FIRST Robotics Competition Team FRC Team 422 qualified for the World Championship in Detroit, Michigan from April 25th-28th.
The team is celebrating a historic robotics season both on and off the field, as they won the Northern Virginia district tournament, the FIRST Chesapeake District Championship, the Northern Virginia District Event Chairman’s Award, the Hampton Roads District Event Engineering Inspiration Award, and the Safety Award. In the past 19 years, the team has never had this level of success. Our Dragons are extremely proud to be recognized for both technical excellence, STEM outreach, and business operations.
The trip to the World Championship is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our students to celebrate their success this season and compete at an international level. Students will attend education conference sessions on STEM topics, see an Innovation Fair with representatives from leading innovators such as Qualcomm, Rockwell Automation, and FedEx, and speak with members from teams around the globe.
The team is quickly trying to raise funds to be able to compete there. The budget includes registration, transportation, lodging and food for our group of 44 students, 11 parent chaperones, and 4 team mentors. We will have each attendee pay a share of the cost, but the goal is to make this as affordable as possible for our student team members. The total cost to the team of attending Championship is $23,000 and $8,000 will assist in paying for the bus trip to and from the event and lessen the burden of cost on our students. Donate here.
We would like to give a big Thank you for the service to this team.
Lead Mentors: (who are also MLWGS Alums) Wil Payne (‘11) and Alex Coughi (‘08),
Mentors: Samantha Marrs, Cheryl Kaplan, Aurle Gagne, faculty member Mark Sailer
Parent sponsors and volunteers: We can’t name them all here, but these have been a big help – Bill Holweger, John Holland, Theresa Welenteychik, Matthew Hayes, Joe Driebe, Kim Cosby-Johnson, Kathryn Corson, and Gopal Bhagavatula.
Team Members: The team is made up of 60 students who have put in many hours since last June and all were instrumental in the success of the team this year. They are lead by Kavya Puthuveetil (Chief Executive Officer), Dani Chowen (Chief Community Operations Officer) and Jake Holweger (Chief Technical Officer).
Thank you to our Corporate Sponsors for the financial support of the team’s annual operations: Afton Chemical, Joe’s Inn, Hancock, Daniel & Johnson, P.C., DuPont, McGeorge Toyota, Lutron, Leading Edge Law Firm, and Canine Adventures.
Lastly…our gratitude to the Mech Tech Dragons Sponsor, Mr. Mark Sailer.
