An inspiring look at Middletown’s Thermogenesis robotics team

Middletown is known as a boomtown — over the past decade, it’s seen a surge in development, from housing to retail. Is a tech boom far behind?
If Middletown’s youth sticks around the area, it’s a good possibility. Middletown, known for its M.O.T Big Ball Marathon and annual Hummers parade, is also known in FIRST Robotics circles as the home of two of Delaware’s four FIRST Robotics Competition (aka the big robots on the high-school level) teams.
Owen Grabowski, a student member of the Middletown team Thermogenesis, answered some questions via email to give us an insight on its past, present and future.
How and when did Thermogenesis get its start?
Our team was established in 2004, out of Middletown High School. Originally we were known as the Blue Charge, before rebranding as Thermogenesis. When Appoquinimink High School was constructed, we moved our workshop to that building.
How many students are on the team, and what do you do?
We are currently a team of 14 members, not including our two mentors. During the the competitions my role was the human player, in charge of the flow of gears and “fuel” for our team’s robot. I also participated in our team strategy meetings because I had a different point of view compared to our scouters and my fellow drive team members.
Tell us about your 2017 robot and your competition season.
This year we were tasked with creating a robot that could shoot, deliver gears and climb. We had built our bot to accurately shoot “fuel” into a high-sufficiency “boiler,” deliver gears from the human player station where I was located and we would earn points if our robot could climb up to the “airship” via a rope of some sort.
(Get a visual of Steamworks, this year’s FRC Challenge.)
How does FIRST help students who are interested in STEM careers?
FIRST is like a gateway for many students, allowing them to win awards in areas such as entrepreneurship, creativity, engineering, industrial design, media, controls, safety and quality. I see it as a way for students to experience it all without being limited to the amount of classes you can take in high school. And, for many, they form bonds outside of schools with mentors and other students that will last a lifetime, in addition to the opportunity to win over $3 million in scholarships. FIRST is much more than just robots.
Do many of your team alumni go on to STEM careers?
One of our mentors was a previous student in the program and always shares his experiences in his current job field with us. Lots of students that have been on our team and graduated will go to colleges that relate to an occupation in the technical field, such a mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, though many alumni pursue careers outside of the STEM world such as writing and business.
What’s ahead for Thermogenesis?
It’s currently our off season; we usually spend this time fundraising, gathering new members and reflecting on the last competition. This is where new and returning members will learn new skills to be applied in the next season. As most of our team is comprised of new members, we hope to better understand our strengths and weaknesses and improve upon them to have an even better season this coming year.