Our robots are designed to compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition, an annual contest where robotics teams design and build a bot meant to earn points in a game which changes every year. Robots compete in teams of three, and playing usually involves moving around the field and scoring some sort of game piece. Teams which score the most points in a match win and advance in the rankings.

If you are a student at Brooklyn Technical High School in NYC, we host an interest meeting and tryouts in September of each year. You don’t need any prior technical or engineering experience to join, and new members are chosen based on their ability to collaborate and solve complex problems. If you want to join our media or programming departments, there is a separate tryout process—keep an eye out for our flyers or check the morning announcements early in the year for dates and more information.

Team 334’s job each year is to build a new robot, and there are lots of things that have to be done to make this happen. Students are organized into five main departments: Mechanical, Design, Programming, Media-Outreach, and Leadership. Team members work together to pick a strategy, design the robot in CAD software, fabricate each part, and then assemble everything together. Students can also choose to work on coding the bot or outreach and social media.

Joining 334 is a huge time commitment. Our build season begins after the FRC game is revealed, usually in early January, and runs until the end of April each year. During that time we are in the shop every day of the week (except Sunday) until 7:30 pm on weekdays, or 6 pm on Saturdays. In the off season, we meet two days a week plus any workshop or tryout days. All members, except for media, are expected to attend each day. If you have any scheduling conflicts feel free to email us or talk to a mentor.

FRC competitions run from early March through April, with more than 3,000 teams participating each year. The competition is organized into regionals, smaller tournaments with up to around 50 teams each, and the winners of these regionals can advance to the World Championship in Houston. Teams can also be given awards, including the prestigious Chairman’s Award recognizing a positive impact on their community.

Beyond just winning competitions, our goal is to prepare the next generation of community leaders and STEM professionals. In their time with the TechKnights, student members gain a high level of technical competency as well as the ability to collaborate effectively and work under pressure—however, our impact goes beyond just Brooklyn Tech. We host workshops, showcases, and other events for students of all ages to promote STEM education across the city. Our team ideals are gracious professionalism, intellectual curiosity, and social responsibility.

Building a robot is no easy or cheap task, and you can support our team by donating and becoming one of our sponsors. For more information, you can go to our donate page here. If you are a parent of a team member, you can help out by chaperoning events or donating lunch on Saturday. Any gift of money or your time is deeply appreciated, and helps make Team 334 possible.