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About

Team STEAM Robotics is an all-area high school robotics team based in Lawrence, Kansas. We are a group of driven high school students interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math – hence the name Team STEAM! We participate in FIRST® Robotics Competition and assist with FIRST® LEGO® League and VEX Robotics. While working on the team, members gain practical engineering, design, and programming skills as well as develop important traits such as cooperation and leadership. 

Along with attending local FRC competitions, we host summer camps for middle schoolers, an FLL scrimmage, and a FIRST® LEGO® League tournament. We have also done several workshops with the Lawrence Public Library and local middle schools, as well as travelling for sponsorship presentations on a frequent basis. You may also know us as the hosts of the Kansas Cup!

Our team has been around for 9 years, and has won the following:

  • Team Spirit Award (2019)
  • Innovation in Control Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation (2018)
  • Entrepreneurship Award sponsored by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (2017)
  • Highest Rookie Seed Award (2014)
  • Woodie Flowers award for Grace Young (2022)
  • Innovation and Controls (2022)

Through real-world work experience, we aim to assist students and mentors of all FIRST®teams in growing science and technology through promoting skills in business, engineering, computer science, design, and management.

Mentors

Jeannie Merritt

Jeannie is our head coach. She is a reading specialist at Lawrence High School who became a team mentor two years ago. She is in charge of keeping everyone organized and enthusiastic.

Grace McMonagle

Grace Young has been a passionate advocate for FIRST robotics since 2012. She moved to Lawrence as a Self Graduate fellow, joining the Team STEAM mentors in 2018. She works diligently with the team’s marketing and creative departments revamping our sponsorship campaigns and team branding. Earlier this year, Mrs. Young supported Sarah Mahoney to organize and carry out the first ever Girls in Tech conference which reached over 95 Lawrence female and non-binary secondary students. This passion for increasing diverse gender representation within STEAM fields is evident in all of her services to the team and the community.

Fred Bellemere

Fred Bellemere joined the Team STEAM mentors in 2019. He is an invaluable mentor to our mechanical members in shop safety and industry practices throughout the design and fabrication of the team’s 130 pound robots. Mr. Bellemere is the quiet, but essential, backbone of the team, ensuring students are well trained, as well as serving as an important networking resource for students reaching out to manufacturing companies like P1 Manufacturing and Barnes and Dodge.

Daniel Owen

Daniel Owen is the most recent member to join the Team STEAM mentors. He brings his expertise and insights both from the Self Graduate Fellowship and his time on FRC team 2202 to teach and advise our controls department. He works with our controls members to perfect our autonomous programs (where the robot performs without direction from a driver), as well as to solve complex programming issues such as utilizing vision systems with cameras.

Subteams

Creative – The creative subteam is responsible for the production of all web, print, and digital marketing material, managing content strategy for all projects, and enforcing brand guidelines across the entire team. 

Design – The design subteam, our first technical subteam, is responsible for providing a functional, strategic, and manufacturable design to the mechanical and control systems subteams. They use CAD, a rendering software, to design our robot for competitions. 

Mechanical – The mechanical subteam is responsible for building the robot from the ground up, manufacturing, assembling, and wiring the plans provided by the design team. As a member of this team, you would learn how to use power tools, 

Control Systems – The control systems subteam is responsible for writing all of the code for our robots, bringing our projects to life. We program in Java, as well as fine tuning the robots movement, and enabling out robot to execute complex objectives.

Scouting – The scouting subteam makes it their priority to make sure that the team keeps on growing. They set up presentations at the high schools and work with the creative team to create posters.

Leadership

Mei Gordon-Washingtion (CEO): As the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of our team, Mei is the main face of our team. She facilitates co-leads throughout the school year. Our CEO works closely with our team coach to manage events and direct the team.

Peter Burdick (CPO): Our Chief Persons Officers (CPO) Peter is the communicator of the team. Peter works to recruit new members and manage communication with parents. He also works vary closely with our CEO to manage scheduling of events.

Liam Gill (COO): In main communication with the subteams and their needs is Chief Operations Officer (COO) Liam. Our COO is the organizer of the team. He makes sure that all of the subteams have everything that they need. He also makes sure that projects are finished and updates the CEO on timelines.

Maxwell Cowardon (CMO): The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Max helps build the brand of our team. He works consistently with the Sponsorship director and CPO making sure that the team has the best face toward the public. Max communicates with our sponsors, emails parents and drives the creative departments to making our brand professional as well as affective.

Emma Liu (Creative Director): The Creative Director Emma Lui is the head graphic designer of the team. She works closely with the CMO to create logos, manage social media for the team. Working with every part of the team she gathers information about the main goals and character of the team to accurately portray our team to the general public.

Andrew Huang (Controls Director): Teaching the robot to navigate our obstacles is our Controls Director Andrew Huang. Andrew is the head of or programming subteam. He works to train rookies in various coding languages and programs the robot for our competitions. He also makes sure that his subteam has the materials they need for upmost success.

Andy Bellemere (Design Director): Modeling the robot from the ground up is our Design Director Andy Bellemere. He works with the mechanical and controls directors to create the best model possible for the robot used for competition. To accomplish this, he creates a prototype using CAD software communicating how the robot will look and move.

Casey Kong (Mechanical Director): As the builder of the team our Mechanical Director Casey Kong brings the robot to life. Spending most of his time in the “shop” he trains rookies and constructs the robot using various materials. He makes sure that all of the supplies needed are in stalk and advocates for the safety of his fellow members.

Rachel Lee (Sponsorship Director): Making the funds possible to build the robot, or Sponsorship Director Rachel Lee, works hard in and out of meetings to reach out to our community. She contact business owners and schedules presentations necessary to gain sponsorships for the team. Rachel also works hard to put on fundraisers throughout the year.