Engineering Inspiration: Team awarded the Lake Superior Regional Engineering Inspiration Award.
Outreach and community activities filled out the summer 2010 calendar for Team 1816, with the highlight of summer 2010 a gathering of The Green Machine and 15 other Minnesota FRC teams at the Minnesota State Fair for ten days of FRC-game style competition. Recruiting then became the team’s focus, with one of the team’s largest recruiting efforts to date resulting in many new members, including those ready to graduate from Edina’s FIRST Tech Challenge teams. Team 1816 was again one of the 59 FIRST Robotics teams selected to beta test new robot software. With other Minnesota beta testing teams, Team 1816 presented its findings during the annual “Minnesota Splash” day of training seminars hosted by The Green Machine.
In 2011, Team 1816 attended the new Lake Superior Regional in Duluth, MN. More than 40 teams turned out for this new regional, which proved to be a very successful event for 1816: The Green Machine made it to semifinals, and the team won many additional awards: the UL Safety Award, the Best Website Award, and the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award. The Engineering Inspiration Award gave the Green Machine the opportunity to attend the Championship Competition in St. Louis, MO, and included a NASA grant of $3000. In addition, team captain Emily Benson was named a Dean’s List Finalist.