Engineering Club Information

The Linganore High School Engineering Program is an organization that promotes math, engineering, and science to students. The members of the club meet on an after-school basis, and participate in robotics competitions.

Each year we participate in the national F.I.R.S.T. Robotics Competition. This strenuous competition requires dedication from each and every member of the LHS Engineering Program. In the FIRST competition, a new game is announced at the beginning of each year, and we are given 6 weeks to design, build, and test a robot to successfully compete in the game. During the 6 week build season (starting in January), our club meets every day after-school in order to complete the robot before it ships in February.

The learning experience that this club provides to the students is incredible. Students who participate learn about math and science, but also about teamwork, professionalism, business management, and even skills such as public speaking. In addition to our own projects, we also are an active community outreach group. We give presentations and workshops to local elementary and middle schools to promote engineering, and motivate the kids to keep their grades up. Most importantly, the work we do is a ton of fun.

FIRST is an organization founded by Dean Kamen in 1989 to inspire young people to become interested in science and technology. There are three divisions in FIRST. FRC (high school age), FTC (late middle to early high school age), and FLL (middle school age). The most prominent of the three is FRC. Every year, FRC creates a challenge for teams to complete. Starting in early January, teams have six weeks to take a kit of parts and use it to build and program a robot that can complete the task. Teams compete in regional competitions and if they do well, they can move on to the National Competition in Atlanta. Teams also compete for the Chairman's Award, the most prestigious award in FIRST. Winners are teams that demonstrate professionalism and make a differnece in their community.

Our team, Bovine Intervention, was started at Linganore High School in 2000 by Matthew Lincoln. He was a math teacher at Linganore and wanted to give students a chance to be more involved with new technologies. The team is currently advised by Mr. Bergeron, a teacher at Linganore.

Over the years we have spent time mentoring middle and elementary school students at various feeder schools of LHS. We have helped them with projects and spread the word about FIRST to get the interest in FIRST started at a young age. We have competed in many regional competitions including the Chesapeake, Pittsburg, New York City and NASA/VCU Regional and many others. At the Chesapeake Regional in 2003 we placed third during the Finals. We have also gone to the National Competition in 2004, in Atlanta, and 2002, in Florida.

Many of our students have graduated and gone on to attend some great engineering and technology schools. Some of these schools are Penn State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, University of Virginia, University of Maryland, and WPI. We are very proud of the students who when they graduate are able to take what they have learned in the FIRST program and use it to accomplish their dreams after High School.

Our team, Team 686: Bovine Intervention, works towards the following mission: To expand the knowledge of our members and the Linganore Community in the field of robotics and engineering technology by designing and creating robots for the FIRST Robotics Competitions.