Team 5811: BONDS Presents "Secret Agent Bot"

[KrazyCarl92]

So this is something a little different. In preparation and anticipation of Championship, Team 5811 decided to make a song about our team and our season. It is a parody of Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man":

https://soundcloud.com/matt-witzeman/secret-agent-bot

For those wondering, the opening lyrics of "K12 Gallery and TEJAS are its neighbors" refer to some of our most impactful local partnerships in the Dayton community. When looking for a home for our new robotics team in the summer of 2015, we came across a diamond in the rough. K12 Art Gallery of downtown Dayton housed an underutilized wood shop which they graciously welcomed us to use as our build space. It was nothing fancy - a band saw, a drill press, and other wood working tools. But they allowed us to outfit the equipment with metal working blades, cutters etc. as well as bring in some new machines to make the space suitable for a robotics workshop. TEJAS stands for Teen Educational Joint Adult Studio, and has not dissimilar goals to FIRST, just in the arts rather than STEM. This is the non-profit organization that operates K12 Art Gallery, and they were also gracious enough to allow us to have our finances run through their organization.

One of the neat aspects of partnering a FIRST team with an art gallery is the opportunity for cross-discipline inspiration. When one of our (now) mentors who became involved with the team through the art gallery connection came to the team with the idea of a song about our team, season, and robot, the team was immediately enthused by the idea. It was another cool way to merge our connection with Dayton artists with our drive to spread the message of FIRST.

We plan to make this into a dubbed sing along music video in collaboration with our local PBS station. The hope is that we can use this video to generate excitement about FIRST and maybe even help spark interest in starting and supporting FIRST teams in the Dayton community and beyond.

We have really had a blast competing this season and cannot wait to meet everyone at the FIRST Championship. Hope you enjoy!