Rocky Mountain Robotics is a team of firsts. We were the first FRC team in Colorado Springs and helped start three other teams at Vista Ridge High School, Coronado High School, and Sierra High School. Our team also helped start the first FRC regional in Colorado and is thrilled at how much the Denver regional has grown. However, we are most proud of the impact we have had on the younger members of our community. As a team we hope to inspire younger students to join robotics and, as Dean Kamen so eloquently says, “Our mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders.”

What Is Rocky Mountain Robotics?

Academy School District 20’s Rocky Mountain Robotics (RMR) Team competes in the regional and international FIRST Robotics Competitions (see below for a description of the FIRST organization) as team number 662.  All District Twenty high school students, male and female, are invited to participate. The team is sponsored by D-20 and by donations from local industry. Please see this page for the current sponsor list.

Team History

Rocky Mountain Robotics began as a class project in a Mission to Mars curriculum in the fall of 2000. Originally, the team was composed of a small group of Pine Creek High School students and a handful of adult mentors who competed under the name Eagle Robotics.  In its second season, the team expanded to include students and teachers from Air Academy High School.  Season three saw the inclusion of students from Rampart and Liberty High Schools.  In the fall of 2002, the team name was changed to Rocky Mountain Robotics to better reflect the diversity of the student membership.  The 2011-2012 season is the twelfth year for Rocky Mountain Robotics and the team has grown to include more than fifty students from six of the district's high schools, and more than a dozen adults.

The team has been semi-nomadic.  The first three seasons, the team used garage space provided by team mentors as its “headquarters” and to build robots.  In the middle of the third season, Quantum Corporation provided space for the remainder of that year and next.  Season five saw the team move into a space provided by Chapel Hills Mall and season six was spent in a temporary building at the Classical Academy.  Season seven saw the team in what was expected to be a relatively permanent team home at Eagleview Middle School. However, due to unfortunate circumstances beyond anyone’s control, this location was only available through August 2007.  Season eight located us in some under utilized space provided by Discovery Canyon Campus (DCC).  Since season nine, the team has been hosted in what appears to be a relatively permanent (albeit a bit cramped) space provided by the district in a portable classroom located directly behind Challenger Middle School.

To date, Rocky Mountain Robotics has received the following awards:

2003 Sacramento Regional Winner

2003 Sacramento Regional Kleiner-Perkins-Caufield–Byers Entrepreneurship Award

2004 Colorado Regional Winner

2004 Web Site Excellence Award

2004 Newton Division Quarterfinalist

2005 Web Site Excellence Award

2006 Colorado Regional Autodesk® Visualization Award

2007 Xerox Creativity Award

2007 Woodie Flowers Award (awarded deservedly to our Chairman of the Board - Jason Buhler)

2011 Team Spirit – Greater Kansas City Regional

2011 Colorado Regional Autodesk® Visualization Award

2012 Xerox Creativity Award- Kansas City Regional

2012 Xerox Creativity Award- Colorado Regional