Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Team 624 is extremely excited to announce that we have been working closely with the Katy Independent School District to design a district-wide STEM center, which has officially been approved by the Exexcutive School Board just tonight! The district has funded the 24,000 ft^2, $5 million STEM center to be constructed and opened by December 2014. It is laid out to support up to 8 FRC teams within the district, and has 8 seperate build spaces connected to a bay area large enough to hold a full game field!

Needless to say this a gigantic leap for FIRST in the Houston area, especially for Team 624 CRyptonite Robotics at CRHS, as well as Team 4639 Spartan Robotics at SLHS, Team 2882 Nutz n' Bolts Robotics at MRHS, and any future KISD teams!

You can find out more information on our website here:

http://team624.org/files/STEM_Center_Presentation.pdf

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

I remember seeing the information on this a couple of months ago. This will make two "permanent fields" in the Houston area!

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Yup, we're really grateful for the support the district has shown us in getting this STEM Center rolling. It really is a huge step forward as we try to get teams at every high school in KISD.

So excited for 2015, and 2014 hasn't even started yet!

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Wow, Congrats. This is awesome. I am forwarding to my Administration right now.

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Wow. Congratulations! This is worthy of a big celebration.

Makes me almost want to move to Katy.

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Holy crap are you guys fortunate! Inspirational and will be used by others to leverage their efforts to find support in their own districts. Be sure To posAt proGrEss updates;)

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Congradulations. I hope you guys will offer tours of this place cause it looks amazing.

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Really incredible workspace. Also extraordinary that they have space for expansion!

Perhaps you could explain how you were able to accomplish this? It would be a really awesome resource for other teams and districts if you have any documentation to share. Did the district approach you about this, or was this something you have been working on trying to get for a few years now? If so, I'd really appreciate the process you had to take.

Looks amazing, congratulations!

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Passing this on to my school district.

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Excellent work 624 and company! Clearly there were many parties involved, just from looking at some of the planning meeting pictures. I too would love to hear more of the story behind making this possible.

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Congrats!. Nice job!

This is an inspiration to other districts to do the same.

Hopefully you can get other schools nearby to visit and show off your accomplishments.

You also save the hour+ drive to the Clear Creek facility for practice! :)

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

+1

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Is the 5 mil for just the building or does that include all of the machines in the shop too?

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

To answer the questions on how we got to this point...It was a long, 5 plus year effort. We are an industry funded team (especially being near Houston's energy corridor, lots of oil and gas companies) aligned with a single high school (Cinco Ranch High School, 3000+ students) and currently do not have a build site on school property. We were easily out of sight, out of mind and had the appearance of an after school club for those that did not have exposure or understanding of FIRST. (Think your hobbyist robotics nerds who supposedly built minibots in a dark closet afterschool). We recognized we needed to let people know who Team 624 is and what FIRST is all about.

We focused on getting the school principal and staff, KISD School Board and School Superintendent to recognize the benefits of FIRST and the scope of FIRST Robotics and Team 624. We wanted them to understand what FIRST robotics means and what it can do, so we approached them like an active team member. We invited the Superintendent and Board Members to the build site (rented storefronts, different location each build season, and some showed up!), invites to the regional competitions (i.e Lone Star), and sent them frequent updates on our team activities.

The students made presentations at the end of each season at the board meetings that included the robot, shared with them our team videos, some attended our End of Year Banquets where they see our year round involvement and accomplishments, had major sponsors send notices to the board on how much they support FIRST (thank you BP, our founding and major sponsor), grew the FLL program in Katy and hosted FLL Tournaments and invited them to attend those, and we grew the number of FRC teams in the school district and kept the Board updated.

We brought back graduated students to talk at board meetings on what FIRST meant to them and how FIRST had shaped their path to college and how they were successful in college and after college. We got their attention and showed continued, sustained growth and success across multiple years. We also emphasized the fact that all the graduating seniors involved in Team 624 Robotics over the past 5 years have all gone on to college in pursuit of STEM related degrees. And always important, we emphasized that all the Katy FRC teams are self funded through industry donations and not drawing any funds from the school district for our yearly operating budget.

As the enthusiasm and recognition of FIRST Robotics grew, we asked to work with the appropriate school resources to establish a permanent build site for the teams. This was enthusiastically supported by Katy Superintendent Alton Frailey and he set into motion the development and proposal for the STEM Center. We were invited to participate in this process and worked closely with the architects, community representatives, and school representatives in putting together the design. The board then took on the task of funding and agreed the future of STEM in Katy was worth the investment.

It is a STEM Center, to be used as a resource by all the Katy Schools for activities such as Robotics (FRC and FLL) and the many other science oriented activities and projects that need centralized large work spaces to accomplish. It will be used to showcase the Katy School district support of STEM to local tech and energy companies for expanded STEM related partnerships.

As for the building cost, it is estimated at $4.5 million (no cost for 2 acres of land, it was already owned by KISD). There is an additional $500K available for shared tools and supplies. We hope to move into the building in December 2014. We've gone from building out of a mentor's garage to a small closet in an office to a medium sized rented space. This will allow us to cooperate with all the Katy teams to get FRC to every high school and FLL to every middle school, both of which we are trying and already have made progress to push.

We will keep you posted as the building progresses!

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

The Oil & Gas industry is perhaps the best asset to FIRST teams in Louisiana and Texas. Our team is fortunate enough that my father works for an oil company that will sponsor our team all the way in Louisiana :) .

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

As an alumni of 624 , i'm amazed to see how far they have progressed since 2001.

