ORF 4450's Tech Trek: Cairo

Hello!

Our mission at ORF is to make the world STEAM accessible far and wide, over the past two years with countless zooms and one international mission we have come closer than ever.

We are an FRC robotics team located in Olympia, Washington. In the summer of 2022, we flew our team to Cairo and ran Camp Cairobots, a free 6-day camp introducing young Egyptian students to FTC robotics. We have supplied them with REV robotics packages, an FTC tile complex, EV3s, Arduino kits, and a 3-D Printer, for the Egyptian students to jumpstart their first metal-robotics programs. Camp Cairobots triggered a boost in STEAM interest, and we have now expanded to assisting 11 teams in the Cairo area this season. We are returning to Egypt this summer to run an even larger program, with over 100 kids.

In ‘21, ORF embarked on an incredible journey of bringing FIRST to the global stage by starting/mentoring the FLL team, EgyRobo, in Cairo. Our 6-month virtual mentoring efforts and EgyRobo’s success and passion inspired us to take our next step: introducing FTC to Cairo. We worked hard to fundraise the needed $60k, create curriculums, and travel across the globe to launch our first camp: Cairobots. CairoBots lasted 6 days in ‘22, introducing students to the world of STEAM. This enabled students to create FTC robots, emphasizing Gracious Professionalism. CairoBots boosted interest and opportunities in STEAM and provided the groundwork for FTC programs in Cairo and will eventually help create the foundation for FRC teams in Egypt. In the summer of 2023, we used our profits ($3.5k) from our local 5-day summer (Camp Khitomer) to finance more FLL teams in Egypt along with EgyRobo for the Masterpiece season. We’ve started some and virtually assisted all 11, who won various honors at their event in Alexandria.

 Our team has developed a special bond with many Egyptian students and teachers, planning to level up the advancement of FIRST in Egypt in the summer of ‘24. Our new program is called Tech Trek and is set at the University of Cairo. Tech Trek has 4 different programs tailored to the students so there’s no prior knowledge necessary. Those programs include a custom FLL and FTC game, an introduction to Arduino, and an online video game program(which enables students who are unable to commute to participate).

To follow through with these plans requires a lot of support and funding, we are grateful for any donations you can make to help support our mission. We have partnered with the Cook Family Foundation to match any donation from $100 to $5000.

Thank you for your support!

Live Long and Prosper,

ORF 4450