QC Elite Robotics Team 648

QC Elite history

1999

Although we are now known as the QC Elite Team 648, our roots go back to a team called "The FAB 5," Team 309. Team 309 was organized in the fall of 1998 with students from Davenport West, Moline, and Sherrard High Schools. The corporate sponsors were Deere & Co. and Genesis Systems, thus the name, "The FAB 5."

Our first robot was built for the 1999 competition at the Deere and Company Technical Center in Moline, Illinois. We competed in only the Nationals at Disney in Orlando, Florida and finished in the upper 1/3 of the robots present.

2000

Our 2000 robot was built at Genesis Systems in Davenport, Iowa. We again finished in the top 1/3 at both the Midwest Regional and at the Nationals at Disney in Orlando, Florida, where the team was awarded  the Autodesk 'Rising Star' Award for Excellence.

After the 2000 competition, Moline High School dropped out and we also lost Genesis Systems as a major sponsor. At this point, we reorganized and became known as QC Elite. We were then assigned a new team number, 648.

2001

Our 2001 robot was built at Sherrard High School. The robot's name was Cliff O'Malley. The team attended the Midwest Regional where the team won the Rookie of the Year Award and also attended the Nationals at the Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida.

2002

Our 2002 robot was also built at Sherrard High School. The robot's name was Mad Hatter (the name was changed to "The Shopping Cart" because the robot looked like a giant shopping cart). We attended the St. Louis Regional and Midwest Regional. We won the General Motors Industrial Design Award at the St. Louis Regional and made the semi-finals at the Midwest Regional.

2003

In 2003, we moved to Victory Enterprises in Davenport, Iowa. Our robot's Name was Oïy (Organized Illinois-Iowa Youth). We attended the St. Louis Regional and Midwest Regional. After having technical difficulties at the St. Louis Regional, we made the semi-finals at the Midwest Regional.

2004

In 2004 we built our robot at Victory Enterprises again. Our robot's name was Napoleon. Our theme was "FIRST Chicago, then the world!" We attended the Midwest Regional and the Nationals in Atlanta, Georgia. At the Midwest Regional, we finished 18th and were invited into the finals by Team 65, "The Husky Brigade" along with Team 447 "Team Roboto." We then finished as a Regional Finalist. At the Nationals, we finished 8th in our division "Archimedes." We bumped up to the 6th seed team where we invited Team 56, "Robbe Xtreme" and Team 945, "Colonial High School" to be our alliance partners. We were eliminated in the quarter finals. In Atlanta, we finished 29th out of 295 total teams.

2005

In 2005, we moved to Coyne Center Grade School in Coyne Center, Illinois where we set up our media center. Since there was not enough room to design and fabricate the robot at Coyne Center, one of our major sponsors Ken-Tronics donated space. Our robot's name is "Alexander the Great," and our 2005 theme is "Dream, Believe, Achieve." We attended the St. Louis Regional where with Teams 650 and 288 we finished as a Regional Finalist. We also captured the Diamler Chrysler Team Spirit Award.  Then at the Midwest Regional, the team recieved the Xerox Creativity Award and made it to the semi-finals before being eliminated.

2006

In 2006, our media center is still at the Coyne Center grade school and our build team is still at Ken-Tronics. Our robots name this year is "Alice" after Alice West, the wife of one of our engineers Neil West and a beloved team member. Alice unexpectedly passed away this fall and we miss her.
We attended the Midwest regional already and finished 9th over all out of 30 total teams. Through the alliance picking we were moved up to the 5th seed  and chose teams 107 and 1806 to go with us. Unfortunately we were eliminated in our third match of the Quarter Finals. It was an excellent match and we only lost by 3 points. We did win the Sportsmanship Award and a Safety Award, we were very happy with the out come of this regional.
We also attended the West Michigan Regional.  We had some stability problems  in a few matches, but our drive team soon compensated and we had some really great matches.  We only won two and finished 39th  but they out standing performance of our drive team got us noticed by the number one seed team 322 and along with team 66 we went into the finals.  We won two out three matches in the  quarter finals but were eliminated in the semi finals by teams 503,70, and 451.  This alliance went on to win the regional.  We were given a "Best Alliance Partner" Award by team 66.  We did not bring home any trophies from this regional but we have been inspired to improve our team and ourselves and we are looking forward to next year.

2007

In 2007, our media center was still at Coyne Center Grade School and the build center was still at Ken-Tronics. The robot name was Spartacus, following our tradition of conquerors as robot names.

We attended the Midwest Regional. We got chosen by the #1 seed team, Team 1000 who also chose Team 447. After 5 very long, invigorating matches in the finals and we ended up as Finalists. Everyone was very happy to have gotten that far. The team placed 9 out of 30 teams. We brought home the Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award for our Autonomous mode and our head engineer, Ed Wegscheid, won the Woody Flowers award. It was a great thing for him to receive his last year on the team after being with the team 9 years. The team also won ‘Day 1 - Spirit Award’, ’Day 1 - Safety Award’, ‘Overall - Spirit Award’ and ’Overall - Safety Award’ from Team 1710, ‘Amazing Autonomous Award’ from Team 1625 and ‘Gracious Professional Award’ from Team 904.

We then attended the Championship competition in Atlanta, GA. We were in the ‘Curie’ division. We placed 32 out of 86 teams in our division. Unfortunately, we didn’t win any FIRST awards but we did win the ‘Video Award’ from Team 364.