Congrats to the students, teachers, mentors and parents. This new STEM center will be a cornerstone for hundreds of students at Katy ISD.

624 has never had a build site on school throughout their entire history since 2001 but has found a way to build great robots.

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

This is awesome.

When will construction start? Being from Michigan, I have little concept of construction between the months of November and April. (possible exaggeration)

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Seems like the industrial ties to your community are a very valuable asset. Wish we had more of that in Jersey! All things considered, since we only have 1 high school in our district, I now realize that we are also very lucky for what we get from our district. Must be insane to have that many schools/teams in one place!

Here's what our district provides our 1 high school with for two FRC teams (11 and 193 - MORT Beta) There's more stuff I didn't get a chance to take pictures of.

I sort of wish we had more schools in our area or district to warrant a facility like this. It would definitely be amazing to have, especially the permanent practice field.

Best of luck with this. Hope you use it to help as many teams as you can :)

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Construction is supposed to start in March and be ready in December, hopefully in time for the 2015 season.

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Congratulations 624, this is going to be such a huge help to all Katy teams (2882, 4639) and hopefully we will see even more in the area. I can't wait to come by and see the new facility.

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

I've been wanting to start something similar in the DFW area for a while now....

This looks great though, and it'll certainly take the competition in Texas to a new level

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

That is a seriously cool new space (I particularly like the robots in the rendering).

A perfect example what a truly inspiring and dedicated group of people can do.

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Wasn't too long ago when we were building out of a mentor's garage :)

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Wow! That's amazing! I wish I could do the same! Many teams in the district and a couple permanent court would be "Oh Sweet!" or "Aah. Now I have space to breathe in the build room!"

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

The construction of our new district-wide build site is coming along nicely! Here's a photo of how it looks so far. The facility will be home to Team 624 from Cinco Ranch HS, Team 2882 from Morton Ranch HS, and Team 4639 from Seven Lakes HS. Also, we're excited to say since the approval of the center, there will be two new KISD schools with robotics programs for the 2015 season: Taylor HS and Tompkins HS. Both of these teams have already competed as pre-rookies at the Texas Robotics Invitational. Team 624 is looking forward to getting into our new build site as well as mentoring and collaborating with the other Katy teams!

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Looks good! Im very excited to see what you guys come up with next year! We are thinking of trying to band together the FTC and FRC teams here and waco and trying to open a STEM center for the city.

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

I hope you guys can put together a video tour for those of us who won't get to see it in person.

It's very exciting to see you guys leveraging this new site to expand robotics in your area!

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

This is going to be very exciting for not only the Katy schools but it's should raise the level of competition in the whole state. Seeing what the Lee Summit teams did with just 3 teams in close proximity, I can't wait to see what happens with 5+ teams in the Katy center.

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

We've definitely talked about featuring the center in our Chairman's and reveal videos for the 2015 season. A full video tour is a great idea though, we'll look into it!

Agreed. We're looking forward to the benefit it will have on the entire community as well, having another full practice field in the Houston area is one thing, having 10+ teams from the area to practice with on weekends is another thing entirely!

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Alan,
As a mentor who helped move 1986, Team Titanium, into the site and worked with them before moving the Katy, I know this will help all the teams there, including CRyptonite. The ability for some student to student mentoring and interaction will help everyong grow in many ways.

roger

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

...we will move south! had enough of bitter cold and losing workshop in the middle of build season! Below 20 degrees feels chillier than it sounds, especially if you are moving boxes and cold aluminum!

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

This is so awesome to hear that this is being built in Katy, TX. I hope more communities pony up the money to build facilities like Katy, TX and Lee's Summit, MO.

You are getting one thing the Lee's Summit, MO teams don't have, which is a dedicated space for a full practice field (We do have some options during season).

Congratulations

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

The STEAM (Art has been added to the original title) Center is progressing well! They will be installing the air ducts this week, so everything is looking good so far. We're not sure yet if it will be done by Kickoff, but it's great to see it coming along.

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Awesome! Please keep sharing the progress!

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Ditto! This is incredible and is setting a strong precedence for other districts to follow suit. I'm hoping ours is next ;)

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Here is the latest update on the progress of the STEAM Center/Center for Imagination and Innovation.

The first picture shows the outside covering, including the chilled/hot water system (AC/heat) being installed. The second picture is an inside view of one of the 2000 square feet build bays (essentially, the house of one KISD team). You can make out the wide entry door (no more taking bumpers off robots to fit them through the door :) ) as well as the overall front and back rooms' layouts, and a skylight.

We're excited to see it coming along - the estimated completion date is March 1, 2015, which should be relatively in time to practice for competitions.

EDIT: It seems the 2nd picture was too big for the post. I'll see if I can upload it to CD Media in a bit.

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Could just link it through imgur.

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

I was just wondering how this was coming along, will you be using this for your 2015 season?

Re: Katy ISD Sponsored 624 Build Site
 

Currently, it does not look like the STEAM Center will be quite ready in time for the 2015 build season. However, I believe the plan is to prioritize the central open area due to it's ease of construction in comparison with the team specific bays. This will allow us to spread out some carpet and give the teams in the area a place to practice with their drive teams or test various functions of their robot where they would otherwise not have space (for example, whenever we want to actually drive our robots at all, we usually request the orchestra director to allow us to use the room to practice). This should be ready around sometime in March.

It is coming along nicely, however! Here are some more pictures, thanks to PayneTrain for the imgur tip:

http://imgur.com/BSelIDv,hkd9f41,sqmjMyV