Our Mission

The mission of The COMETS is to ensure that all students participating have an opportunity to learn from professionals, solve difficult problems and have ownership of something tangible in a safe and supervised environment.

About Us

The COMETS are a group of teenagers who compete in the world’s only varsity sport of the mind – the FIRST Robotics Competition. Membership requirements are simple: Think robots are cool, have a competitive spirit, be a team player and like to have fun.

Our challenge is to build a 100+ pound robot that is able to compete in a game created by FIRST. Each year the game is different, so students must learn new skills to succeed.

Throughout the process, students are guided by mentors—industry professionals, with a passion for the program and eagerness to share their knowledge. Students learn a variety of skills when building their robot including computer programming, CAD, 3D animation, metal fabrication, web design, project management practices, and marketing.

The season climaxes during competition. We pit our robot against other team's entries, and our creations must endure round-after-round of brutal robot vs. robot competition. Emotions run high, and adrenalin kicks in as students win, lose, and repair their robots.

History

The COMETS (Creating Outstanding Minds, Embracing Technology & Science) is a rookie team from Forest Hills Public Schools in Grand Rapids Michigan. After a feasibility meeting late in October, a few potential mentors met with principals at 2 of the 3 Forest Hills Public high-schools and were given the green light to begin recruiting students. The current public listing shows that we have a draw pool of 3,254 students. With four students moving from the Creston team to their budding Forest Hills COMETS, the team was officically created in late October.

Since then we've come a long way; our numbers have swelled to 17, we've raised funds, programmed microcontrollers, assembled gearboxes, tested vision systems, and had a lot of fun!