Team picture at the University of Texas at Arlington
A gallery of some of our best times
About Us
AERO is a high school team participating in FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge), a nationwide robotics tournament that requires careful planning and detailed work in several areas of STEM and business. We handle these obstacles by committing ourselves to each other and working hard to provide fun and meaningful experiences for our community.
Together we compete in FTC, where we meticulously plan, design, engineer and program a robot we can be proud to see challenging other teams in races against the clock to complete as many tasks as possible. Needless to say, this is a large job to ask of a group of high schoolers, especially when it takes so much time, money, and demanding work, so how do we compete with larger, and better funded teams?
FTC is not a typical after school program in that our members are constantly building upon it in several ways. During competition season, you can often find our members in the FTC room for upwards of 10 hours out of the week, which is a considerable sacrifice for most highschool students, which doesn’t even include the time working outside of school. It only makes sense when you consider that we’re investing in more than our own learning, but into a long term group project. Financing, outreach, branding, graphic design and even more planning goes into account before the team even begins making the robot, which is an enormous task in itself. In a team of about 10 or so people, you’ll have to be working with different teammates for each part of the process, and all of those experiences inevitably bring people together. FTC is about helping others, and working hard to build something that everyone finds worth remembering, which is truly a unique quality very few school programs can offer to the extent which FTC can.
This is how we achieve our goals, through perseverance and dedication to helping others. We don’t do it just because it’s right, but because it’s an opportunity to do something fun, interesting, and meaningful. AERO is a close-knit group of highschool friends, so you can trust when we say the work is genuinely satisfying and that we’ll be working our hardest to make the most of everyone’s time in FTC.
What We Learn
FTC is often one of the greatest learning experiences you could give to such a wide array of people. FTC offers students an opportunity to explore areas such as financing, marketing, electrical engineering, programming, and team building, to name a few. In This section we’ll delve deeper into what each of AERO’s departments do and their unique experiences with FTC.
Programming
Often, practical programming requires a great coder to have a wide variety of toolsets which goes beyond their programming language. FTC is a great way to provide this practical experience to any computer scientist, as they must work with engineers to design a real robot, taking account all the physics and math along the way. Additionally, our coders are given the extra job of web designer, which is always a great skill to have.
Engineering
Very similarly to programming, engineers are given a real world work environment that makes them more efficient and refined in their work, especially when it comes to hands on application. along with this, engineers gain knowledge about electrical systems, CADing, and design planning. It’s also a valuable asset to have many other engineers to design, as it helps them develop team building skills and open up to novel ideas
Public Relations
For the competition, PR is responsible for making the team journal, a compilation of what the team has accomplished over the year. This alone is a great for learning design, as well as project management. But along with this comes the many trials of PR, which includes financing, marketing, and outreach. All of which are valuable skills no matter what you study, and PR is an intensive work experience in each of these fields
What We Give
As members of FTC, we can testify that this program provides us with a unique opportunity to create experiences that will go beyond our high school career. To provide others with similar opportunities, AERO will be attempting to volunteer together as often as possible with a particular focus on STEM education, because we know knowledge is only limited by those who don’t teach.
We believe AERO’s greatest potential is in giving back to our community. A problem we’ve personally struggled with is that, despite being STEM oriented, there are few opportunities at our school which explore robotics and engineering past a shallow understanding. To AERO, this is a great shame because we understand that technology and innovation are bound together, making for a subject that is not only very exciting, but incredibly useful. We’ll be making it a goal next school year to take as many volunteering opportunities as possible, going for at least once a month, and attempting to focus on communities where STEM and robotics is not actively encouraged where it should be.
