About Us
Visual Chart of Team History
Who we are:
Kell Robotics is a group of high school students that works year round to promote science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education while making a dedicated effort to reach out to a highly diverse population.
Vision:
Our vision is to be the high school organization that best maximizes the potential for students to be successful, regardless of their chosen field, by creating opportunities to develop leadership and problem solving skills and apply those skills to real life problems.
Mission Statement:
Our mission is to support the development of the next generation of leaders by changing the culture to one where studying, participating, and achieving accomplishments in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities is celebrated.
Strong partnerships are key to our success!
Students maintain and expand these partnerships by preparing and delivering presentations emphasizing the public value of our team and FIRST programs. As a result, we have over 40 sponsors and strategic partners, providing us with cash and in-kind contributions and increased mentor support. In addition to internal operations and competitions, this support has allowed us to dramatically increase our outreach activities. We exhibit in over 40 events each year to spread the FIRST message.
We use a master-apprentice program where experienced team members train other team members who in turn train future team members in a continuing cycle that ensures sustainability. This process results in significant advantages for everyone. The trainer becomes even more proficient and gains invaluable public speaking skills and increased confidence. The trainee learns new skills and sees the benefits to be gained from our program first-hand. Trainers serve as role models for the less experienced team members.
We partnered with MIT to create The MIT Mentorship Initiative video in support of the MIT-FIRST Strategic Alliance. We have delivered 16 videos to the MIT Mentorship Initiative with over 3 hours of video available online for use in inspiring mentors. One of the videos had clips shown during the 2011 FRC kickoff event. Each year we host a Mentor Advisory Conference each year to help our and other team mentors improve their teams performance, growth, and sustainability.
Team resources are used primarily in three major areas: Competitions, the Innovation Center, and outreach. We participate in two Regional Competitions and the Championship (if earned) each year. Although only one robot is used in competition, we build two robots each year to maximize student opportunities to participate in the build process.
In order to support FIRST growth and help new or struggling teams to become successful and self sustaining, we created the Kell Robotics Innovation Center (IC). At this 3,750 square foot facility, we train students, mentors, and teachers from all around Georgia, training multiple rookie and veteran teams on a continuing basis.
Both rookie and veteran teams bring their robots to the IC each year where we help them with their robot build and ensure they have a rewarding experience. The IC has been successful in helping us grow FIRST. We have assisted in the start-up of 31 new FRC teams and 11 new FLL teams. The IC also serves to support a range of non-FIRST STEM activities and functions.