2020 - Present

MATE and the Robosharks

After the cancelation of the FRC regional due to the pandemic in 2020, we switched to the MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education) ROV Competition. We found the new competition provided unique challenges, and we decided to continue with MATE. Since then we have competed at the World Championships each year. With the change in competition, our team name changed as well. No longer the Landsharks, we found our way into the water and became the Robosharks.

Dan Zahner

Dan Zahner taught technology, design and robotics at Boulder High for 18 years. He was instrumental in creating the Millennium Lab and the Landsharks, and he mentored the team into its MATE years. He died in a plane crash in Nebraska on July 25, 2022. On November 9, 2022, the Millennium Lab was renamed the Dan Zahner Innovation Lab, and the Colorado MATE regional now presents the Dan Zahner Memorial Award, which the Robosharks won in 2023 and 2024.

Competition - FRC 2009-2019

The Landsharks

The team has been registered with FIRST as the Landsharks since 2009. The name comes from a robot that swerved across the floor "like a Landshark!" The team's best seasons were 2012 and 2013, when it seeded 8th at the Colorado Regional and reached the semifinals both years, and 2016, when it seeded 6th, its highest ever. In 2011 the Landsharks won the Quality Award, and at that year's scrimmage they were the only team to complete all three parts of the challenge: autonomous, teleoperated, and minibot. Starting in 2011 the team hosted FRC Team 2036, the Black Knights from Fairview High School, in the Millennium Lab so they had a place to build. In 2017 the team also took in students from New Vista High School, September School and Watershed School.

Sponsors over these years included Ball Aerospace, Comcast, PTC, Webscan, Colorado Plastics, IDEX and the Jim and Dede Bartlett Foundation.

The information we have from this era is still sparse. If you have information about it, please reach out.

Competition - FRC 2006-2008

The Hippie-bots

From 2006 through 2008 the team was registered with FIRST as the Hippie-bots. The 2006 robot had a holonomic drive and could track the vision light on its own, using PID control on the camera's pan servo and on the drive base. The 2007 robot kept almost the same drivetrain, with its omni wheels held in place by laser-cut acrylic. Both were described on Chief Delphi by team programmer Alex Norton. In 2007 the team was sponsored by Impact on Education and Ball Aerospace. In 2008 the team won the Imagery Award, and its alliance with Teams 1710 and 1357 won its quarterfinal and reached the semifinals.

Competition - FRC 2004-2005

The Boulder Bots

"Team 1157 - the BoulderBots - have competed in an international high school level competition called FIRST. Students from Boulder High - though any local high school student is invited to join - create a 120 pound robot with help from community sponsors and mentors. This robot is designed to accomplish a specific strategy to win a game outlined yearly by FIRST. In 2005, for example, robots were required to stack hollow tetrahedrons (3 sided pyramids) on top of 6-foot goals. In all of a few minutes a single game is complete, but the entire tournament takes two full days to finish." -The team's 2005 website (accessed via the wayback machine)

In 2004, at the first Colorado Regional, held at the University of Denver, the team was picked for an alliance with Teams 1324 and 765. The alliance won its quarterfinal 2-1 before losing in the semifinals. The team then went to the Championship in Atlanta on a rookie lottery slot and played in the Galileo Division.

The 2005 robot, Plan B, had an omni-directional drive with a CIM motor on each of its four omni wheels and a gyro to hold its heading. Its multi-joint arm was driven with a miniature model of the arm fitted with potentiometers, so the real arm copied every move of the model. Its custom-milled side plates, the "earmuffs," carried the team number in purple and gold. At the Colorado Regional, Team 233 tore off Plan B's outriggers and bent its suspension on the first day. The team repaired all of the damage that same day and was later picked for the 8th-seeded alliance with Teams 1584 and 874. They lost their quarterfinal to the top alliance of 233, 118 and 935, who went on to win the event. After the season the team met in the Millennium Lab to write up its lessons learned. Mike Fuchs was the team's staff contact.

Competition - FRC 2003

Rookie Year

The robotics club was founded by a couple of seniors, and, upon the first meeting having much more turnout than expected, the computer teacher and the team's mentor, Mike Fuchs, decided to use FIRST as a way to teach robotics to the group. Mr. Fuchs christened the team the Hippie Bots.

The first meeting was held on December 11, 2002. More than 60 people showed up, and over 80 signed up: 38 high school students, 7 university students, 33 industry mentors and parents, and 3 educators. That December the team voted to name its first robot "Chairman Mao bot." The team registered with FIRST as the "Bolder Bots," with NASA among its first sponsors. At the Pacific Northwest Regional in Seattle, the rookie team went 5-6 and finished 25th of 37.

"FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an international, high school level robotics competition, founded with the ultimate goal that science and engineering would become more culturally mainstream. The BHS Team - Team 1157 - is just one of many teams who compete in the FIRST competition. We first competed in 2003, as a part of the Seattle FIRST regional. In 2004, the Colorado FIRST regional chapter held its first competition, and we attended that competition held at Denver University. Also in 2004, we attended the national competition in Atlanta, having won a lottery slot issued to rookie teams. The 2005 competition is just around the corner..." -The team's 2004 site, accessed via a screenshot that was on the team Google Drive

Sources

Results and team names come from FIRST, The Blue Alliance and FIRST's archived event pages. Other details come from the team's archived 2005, 2011 and 2014 websites; Chief Delphi posts by team members from 2002, 2003 and 2007; and the Daily Camera.