About Us
Full Sends Only
We are FIRST Robotics Team Rapid Acceleration 4593, based in Rapid City, SD. Our robotics team consists of high school students from around the area. Our program was established in 2013, with the help of our long-standing sponsor Caterpillar.
Vision
Our team has one simple goal: give students opportunities to participate in an engaging Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) oriented project every year.
The Game
Each year, the team is tasked with designing, building, programming, and testing a 115lb robot to score points in a unique robot game. We have around 6 weeks to build the robot from scratch before we take it competition. The challenge is designed to help prepare students for the real world by teaching problem solving skills used to complete a challenging objective in a tight time frame. Each year, the team takes the robot to 2 different regional competitions, with goal of qualifying for the World Championship.
What is FIRST?
Our team is an official participant in the international FIRST Robotics program. Currently, there are more than 4,800 teams, 95,000 students, and 24,000 mentors from around the world participating in FIRST Robotics Competitions. In South Dakota, we are the only organization that has met the challenge to offer this program, which is something that we are working hard to change.
Skills on our Team
We strive to encourage students to participate in activities that relate to careers in STEM, such as engineering (mechanical & electrical), computer science, CADD, and graphic design, with the hope of growing great future employees. Our approach is to teach life-skills of teamwork, responsibility, personal development and problem solving, instilling values among the young adults in the program.
We encourage students to give back to the community by volunteering for outreach programs, such as teaching robotics to elementary students, feeding the hungry, and community cleanup.
We hold the belief that if you can reach students at an early age, that you can instill life-long values that benefit all.