WHAT IS CHILL OUT ALL ABOUT?
Chill Out was founded in 2006 and is a team located at Mountlake Terrace High School in Washington.
One of the team's ongoing goals is to be inclusive of all students. Membership is open to all high school students in the district, allowing people from diverse populations to join. They are encouraged to explore all aspects of robotics, including programming, fabrication, outreach, business, marketing, and leadership. Students join without prior experience and with the support of mentors, who are industry professionals in their field; they can learn new skills and grow.
Each season, the team is challenged to build an industrial-sized robot for an objective -based game under strict rules, limited time, and resources. Additionally, Chill Out is a “More than Robots” team, which means that a large part of our team specializes in outreach, business, graphic design, and media to build skills outside of STEM.
Chill Out strives not only to inspire and involve the surrounding high school community, but also elementary and middle schools. Last year, the team visited Terrace Park Elementary during their STEM night to present about our team and what FRC is all about. Through outreach events like this, we have reached thousands of students, inspiring the younger generation to explore STEM and think about their future.
OUR HISTORY
Our team started in 2006, We won the Rookie All-Star Award that year at the PNW regional and went to Worlds in Atlanta, Georgia. Chill Out won multiple awards in the years that followed, including regional finalist, industrial safety, imagery, entrepreneurship, and the judges' award.
Using the resources and mentors at our shop, we jump-started many teams in the area. Team 2522, Royal Robotics from Lynnwood, was started by Chill Out in 2008 and used our shop until they got their own space at Lynnwood High School in 2009. In 2010, we started Team 3070 Pronto (Shorewood High School) in our shop until they found enough mentors and space to move into their own school. This happened with Team 3663 CPR (Cedar Park Christian School) in 2011 and Team 4077 MASH (Edmonds Woodway High School) in 2012.
Chill Out also helped run FTC teams (FIRST Tech Challenge, a version of FIRST Robotics with smaller robots, a smaller game, and smaller teams) up until 2017, when we switched to running teams for the VEX Robotics Competition. We started a FTC team in 2009, 2010, and 2011, plus an additional one, all themed around temperature (for example, Team 4434 Heat Misers). In 2012, we helped start FIRST Lego League teams at Maplewood K-8 and some other elementary schools (run by separate people now). The Mountlake Terrace High School Robotics Club used to encompass both Chill Out and VEX, with Chill Out's leadership. VEX has chosen to split off, making the two of us separate clubs with complete autonomy from each other.
Our team went to Worlds in 2017 and 2018, winning the division in 2018 but losing in the Championship Semifinals. We designed a new control scheme named FreezyDrive in 2017 using a drone controller and specialized hardware and software to improve control over the typical drivetrain, and won an award for innovation in control. In 2020, after quarantine, the team lost most of its knowledge and mentors as people graduated, and the team went into hiatus. By the time we got back into school, the only people left on the team had less than a year of experience. With help from a few retained mentors and some new ones, new members joined the team, and we gained footing again, built a great robot, and are now ready for a new season and a new era of our club with all of our new members.
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WANT TO VISIT?
THE SHOP
Generally, our team meets in the MTHS Shop and adjacent classrooms, most Tuesdays & Thursdays from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm.
During competition season (Jan - Apr), we tend to meet more often.
Follow the white arrows around back to the staff parking lot. The blue arrows will lead you to a courtyard & the back door of the shop.