History of Valley Robotics Program

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Prior to the insurrection of Valley Robotics Program, the current board members had been through FIRST programs in their own communities while growing up. For each of them, this has led to mentorship and a desire to improve the quality of robotics education in Arizona. With this sentiment shared with the community, Valley Robotics Program became an IRS-recognized nonprofit on January 9th, 2024. More personal stories related to why we chose to create a STEM-centric nonprofit can be found on the 'Board Members' page.

With the knowledge that VRP was being set up, the Board to be set up a combat robotics team, STRIKE. Currently, this team is VRP's Industry Team with five adult members. STRIKE currently participates in the three pound weight class. They are looking to compete the first time this upcoming December. 

The intent of the Industry Team is to learn the process for the Arizona combat robotics league and start youth teams mentored by the Industry Team.

For the 2024 FRC Season, Valley Robotics Program sponsored four FIRST Robotics Competition Teams. The support we provided to teams included mentorship, workspace access, tooling, parts, stock, and design input. The different avenues of support were utilized by each team in different ways.

Team 698 has a good organizational foundation and was, in general, mostly interested in design input. The 2024 season was 698's 23rd season as a team, and the first season the team has won a design award. We are proud of the the team's constant desire to improve and look forward to what they will produce in the coming years.

The following quote is from their team president, Rahul: 

   “Not only was team 698 able to have a dedicated workspace outside of school for the first time in  

    years, but the team also learned countless new things from VRP which allowed us to perform the 

    best we have at competition in the last decade.” 

Team 6479 was going through a major transition period, consistently utilizing all of VRP’s offered support. During the season, VRP helped set up a Digital Read Out (DRO) on the team’s manual mill as well as train students to use the team’s own in-house lathe and mill which led to the team being able to manufacture the majority of their parts in-house for the first time. 6479 had the most hours spent with VRP, over 500 during the season.

The following quote is from their team president, Ben: 

    “VRP has helped reshape our team and give us a crucial boost this season. They provided us with     

     two fantastic mentors who helped teach all team members about the design and manufacturing 

     process thus giving our team the ability to manufacture a large majority of the robot in-house.” 

Team 9059 was going through their second season and was able to make significant strides from their inaugural season. With the ability to send CAD files to VRP and obtain custom-designed parts, 9059 was able to design and build their first in-season mechanism. In their previous season, 9059 was limited to competing with a drivetrain until offseason competitions. For this coming season, 9059 plans to make the leap to a Swerve drive base.

The following quote is from their team president, Ethan: 

    “VRP's guidance has been instrumental to our team's performance. They've helped us with 

     building and getting parts, streamlining our work, and contributing directly to our success.” 

Team 9704 was a rookie team for the 2024 season and had a rocky start. Initially, the team was unable to obtain their own workspace at the school. Until they did, 9704 met at the VRP Workspace. 9704’s only mentors are members of VRP, requiring all of the support VRP had to offer. To help kickstart 9704 to become a competitive team, VRP purchased MAX swerve modules for the team, which they used in-season. At their first competition, they were awarded the Sustainability Award which is a big deal for a rookie team. 

The following quote is from their team president, Kevin: 

    “It’s hard to imagine 9704’s success as a rookie team without the unwavering support of VRP. The 

     mentorship, resources, and workspace they’ve provided us have been instrumental in building 

     our foundation. It’s clear that 9704 would never have been possible without VRP’s generosity 

     and guidance.” 

Although none of the VRP-Sponsored teams qualified for the 2024 World Championship, VRP travelled to Houston, Texas to volunteer at the event. The jobs that VRP worked on while at the event consisted mostly of practice field management. During the off-season, VRP volunteered at the first two Arizona Robotics League Qualifiers as Referees and Robot Inspectors. For the upcoming FIRST season, VRP is planning to expand their event volunteering to FLL and FTC competitions.

Spanning from June 4th to August 10th, VRP ran their first Off-Season Training Program. This training program included 20 two-hour sessions where over 30 presentations and activities were shared with students on VRP-sponsored teams. Each Saturday, a four-hour office hour-like meeting was hosted where students could go through any previous presentation or ask questions. After each training session the presentations and/or activities would be posted. Students use these presentations not only to review for their own knowledge, but as a reference guide for their own team's training. To improve the Training Program in the future, each session was concluded with a feedback form which VRP will use to better each activity.

Although VRP was not planning to have an in-house team until the 2026 season, a student reached out to us in June regarding starting a new FRC team. The student's energy and enthusiasm was contagious, leading to VRP being set on founding a rookie team that will compete in the 2025 season. Team Scrap Metal is a community team, meaning that the team is able to accept students from any school.

To start, the team members volunteered at the off-season Arizona Robotics League Qualifiers #1, #2, #3. Team Scrap Metal competed at ARL Qualifiers #4 and #5 and were selected to compete at the ARL Championship. The team also volunteered at the Sanghi State Championship. 

There has been a lot of training through this off-season, and we are excited to see where Team Scrap Metal is able to take it this upcoming season.

While not yet official, Valley Robotics Program is assisting other rookie teams in getting prepared to compete in the 2025 season.