About RAVEN Robotics

R.A.V.E.N.: Robotic And Vehicular Engineering by Nerds

RAVEN Robotics, Team 1288, is a FIRST Robotics team from the Francis Howell School District's high schools: Francis Howell High School, Francis Howell North, and Francis Howell Central located in St. Charles, Missouri. Students from all three schools meet and cooperate to do a multitude of things. The primary mission of this robotics team is to compete in a robotics challenge presented by FIRST each spring. Some of the various actives that students can do and learn about are: robot design, construction, prototyping, brainstorming, game strategies, programming, website design, video, 3D modeling, photography, journalism, fund-raising, community outreach, and much, much more to get the team working. We can always find a job for someone.

We were established in 2004 and are comprised of many teachers, students, parents, and volunteers. We continue to grow each year, and as we grow we reach out more and more to the community to attempt to make it better for all. Here at RAVEN Robotics, we don't focus our attention primarily on winning; we try to be a successful team composed of many different kinds of people who work together to create something more than just a robot. We create experiences that will last a lifetime and aid us in the future. We prepare ourselves for the fast-pace electronic world. We build relationships as well as mechanical devices. Together as a unified team, there is nothing we cannot do. FIRST robotics is the cornerstone to the rest of our lives.

If you wish to continue learning about us you can take a trip back in time and learn about our history in our well documented Team History section.

Team Structure

RAVEN Robotics uses a traditional club structure with small variations to better accommodate the challenges FIRST provides, namely there being students and mentors. Even though we treat everyone the same, with anyone's opinion always taken into account and never discrediting an idea just because someone is new, we still have positions and titles within the team mostly for organizational purposes. Students are elected by other students for the following positions: President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary. Traditionally the student president handles most of the student organization, as well as most of the public speaking. The student vice president aids the student president in their duties, as well as handling any duties the student president cannot handle. The student treasurer is in charge of keeping track of what happens at each meeting, and generally handles some student financial decisions. The student secretary handles student membership, including keeping attendance and removing/adding students as needed. Our current student elected representatives are as follows:

President: Aaron Harmon

Vice President: Stephen Eastman

Secretary: Kevin Grabbe

Treasurer: Andrea Steinbach

Mentors on the other hand are there primarily to aid the students in designing, building, and any other aspect of FIRST challenges. Mentors are all volunteers from various backgrounds. Many are part of the community or parents who lend their time. Others are Teachers who spend extra time doing this extra-circular activity, and finally some students who graduate come back to mentor students as college mentors. RAVEN Robotics values all our members.