Our History
2008
During our first season of 2007-2008, the team began with only twelve members and attended both the San Diego, California and Denver, Colorado regional tournaments. TitanBot claimed the Highest Rookie Seed Award and the Rookie All Star Award in Denver, granting them admittance to the National Championship in Atlanta. For its extreme dedication to safety, Team 2543 also was awarded the Underwriters Laboratory Safety Award.
Our team grew to over forty people during our second season, and we deepened our commitment to the FIRST message. TitanBot committed itself to the community during the 2008–2009 school year by organizing a number of fundraisers and supporting numerous local FIRST Lego League (FLL) teams, an elementary robotics competition administered by FIRST. A collaboration was also formed with the Eastlake Education Foundation (EEF) to help keep each of the primary level teams sponsored. TitanBot competed in the San Diego and Las Vegas regionals, becoming the first team from the San Diego area to win the San Diego regional and earned two Judge's Awards: one for community outreach and one for professionalism. Additionally, TitanBot reached the finals in Las Vegas and the Atlanta National Championships.
2009
2010
In our third season, we began to grow even further to the community. Before the FIRST season began, we partnered with the National Defense Educational Program (NDEP) to establish the first FLL Tournament in the south bay, providing a nearby competition where all the elementary schools we mentored could participate. This year, we also helped start a high school level robotics team in Olympian High School. Our robot “The Snail” was the highest ranked robot and won second place in the San Diego Regional. Aside from placing in a regional competition, we also received the Coopertition and the Judges’ Award.
In our fourth season, we continued our partnership with EEF and NDEP to sustain the many FLL teams in the region. We also helped the chain of robotics education in the community by establishing the first FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) team at Eastlake Middle School. This year, we also received the coveted FIRST Dean’s List Award.
2011
2012
Our fifth season held many challenges. After the unfortunate event of losing our only teacher advisor and supervisor, we continued to flourish with an increase of parent, student, and mentor support. We established an afterschool class where training and preparation for the competition would take place. This “7th Period” class allowed students to work on pre-season projects such as our EEF Sponsored Titan Woods Robot and our 3rd annual FLL Tournament. This year we also established the parent run Booster Club to provide outlets to fundraise for the team and sponsor our regional trips.
In the team's sixth season, we continued to assist the Eastlake Education Foundation’s Golf Tournament as well as attended events such as Kid Ventures and Downtown San Diego’s Science Fair to promote FIRST and STEM Education. Once again, we brought together 24 California South Bay FLL teams at our FLL Tournament in order to encourage students to pursue robotics education all the way up to high school and further. Our team ended as a top scoring team in the San Diego Regional and went to the World Wide Championships in St. Louis.
2013
2014
The 2014 FIRST challenge, Aerial Assist, was the focus of our seventh season. We participated in the Indian Wells FLL Tournament and staged our sixth annual FLL Tournament as a warm-up for this season. At Camarena Elementary in Chula Vista, California's Eastlake neighborhood, we also nurtured a FLL team. We won the Colorado Regional this year and advanced to the World Championship in St. Louis. We made an appearance at KUSI that same year in Chula Vista, California, along with all the South Bay FRC teams. For community service, we took part in Cycle Eastlake and donated Legos to a Tijuana orphanage.
We progressed onto our eighth season and helped Eastlake Middle School host their first FLL Tournament. “Road Map to FLL,” an instruction manual constructed to educate teams in organizing their own FLL tournament, guided Eastlake Middle School in this project. We also hosted a STEM Day to help educate people on the opportunities presented in science, technology, engineering and math. We participated at the offseason robotics competition, “Battle at the Border,” and learned from the Chula Vista team, Holy Cows, at their workshop.
2015
2016
In our ninth season we established the Sweetwater Alliance STEM Festival, once again, promoting science, technology, engineering, and math to the community. We helped our first annual GIRLS conference, inspiring young girls to pursue careers in STEM fields. We hosted our 7th annual FLL tournament for younger kids to have a taste of what robotics is through LEGO. We received the Gracious Professionalism Award at the San Diego Regional and moved onto the quarterfinals at the Las Vegas regional competition. In the offseason, we participated in Battle at the Border.
2017, our tenth season, proved to be a very successful year. Continuing in helping with FLL, we established an FLL team in Serbia and held our 8th FLL tournament. We continued our streak of promoting girls in STEM by holding our 2nd annual GIRLS Conference. We attended a conference held by AFCEA, a non profit organization that helps advance professional knowledge in communications. Along with hosting and attending conferences and tournaments, we participated in a Quadcopter Challenge for the first time. TitanBot attended two regionals: San Diego and Sacramento. We scored a win and advanced on to the World Championships in Houston, Texas.
2017
The twelfth year for TitanBot proved to be eventful. At Eastlake High School, our home turf, we started an event called “TitanBuddies” meant to help special needs students learn about robotics and be able to participate in making a robot. They continued their Alumni mixer this year for the second time in a row and started our first sponsor mixer. To allow sponsors to see what they were invested in, we held our second Sponsor Open House. We held a safety week to inform others how to be safe in a robotics workshop and in other work spaces. We also went and helped our community by partaking in a beach clean up to beautify San Diego’s beaches. We held our 4th annual GIRLS Conference and held our 10th FLL tournament. When competition season started, we participated at the Del Mar and Ventura regionals. This year, we won the Safety Award for our extreme dedication to safety.
2019
2020
The thirteenth year of TitanBot was the most difficult year of them all. Nonetheless, we proved our capability to overcome difficulties. Before the pandemic that put the whole world to a halt; TitanBot continues to uplift and empower girls through their 5th annual GIRLS Conference. For the 11th year in a row, the team hosted an FLL Tournament at Eastlake Middle School to inspire youth in pursuing a future in STEM. As competition season neared, we eagerly prepared for the new FRC challenge sponsored by Star Wars: Force for Change. We attended the Del Mar regional which became a major learning opportunity. We made improvements to our robot to make sure we put our best foot forward going into the Del Mar Regional. Unfortunately, the opportunistic year was cut short due to COVID-19.
2018
Now in our eleventh year as a team, we held our first Alumni Mixer, inviting older members to come back and reminisce on old memories. This year, we went on a field trip to Google Headquarters where they got to witness one of the world’s largest companies in action. We held our 3rd annual GIRLS Conference and our 9th FLL Tournament. We attended both the San Diego regional and the Las Vegas regional for the second time. At the San Diego regional, our CEO, Simon Way, received the FIRST Dean’s List Finalist Award. Then, at the Las Vegas Regional, we received the Innovation in Control Award.
In our fourteenth year of TitanBot, the team kept the bond strong through daily virtual meetings. Continuing our traditions, we worked together to virtually host the 6th annual GIRLS Conference. When the 2021 At Home Challenges Manual released, we were eager to step up to the plate. The team split into two groups to tackle the innovation and Game Design Challenges. Our team’s unique game design and presentation impressed the judges. At the end of the competition we were awarded the Creativity Award. After making it through a challenging year online, our team eagerly anticipated meeting in person for the 2022 season.