Team 223 was founded in 1999 when Cliff and Don enlisted Wayne to join them in helping students at New Brunswick High School with a robotics competition. 250 hours and a lot of hard work later, the first members of Team 223 had created our first robot. These students were completely involved in designing it, although it was primarily built offsite. In our first competition, the New Jersey Regional (then at Rutgers University), we were awarded “Rookie Team of the Year," and went on to compete in the National Competition at Epcot in Disney World.
The following year, a second school, Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools in Piscataway, was recruited to join Team 223. Although this helped to diffuse the costs of the program, finances were still an issue, so we held our first golf outing to raise money. It was highly profitable, and has been a staple of our fundraising strategy ever since. We did very well at Regionals, and continued to be extremely successful over the next years both in competing and in raising interest in science and technology.
Unfortunately, in 2005 New Brunswick High School was unable to continue with the program. However, Team 223 survived and went on to win a non-FIRST competition and made it to semifinals at the New Jersey Regional, Virginia Regional, and National competitions. Our success continued into 2006, where we once again reached the semifinals both at New Jersey Regionals and at Nationals.
The program expanded in 2007 when Lakeland Regional High School joined Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools in Team 223. This allowed students to become more involved in all aspects of the program. Team 223 placed 5th at the New Jersey Regionals and made it to semifinals at Nationals.
Now, in 2008, the program has continued to expand and diversify, bringing in many new members to the team. We aspire to work together to push ourselves to even greater heights this year and in the years to come.