The team meets every day during build season of January and February in room 111 HVCHS. The hours that the shop is open are on the calendar. Off season, we meet every Monday and Thursday. New members or just observers are always welcome to stop by and see what we are about. Recruiting time is at the beginning of the school year before kickoff in January.
Reasons to Join SPIKE:
- No experience required: anyone interested can join!
- Members learn how to work as a team
- Students participating in Robotics gain hands-on experience that is not available in the classroom.
- Many college scholarships are available to students participating in robotics for all kinds of majors and schools.
- Students learn CAD, electronics, programming, and machining skills.
- Student learn business-related skills such as organization and administration, photography, marketing, financial management, journalism, and web design.
- There are many community service opportunities.
Sections of the Team (these are not mutually exclusive and students can be part of more than one part):
- Community
- Community is responsible for organizing outreaches, working with the Hopewell community, and spreading the messages and benefits to people outside of the team.
- Marketing
- Marketing works on designing the team’s public image. They work to manage the team’s imagery, such as the logo and graphic design, recruit sponsors to help the team, and manage all public facets of the team.
- Business
- Business primarily focuses on the finances of the team. The business team writes the business plan, manages the inflow and outflow of money, and makes sure that all other parts of the team have enough money to achieve their goals.
- Fabrication
- Fabrication is the part of the team that physically builds the robot. This means creating a 3D model in Onshape, cutting, drilling, and manipulating metal parts to build the frame and body of the robot, and putting the robot’s physical parts together.
- Electronics
- Electronics does everything involving the code and actuators in the robot. This involves putting together wiring and distributing power, installing motors and a Robo–Rio into the frame, and programming all of the functionalities of the robot.
- Strategy
- Strategy is responsible for making plans and strategies for using all three robots on the alliance effectively to maximize scoring during competitions, and scouting matches in order to have data for alliance selection.
- Safety
- Safety teaches the students how to operate the machines safely, makes sure no injuries occur in any part of the robotics process, and creates a definitive safety plan and rule set for the students to abide by.