Say hello to this week's #TeamREV spotlight - FRC Team #503: Frog Force, from Novi, Michigan.

Tell us a little bit about your team’s background.

Frog Force was founded in 2001, with only around 26 students. We started strong in our first year, advancing to FIRST Championship and winning the Rookie All-Star Award. Since then, Frog Force has worked to be a force both on and off the field, competing in the FIRST Championship winning alliance in 2005, winning the Chairman's Award in 2020 due to our hard work building a FIRST pipeline in our community of Novi as well as the city of Detroit, and winning our district at the FIRST in Michigan State Championship during the 2022 season. 

Frog Force has worked with several organizations to learn more about STEM and create an impact on the community. We have worked with the Novi Community School District to gain access to their workshop and learn to experiment with their various tools and machinery including a CNC machine, mill, and lathe. Frog Force has also worked with the Special Olympics of Michigan to instate a Unified Robotics program, allowing students with disabilities to be introduced to robotics and STEM concepts.

What are a few recent achievements your team is proud of?

• Working with teams in Detroit through the Motor City Alliance to create a FIRST pipeline in the community and hosting successful kickoffs, qualifiers, and workshops
• Winning the DTE Division at the FIRST in Michigan State Championship
• Having one of our students, Sanjith Udupa, win the Dean's List Award at the district, state, and world stage
• Winning the Excellence in Engineering Award 3 times in the 2023 season: 2 at District Qualifiers and 1 at the FIRST in Michigan State Championship
• Working to support the FIRST community in our school district through our self-started organization, Novi Robotics, hosting several kickoffs, qualifiers, workshops, and mentoring teams in Novi

What has your team been working on recently?

• Our team has worked to spread STEM far and deep into the community, performing several robot demonstrations at local high school football games, parades, and parks. We demonstrate our competition season robot and use our pneumatic-operated robot, Cyber, to shoot t-shirts for the attendees of these events. 
• We also work to spread STEM across the globe through our India Workshops. We host virtual workshops for students in India, teaching them how to build a FIRST LEGO League robot and the basics of STEM. This was one of our most impactful outreaches and motivated many of the students to pursue a career in STEM.

What is your team enjoying within the #TeamREV program?

Since joining Team REV, our team members have had a great time engaging in REV activities and challenges. This includes a product review video we have recorded, where we reviewed several REV products. Additionally, our team had a great time using REV products in our "Robot in 7 Days" videos. We built an FTC robot in one week and posted it on our Frog Force YouTube channel to help teach students how to build an FTC robot.

We loved partnering with you for Robot in 7 Days and as a member of Team REV, Frog Force! Follow the team on these platforms:

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• X (Twitter)
• YouTube
• LinkedIn