AERO and Synergy 5443 volunteering at Engineering Saturday at UTA
Why We Need Help
AERO is looking to do an especially good job fundraising this year because we want to expand our resources, but FTC is a very expensive endeavor, and our school can’t provide funding. Below is a detailed budget breakdown to help you understand our expenses, and why we need your help in funding AERO.
| Expense | Details | Cost (Per Each) | Item Count | Sub-total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Registration expenses | Payment to register the team | $275.00 | 1 | $275.00 |
| Competition fees | fee to enter each competition | $250.00 | 4 | $1,000.00 |
| Bus rental expenses | Transportation for competitions | $200.00 | 4 | $800.00 |
| Field materials | Materials to build the testing field | $300.00 | 1 | $300.00 |
| Website hosting | Cost for hosting the website | $120.00 | 1 | $120.00 |
| Food expenses | Nutrition for late nights | $30.00 | 10 | $300.00 |
| Team Shirts | For promotion and branding | $20.00 | 15 | $300.00 |
| Team banner | Banner with sponsors | $100.00 | 2 | $200.00 |
| Rolling cart | To carry supplies to competition | $150.00 | 1 | $150.00 |
| Odometry kit | Not a kit, just encoders and wheels | $150.00 | 1 | $150.00 |
| Low-Side Cascading Kit | Linear motion kit | $149.99 | 1 | $149.99 |
| Pully bundle | Motion control | $150.00 | 1 | $150.00 |
| Chain and sprocket | Motion control | $200.00 | 1 | $200.00 |
| Driver hub | Driver control and connection | $200.00 | 1 | $200.00 |
| Cameras | For PR and marketing | $252.99 | 3 | $758.97 |
| Laptop | Programming and 3D modeling | $700.00 | 2 | $1,400.00 |
| Spray paint booth | To color up the robot | $50.00 | 1 | $50.00 |
| Cricut | Mainly for making stickers | $300.00 | 1 | $300.00 |
| Button press | Great for marketing! | $350.00 | 1 | $350.00 |
| 3D Printer | Creating custom parts | $900.00 | 1 | $900.00 |
| Glowforge | Laser cutter for testing custom designs | $3,000.00 | 1 | $3,000.00 |
| PLA filament | Supply for our parts | $30.00 | 5 | $150.00 |
| Misc materials | Balsa wood, sticker paper, spray paint, etc | $300.00 | 1 | $300.00 |
| Part replacement/changes money | In case of broken parts or design changes | $400.00 | 1 | $400.00 |
| General essentials | Wires, batteries, sensors, plates, etc | $200.00 | 1 | $200.00 |
| Total Cost | $12,103.96 |
How You Can Help
Sponsorships
We make sure our sponsors are satisfied with plenty of benefits, as shown below. All sponsors are also guaranteed a quarterly newsletter to see where their money is going towards, and are invited to come to AERO’s competitions.
Walking
$100-499
benefits:
- Added to team journal
- Added to AERO’s Instagram story
- Added to AERO’s workspace
- Certificate & Letter of appreciation
Running
$500-999
benefits:
- All lower ranked benefits
- Bot demos, team visits, etc. will be offered
- Logo in sponsors page
- Added to team banner (taken to competitions)
Flying
$1000-2499
benefits:
- All lower ranked benefits
- Logo in the website footer
- Logo on AERO shirts and robot
- Dedicated Instagram post
Soaring
$2500+
benefits:
- All lower ranked benefits
- Company merch handed out at FTC events
- Our thanks prominently displayed in the school hallway
- Gratitude from our team for years to come
Donations
Donations of all kinds are welcome. Of course we will always appreciate monetary donations, but if you have resources you believe we can make use of, please contact us, as any help is welcome. Below is a list of donations we will graciously accept
Materials
- Wood
- Metal Scrap
- 3D Printer Filaments
- Spray Paint
Tools
- CNC Router
- CNC Laser Cutter
- 3D Printer
- Power Tools
- Tool Boxes
- Laptops
- Spray Paint Booth
Services/Other
- Food
- Programs (adobe, CAD, etc)
- Transportation
- Lessons/Courses
Contact Us
If you would like to reach out to us, please do so by filling out the short form below.
AERO currently only takes payments in the form of checks mailed to:
- Harmony School of Innovation
- 8100 Hulen Drive, Fort Worth TX, 76123
- Memo: FTC Robotics
If you are interested in learning more about FTC, we’ve provided documents and websites we believe will best inform you.
- How it works flyer
- FIRST alumni scholarship brochure
- FTC Website
If you want to learn more about AERO, explore our website and consider contacting us. Please leave us feedback on how we can do a better job promoting ourselves, as we are still always developing.
Thank you for your interest in AERO Robotics!