Inreach, Branding, and Awards. The Finance team accounts for our sponsors, budgets, and keeps track of our income and expenses. Our Outreach and Inreach teams create events to interact with our community. Outreach events have a broader reach while Inreach focuses specifically on our community in Northville. Through these events, we influence the next generation of careers in STEM. Our branding team develops a team brand by designing our team's merchandise and markets the team imagery through videos and social media. Lastly, our awards team plans and coordinates all the awards relating to FIRST Impact Award, Dean’s List, and many other awards. On our build side, we also have six subgroups: Design, Electrical, Mechanical, Software, and Strategy. Our Design subgroup collaborates with our team to design CAD models for our robot. After the design, our Mechanical subgroup utilizes our shop to machine all parts and assemble the robot. The electrical subgroup is then in charge of our robot’s electrical system and wiring all components. Our Software subgroup works to write the code for the robots and ensure that all components can work together. Finally, our Strategy team works to train the drive team and develop match strategy at competitions. They also analyze scouting data through their own app to communicate with our drive team.
How do you incorporate STEM learning and innovation into your build process?
At the start of every season, our team starts with new member training to allow everyone to have hands-on experience with the equipment. This ensures that everyone can learn something new and be included in manufacturing the robot. Furthermore, our new members also have the opportunity to build their own new member bot, which is a scaled-down version of our competition bot, as well as bring their robot to competition. It allows them to be more involved within our team while also building their experience to later work on our competition bot. We also ensure that everyone on the team can participate in the build process regardless of their subgroup and skill level. An example of this is our Girls Competition, where our team has girls from every subgroup form a group, compete, and work on the robot throughout the summer.
The Robostangs is a highly successful student-led team dedicated to inspiring and supporting Northville Schools students in STEM and Business. Our team has established several outreach initiatives in our community, including Robocamp, Unified Robotics, Boy/Girl Scout events, and FLL Pipeline. Our Pipeline program consists of FLL Discover, FLL Challenge, and FLL Explore, all of which provide younger kids in our community with experience in robotics. We also work with groups like Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and local students from elementary to high school. We also have Unified Robotics, a program that includes students with intellectual disabilities in STEM activities. Our team values teamwork and learning, integrating our subgroups, community, and sponsors with the help of mentors and students. The Robostangs also focus on integration within our team, community, and sponsors like Siemens and Electro-Matics. We believe each student should have the chance to learn and follow their interests, and we work to make that happen. This could proceed further with sponsorships from esteemed companies such as Siemens & Electro-Matics so the Robostangs could function as highly as possible. The Robostangs are excited to work alongside and represent Siemens & Electro-Matic!
Partnership & Impact
What does sponsorship from companies like Siemens & Electro-Matic mean for your team?Sponsorships from Electro-Matic and other companies help us increase our budget for materials used in our robot as well as further funding our Outreach initiatives. A monetary sponsorship would increase our ability to impact events like Robocamp, Unified, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and more collaborations. In turn, this would help further community relations and heighten interest in STEM for the future. Through sponsorship from Electro-Matic, our team also has the opportunity to develop the next generation of engineers through the production of our robot and STEM projects within our team.
How has working with Electro-Matic helped your team grow and develop your project?
The Robostangs value the support that Siemens and Electro-Matic have given our team throughout the years, and we would not have made tremendous achievements without it. We are proud to display the Electro-Matic logo on our robot, shirts, and website because Electro-Matic represents the message, “Since 1969, Electro-Matic has helped transform American industry by supplying automation components and solutions to leading U.S. manufacturers.”
Much like how Electro-Matic transforms the automatic industry, we want to transform our community through innovation and increasing interest in the STEM community. The Robostangs utilize this knowledge through the FIRST program and by promoting STEM for all. From the continuity of support, we can create an outstanding robot to compete at many competitions, showing your contribution to anyone glancing in the Robostang direction. With our multitude of community events, the Robostangs will also show how committed Electro-Matic & Siemens is to inspire the next generation of big thinkers by supporting STEM education for all.
Siemens & Electro-Matic’s support for the Robostangs throughout the years has been an invaluable resource for our success. This inspires us to continue to do better as we echo Electro-Matic's belief of constantly changing existing processes for the better.
Do you have any future goals or aspirations for the team beyond this season?
Our future goals and aspirations involve the Robostangs itself. We plan to expand our community outreach, such as our Elderly and Steam Fair events. These events allow us to reach out to our community and further inspire STEM to all ages. We also plan to foster more efficiency and introduce new innovative processes for our robot design. For example, our team’s electrical subgroup is implementing the utilization of circuit diagrams. This allows all members of our team to understand the robot even without electrical knowledge
