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 traveling for sponsorship presentations on a frequent basis.
Our team has been around for over 10 years, and has won the following awards:
- Team Spirit Award (2026)
- FIRST Leadership Award Finalist for Cameron W (2026)
- Team Sustainability Award (2025)
- Imagery Award (2024)
- Woodie Flowers award for Grace Young (2022)
- Innovation in Controls (2022)
- 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)
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
Brendon Hethcoat
Brendon Hethcoat is a Team STEAM alumni previously on the design subteam and a driver for the team. Known for being an exceptional driver and designer he helps guide the design team and the mechanical team, all the while going to KU for Mechanical Engineering.
Grace Young, PhD
Grace Young is a professional Data Scientist at Garmin and 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. Grace has helped organize and carry out the Girls in Tech Conference, with passion for increasing diverse gender representation within STEAM fields, evident in all of her services to the team and the community.
Audrey Lynn
Audrey Lynn is a previous member and mentor of the team 5013, she joined the team of mentors on team STEAM in 2024. She mentors the Team while going to KU for Aerospace Engineering. She lends a helping hand with her wisdom, her mechanical, and coding skills to assist with the controls and mechanical subteams.
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 provides a functional, strategic, and manufacturable design to mechanicals and controls. They use Onshape (a CAD 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.
Marketing – Marketing focuses on expanding our team and increasing awareness to our community about robotics and Team STEAM.