About Us

Our History

The Windward School Robotics has been part of the FIRST program since 2004. Since then, the robotics program has grown from a small student club group to a much larger sophisticated program. In 2004, the robotics program started out competing for FRC. In 2008, we opened up the option to compete in FLL and have been participating in FLL since. In 2010, we competed in FRC winning Long Beach Regional Championships. In 2012, the Windward School Robotics established its robotics team name to be the “Omnicats” and created an updated slogan, “Student Designed, Student Built”. Throughout the course of our expansion, we have not only grown in size but also in recognition within our school’s community as well as the FIRST community in Los Angeles.

Over time, we gained sponsorships from The Boeing Company and Windward Institute. We also initiated an expansion of our program to include more hands-on experiences with the 21st century technology such as CAD and 3D printing. Every year, we are striving to expand our program and add to our Windward School Robotic’s History. Windward currently offers robotics for 7th – 12th graders. 7th grade students learn how to construct and program an autonomous robot using LEGO EV3 technology, and compete in the FIRST Lego League (FLL). 8th-12th grade students use the VEX Robotics platform, ROBOT C technology, and Project Lead the Way curriculum to develop and hone skills in Engineering, Design, and Robotics. The culminating experience for Windward Robotics is participation in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC).

Team Organization

As Omnicats, we firmly abide by our slogan, “Student Designed. Student Built.”. We uphold this slogan because we want to engage in a learning experience independent from professional mentors so that we may express our ideas freely and work in an environment where we can learn from our mistakes. This learning experience has encouraged us to step outside of our comfort zone and work more with our teammates since we are "student run." Our team is organized into 7 subgroups: Chassis, Mechanism, Electrical, Programming, PR and Outreach, Quartermaster and Safety, CAD, and Competitive Analysis – though Mechanisms is devolved into further categories based on what is needed on the robot each year. Every day, the team will break into these subgroups to discuss what needs to be done, then coming back together to SCRUM and write our tasks into the wiki. SCRUM is a session where we discuss our goals, plans, and collaborations for the day and week, and is held at both the beginning and end of the day. This structure allows us to have a student run group run efficiently in a dynamic environment.

Achievements

Team 1452
2004 Los Angeles Regional: Rookie Inspiration Award
  2010 Los Angeles Regional: Winner
2016 Los Angeles Regional: Semi-Finalists
2016 Los Angeles Fall Classic: Judge's Award
2018 Utah Regional: Safety Award

Windward VEX Robotics
2012 Northern San Diego Regional: Think Award
2013 Windward Early Scrimmage: Amaze Award
2013 Northern San Diego Regional: Tournament Champion, Programming Challenge Winner, Think Award, Sportsmanship Award, Safety Award
2016 Chaminade Nothing But Net VEX Tournament: Judges Award

Robotics Events Hosted at Windward School
Spring 2018: Windward School VEX Scrimmage
Fall 2017: Windward School FLL Practice Tournament
   Summer 2017: Non-Windward School Teacher Tool Training
   Fall 2016: Windward School FLL Practice Tournament
Fall 2015: Windward School FLL Practice Tournament
   Fall 2015: Windward School VEX Tournament
Fall 2014: Windward School VEX Tournament
Fall 2014: Southern California Regional Robotics Forum
Fall 2014: Windward School FLL Practice Tournament
Fall 2013: Windward School FLL Practice Tournament
Spring 2013: Windward VEX Early Scrimmage & Windward Lego Robotics Spring Friendly
Fall 2012: Windward School Lego Robotics Spring Friendly
Fall 2011: Los Angeles Independent School Robotics Teachers Colloquium