History
For the entire 16 year history of TEAM HAMMOND, our participation in the US FIRST Robotics program has been supported by many Hammond Businesses and individuals. From the beginning The School City of Hammond in partnership with Beatty International. and BEMCOR Inc. Since our first year of involvement in 1996, Team 71 has won four National Championships. The Robotics program was initiated by FIRST, an acronym, "For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology." and founded by inventor Dean Kamen who is most known for his Segway Human Transporter and IBOT - apowered wheelchair that climbs stairs. Dean Kamen created a robotic competition by having technical personnel from universities and companies join together with high school students and teachers to expose these students to the real world of engineering. The competition has grown from its small beginnings in New Hampshire in 1990 into a world wide event, now composed of more than 3000 teams.
Learn more about Dean Kamen
Our first National Championship was in 1997 at Epcot Center in Disney World. Our second National Championship was in 2001, 2002 and our most recent National Title is from the 2004 season. The 2001 season was by far our most successful year, having won both the Western Michigan and Midwest regional competitions, and the Championship Competition in Florida. In addition to these, we took first seed in both regionals and also in our division in Florida. Please visit the Team Hammond awards page by clicking here.
Today, the FIRST Robotics Competition is an exciting, international competition that teams of professionals and young people strive to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. The program is a life-changing, career-molding experience — and a lot of fun! The competitions are high-tech spectator sporting type events, the result of lots of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, project timelines, and deadlines.
Colleges, Universities, Corporations, Businesses, and individuals today provide several million dollars in scholarships to participants. Involved engineers experience again many of the reasons they chose engineering as a profession, and the companies they work for contribute to the community while they prepare and create their future workforce. The competition shows students that the technological fields hold many opportunities and that the basic concepts of science, math, engineering, and invention are exciting and interesting.
