In September 2009, a handful of students and two mentors formed the QWERTY Robotics team to participate in its very first robotics competition, NDSU Bison BEST (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology) Robotics. Our name, “QWERTY Robotics” was chosen to best represent the areas in which the team would like to work and learn. QWERTY having been taken from the upper left-hand corner of keys in standard keyboards.
Shortly after the BEST Robotics competition, Ken Rosen, the MN FIRST Regional Director, contacted the Detroit Lakes High School to inquire whether there were students interested in competing in the FIRST Robotics program. The interest was there from kids in our community in both the public schools and home schools. The team grew by adding a couple more mentors and additional students. We were excited at the prospect of another robotics competition and pursued the creation of our own FRC team. After much fundraising, we were able to reach our goal and entered our rookie year of the 2010 FIRST FRC competition. It was a difficult year, but very rewarding and enlightening for the team.
We entered the 2011 FIRST FRC competition with much enthusiasm and competed in the Minnesota North Star Regional. QWERTY Robotics was not the first pick, but we persevered and our alliance attained first place in the Minnesota North Star Regional, which allowed us to advance in the International Championship held in St. Louis, Missouri. During our competition build season and pre-competition (January – April), we met 4-5 days per week. It was intense, tiring and rewarding. During our off-season (May-December), we met once per week to work on various projects relating to computers, electronics, sponsorship, and robotics.