Team History

FIRST Steps (2001 - 2005)

Our first major sponsor, BOSCH, helped us through our rookie year. They provided a machine workshop, funding, and mentors for our team. With their assistance, we set a firm foundation of success, starting in our rookie year when we won the Great Lakes Regional and went to Nationals in Orlando. Ford Motor Company was also instrumental in sponsoring us for this event. In the following years we consistently participated in Nationals.

A New Start (2006– Present)

When BOSCH moved to Plymouth in 2006 we lost their sponsorship, Team 548 experienced a major transformation. The team considered disbanding; we no longer had funds or mentors. Rather than giving up, the team rallied its resources, gaining grants from the Mother’s Club and other donors. This was the first year the “pay to play” policy was used to raise money. Though the team went to only one competition, we learned a lot from the year’s various challenges. We realized the value of our new parent mentors and corporate sponsorship. Since then, we are fortunate to have received sponsorships from Shiloh Industries, Vector CANtech, Marathon Oil, and General Motors. GM employee parent mentors permit us to access and use the Milford Proving Grounds machine shop.

In the following years we picked ourselves up and “galloped” on.  We regained our momentum and our winning spirit, attending Nationals every year. Every year we look for further improvement, with a gradual progression to being a student-lead team since 2008. In 2010, our first female captain encouraged us to remember our motto and to keep the robot simple and serviceable.

Reaching Out
2009 was a banner year for our community outreach: the Robostang Garden, two Robocamps, building bike racks for a triathlon, and the Victorian Festival booth. Over the past few years, we continued to mentor several Lego League teams at both local middle schools, a fun way of exposing our team to the community.

548 Dominate!
In 2009 our team began using branding to bond our team, also uniting the FIRST community. The team uses activities such as morale building, team cheers at every
meeting, and other fun activities to give our members a sense of team unity. At competitions, we cheer our robot proudly on, no matter what. To stand out, we wear our noticeable orange and black spirit wear and foam fingers. We embrace gracious professionalism by cheering on our entire alliance from the stands. As a team, we create and present Peer Awards to other teams at competitions. It became evident that our branding was working when we were referred to as the “loud and proud Robostangs” at one of our 2009 competitions. As we start our tenth season, there are 51 members: 11 females and 40 males. We are divided into 14 freshmen, 17 sophomores, 13 juniors, and 7 seniors. We also have several mentors: Roboparents, 5 former Robostang members, and a few community  members. During the past decade we have seen our team expand our knowledge and    management into a successful student-led organization.