The ACTUAL History of RC Dawson

Ok, I’m going to level with you, RC Dawson practices can go as long as 7 hours on the weekend days; so, to keep motivated, and amused, we must employ a certain element of satire to our roles on the team. This comedy comes in particularly handy on the RC Dawson team blog. Recently our most prolific, accomplished, and sarcastic writer, Cole, added a surprisingly popular post about the history of RC Dawson. For clarity’s sake, you should know that it was mostly satire; for contrast’s sake I write this post. Luckily for us, the very first RC Dawson team coach, Ryan Depew, dropped by our practice today, and granted me an interview. So, with further ado, I present The ACTUAL History of RC Dawson:

Contrary to what you may now believe, RC Dawson did not start out of the back of a beat up van (you may be thinking of the Scooby Doo Crew). We did not have an uninteresting formation, however. According to Ryan Depew, RC Dawson was founded when the fine folks at DeVry University approached him and asked if he had ever heard of First Robotics. They were looking for a team to sponsor, and, as fate would have it, they wanted us. Looking back, Mr. Depew has no idea why DeVry contacted him specifically, but he couldn’t be happier that they did. So, on one fateful day in 2008, Alexander Dawson School started its very first day of Robotics.

When I asked Mr. Depew about RC Dawson’s very first robot, he couldn’t help but chuckle. “We couldn’t get it to move.” he told me. Back in those days, all of the robots had to be packaged up and shipped to competition; even if you were just driving down the street, it had to be Fedexed. That very first competition, RC Dawson didn’t even have their robot moving until the weekend before shipment. That year the game was called “Lunacy”, and it was designed to feel like driving on the moon. The RC Dawson robot was called Señor Chang (read my Robot Names post to find out why) and he was virtually useless. He could not pick up or throw game pieces, merely herd them around. According to Mr. Depew, he did little more than “run amok” in the competition field. Towards the end of the competition they learned how to play defense, but at that point it was too late. Thankfully, our skills have developed rapidly and Mr. Depew expressed awe at the current team’s ability to build extremely complex and functional robots with little need for help.

Next, I asked Mr. Depew about his current job (as he is no longer a high school physics teacher). In all honesty, I didn’t expect much from this question, but I was very pleasantly surprised. According to Ryan, he would not have his current job if it weren’t for RC Dawson. He told me that his high school had never offered any sort of engineering classes, despite it being, in his opinion, the best thing that one could do in high school. Mr Depew said that his work with RC Dawson “engaged his imagination”. So, when he was searching for his next path in life, he knew that engineering was to be his field. “Now I work for a company that makes robots.” He said with a smile. Work with RC Dawson is not only transformative for our students, but for sponsors, teachers, and mentors as well. So, even though Ryan Depew is no longer our coach, we are proud to know that he is continuing the mission of RC Dawson: bringing robots to the world.

Finally, I asked Mr. Depew if there was anything he wanted to share with our readers about RC Dawson. I will leave you with his parting words:

"It doesn’t matter if you think you’re technical or not. it doesn’t matter if you think you’re science or math minded or not. There is a place for anyone with an interest at RC Dawson, and it is potentially the most engaging, most real-world thing that you can do in high school."

Ps. Follow Ryan on twitter @FRC2972Mentor (and RC Dawson @FRC2972)