Introducing - The Milwaukee Robotics Academy

Other FIRST-related Organizations
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#1

Starting this summer, the Milwaukee Robotics Academy will be launching in the north side of Milwaukee! The Academy will be based around a converted church in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood that will host a full sized FRC field, a fully equipped machine shop and space for multiple FRC teams to work. Using this facility, we will run free summer robotics workshops for Milwaukee high school students and work to start new FRC teams at the facility.

What we will do:

  • Host summer robotics workshops using FRC style robots at no cost to participants with the goal of introducing high school students to robotics.
  • Support existing FRC teams by providing a full sized practice field and fully equipped machine shop whenever they need it.
  • Start new FRC teams at area high schools, using the Academy facility to eliminate the need for teams to invest in expensive machining equipment and assisting teams with early fundraising efforts.
  • Provide paid lead mentors to rookie teams started by the Academy, ensuring that these teams have strong technical leadership and reducing the burden on already overworked teachers.
  • Provide college aged alumni with paid mentoring opportunities running summer workshops and mentoring Academy supported teams.

How you help:

  • Summer workshops for 2021 are starting July 6th! If you’re interested in participating, please sign up here: https://milwaukeeroboticsacademy.org/programs.html
  • We are looking for volunteers to help run our summer robotics workshops, to help run our Academy facility and to provide mentoring to our teams! If you’re interested in volunteering with the Academy, please click here.
  • We are currently in the process of purchasing for our facility including tools, storage, an FRC field and more. If you know of any companies or organizations that could help with any of this, please send me a message!
  • A significant challenge of working in an urban environment is that most students don’t have access to reliable transportation. To help with this, the Academy is exploring the option of purchasing a van or bus to transport students between their high schools and the Academy. If you know of any businesses or organizations that could help with this, please send me a message!

More information:
For more information about the Milwaukee Robotics Academy, please visit our website at https://milwaukeeroboticsacademy.org/. There’s a lot more to come in the next couple of months but we’re excited to grow FIRST and STEM education in the City of Milwaukee!

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#2

This sounds incredibly promising, especially the paid lead mentoring aspect for new teams. Excited to visit next time I see my family in Milwaukee!

Do you have a long term sustainability plan in place? Will multiple teams run through your 501c3 be able to receive multiple grants from the same organizations? For example, NASA grants for rookies?

I’m sending this out to my friends and family in the area in hopes of getting volunteers and donors, best of luck!

#3

You could work with the schools to allow students to take existing school busses who’s route is in the area. That was a solution 1675 tried out way back when (for those who don’t know UPS is a multi-school team and schools are across the city). I don’t know if you’ve reached out to MPS to cover MPS teams

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#4

In Philadelphia we also worked with the school district to provide bus and rail vouchers and passes for students to get to meetings if needed.

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#5

That’s an interesting possibility, we’ll have to explore that.

#6

How did you secure this space? Was it donated? Are you paying rent?
(I’m very excited by all of this)

#7

You seem to have a good chunk of money. Which is absolutely awesome, and I am pumped!! Can’t wait to see pictures and specs whenever you got them!

Do you plan to do tours? Can I drop by the next time I’m in the area?

#8

This sounds awesome. If you don’t mind me asking, how are your big plans being funded?

#9

To answer some questions, we’re leasing the space from a local school and paying rent on the space. The bulk of our funding comes from a grant from a local philanthropic foundation.

We’ll be running the summer programs out of a local high school but once the site opens in August or September, I’ll be sure to post pictures and we’ll be happy to give tours!

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