Lightning Robotics FIRST Competition Team # 862, from Canton, Michigan, USA

Our team is made up of students from Canton, Salem, and Plymouth High Schools, as well as Belleville High School. The team was founded in late 1999 for the 2000 FRC Season and has been growing steadily since then. We boast a membership of over 50 students. We compete annually in the FIRST Robotics Competition run by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). The competition is different every year. FIRST reveals the new game and rules at their annual kickoff. At this point all teams have six weeks to design and build a robot to compete in the game for that year. The competition has grown from 28 teams to over 1300 teams from all 50 States of the USA, Canada, Brazil, Great Britain, Israel, Mexico, and the Netherlands; from one regional in a school gym to 41 regionals in the U.S.A., Canada, Israel, and Brazil leading up the Championship event in Atlanta, Georgia. As FIRST has grown, our team has as well. We have gone from 15 students to more than 50. FIRST is a great way for students interested in science and technology to meet and learn from professionals in the engineering field.

Lightning Robotics Mission Statement
"Our goal is to provide high school students with the opportunity to learn from mentors in the field of engineering. To expose them to a real life atmosphere with a hands on engineering project. To meet the challenge of the thought process from the beginning to completion. Enter friendly competition with the desire to do well and overcome any obstacle encountered, and deal with it through what they have learned. And in the spirit of FIRST, have FUN doing it!"