Team 2537 was formed in 2007 with only 7 students and a handful of mentors. Made with the most rudimentary materials such as chicken wire and wood in the modest Atholton wood shop, the early robots were typical of a rookie team. However, to call Team 2537 anything other than a Robotics Club would be an overstatement.
Fall 2013 saw the birth of the new Team 2537. We focused not just on engineering excellence but on FIRST values–being a role model for other teams, expanding outreach, supporting other FIRST teams, and providing a well-rounded experience for all team members.
In Fall 2013, Team 2537 experienced explosive growth, to a team of 72 active students. Our philosophy is that this team is for all who want to join–no interviews or evaluations for prospective students necessary! We fully embrace rookie members that are new to code and machinery. The only thing we ask is for them to dedicate their time to the team.
The 2013-2014 season was a renaissance for Team 2537. Our business team’s won the Entrepreneurship Award at the Greater Washington DC Regional Competition while our robot finished for the first time ever as a finalist, and our Integration Captain was selected as one of the Dean’s List Finalists at the Chesapeake Regional Competition. In the off-season, Team 2537 was the alliance captain and won the Battle of Baltimore, followed by a finalist finish at the ILITE Robotics off-season IROC event.
In 2015, we continued our success, once again winning the Entrepreneurship Award at the Greater Washington D.C. Regional, and once again, celebrating a team member’s success as a Dean’s List Finalist. Additionally we were picked by the 4th seeded alliance at DC to compete in the quarterfinals and the 6th seeded alliance at Chesapeake. We were one point off making it to the semifinals at Chesapeake.
By 2016, we won the Northern Maryland District as alliance captain, won the Entrepreneurship Award again at the Greater Washington D.C. Regional, and were Dean’s List Finalist.
2017 was by far the best season we’ve ever had. Not only did we win the Entrepreneurship Award in Greater Washington D.C Regional again, we also won the Chairman’s Award–and best of all– made it to Worlds in St. Louis, Missouri. We went on to be part of the winning alliance of the Tesla division at Worlds.
2018 was also a very successful year. After performing well at District Champs, we went on to Worlds. We all had a fun time and it was a great learning experience for the underclassmen on the team.
2019 marked another successful season for the Space RAIDers. We almost qualified for Worlds for the third year straight and won multiple software awards for our innovation in systems design during the competition season. We also focused heavily on increasing our involvement in the community. The Space RAIDers held/participated in more than 20 outreach events totaling more than 100 hours of community service ranging from teaching Girl Scouts about STEM to presenting at the Maryland State Legislature.
These successes, based on our new team priorities, reinforced the message that FIRST is more than building robots. FIRST is a philosophy for growing both the technical, social, and professional skills for future success.
Space RAIDers 