Bovine Intervention Team 686

10/05/2026

Last week, on September 26th, Team 686 Bovine Intervention participated at a FIRST Robotics Competition 2026 Rebuilt Off-season event, Chesapeake Robotics Icebreaker 2026. This event was hosted by Team 614 Nighthawks at their home, Hayfield Secondary School, Alexandria, Virginia. This event was a great experience for new students and the team’s new robot drivers. Team 686 had a great day and finished ranked 8th out of 32 teams, they were first pick by Alliance 3 team captain, Team 11415, Storm Surge and their alliance was completed with the addition of Team 5115, Knight Riders. Their Alliance 3 finished the playoffs as Finalist in the Final matches of the day. Thank you Team 11415 and 5115 for the fun run during the playoffs and Team 614 for hosting an outstanding off-season event.

09/02/2026

Bovine Intervention - Team 686 Robotics gathered for a Blair Bunnybots kickoff meeting. At kickoff, students begin the process to build a new robot by going over the new game manual details. Blair Bunnybots is a fun way to train/refresh new and veteran students on the robot build process and aspects of a FIRST robotics competitions. https://robot.mbhs.edu/bunnybots

08/15/2026

Team 686 Bovine Intervention presented and robot demonstrated to technology/manufacturing companies in Frederick, Maryland. In July, the team went to Leonardo DRS and discussed 2026 FRC Rebuilt season and technical capabilities of their robot. In August, the team went to INPRO Technologies and then to Phoenix Mecano and showcased and discussed technical details of their robot. These companies supported Bovine Intervention in various ways and provide students with insights to future opportunities. Thank you very much! In turn, these companies experienced how Bovine Intervention has been part of a pipeline preparing students for the future generation workforce.

08/02/2026

During the summer off-season Team 686 Bovine Intervention held meetings for preparing new students in CAD, programming, and general robot operations. Much to learn before the 2027 FRC season. One of the resources used was the Experiential Robotics Platform (XRP) robot, using SparkFun Electronics, for programming. Bovine received this one XRP robot through a FIRST Chesapeake grant (Thank you very much!). The XRP robot supported Bovine mentors, assisted new students to learn programming for FRC robots, and allowed self-paced and group hands-on applicable projects in flex classroom space.

07/20/2026

On Saturday, Bovine had a tent canopy team information booth at the Community Block Party in downtown Frederick. This event was hosted by the Asbury United Methodist Church. 100s of vendors and organizations lined the street going down a long city block. We didn’t have our robot out as there was a chance of rain. Heavy thunderstorms moved in after 3 hours into the event. So, our day was cut short. Our booth was next to Mount St. Mary’s University Division of Continuing Studies making a great two booth team. Lots of people ventured through and stopped by to watch a FIRST Championship robotics match video and learn about FIRST and Team 686 Robotics.

07/05/2026

Team 686 Bovine Intervention had a great time showcasing their FRC 2016 Stronghold and 2026 Rebuilt Robots at the Walkersville Maryland Volunteer Fire Company VFC from Monday June 29th to Friday July 3rd. We were ready to open on Saturday night after the high winds and rainstorms passed through, but the carnival needed to close early and before we could get started. Five evenings were enough for use to show the community our robotics program. The youth had fun with our FRC robots as well as our interactive VEX IQ robots. Bovine Intervention students has a great time with their robots, the carnival games and food, and the Tuesday and Thursday night fireworks. Thank you Walkersville VFC for having us our at the carnival.

06/28/2026

Team 686 Robotics Bovine Intervention will be at the Walkersville Maryland Volunteer Fire Company Carnival from Monday June 29th through Saturday July 4th during the evenings starting at 6pm. Come see the team’s 2026 robot and other STEM fun at the team’s booth.

🚨8 Days until the PARADE!🚨
We are very excited to bring back the Carnival Parade this year! The parade will be held on FRIDAY JULY 3rd at 4:15pm!

There’s still time to register today! 🥇 More information is listed below or see the entry form and information here: https://www.walkersvillefire.com/content/carnival/

🚑We'll see you there! 🚒

06/27/2026

Team 686 Bovine Intervention was busy during May and June. Just after retuning from the FIRST Championship in early May, the team’s robot travelled north to Hanover, Pennsylvania for a demo performed at Park Hills Elementary School STEM night. Elementary school students were excited to see a robot fresh from competitions. Next, during mid May, they got together with the FTC Team 25780 CyberChaos from Urbana for robot demos and post FIRST Championship interviews with a local Frederick, Maryland newspaper at Mount St. Mary’s University Frederick Campus. During June, Team 686 held two outreach presentations at Frederick County Maryland public schools, Thurmont Middle and New Market Middle. These were special outreaches for a Team 686 graduating senior who demonstrated the team’s 2026 robot to middle school students learning about high school opportunities in STEM.

06/27/2026

This past week, Team 686 Bovine Intervention high school students led a 5 days, 10 hours, STEM Robotics camp featuring the VEX IQ Robot kits. Middle school students had fun in teams learning to build robots, fun ways to compete with them, basic VEX IQ code functions, and getting to know about FRIST Robotics Competition with hands on drive of the Team 686 2016 Stronghold robot and seeing a demo of the 2026 Rebuilt robot. The intent of the camp was to inspire middle school students and provide awareness of opportunities in robotics. This camp was held at Mount St. Mary’s University Frederick Campus and was created in partnership with the University’s Center for Lifelong Learning.

05/03/2026

Team 686 Bovine Intervention did well at the FIRST Championship in Houston, Texas competing in the Milstein Division. They exceeded what they wanted to accomplish. In short, the team, finished in their Division ranked 6th out of 74, was the 4th Alliance Captains, and with their alliance of four teams, they finished the Division playoffs as Finalist, and was recognized by judges with the Innovation in Control Award for their Division. They met with other teams to include collaboration to a multiple team scouting effort and sharing robotics match strategies, forming friendship, and got together for a Frederick County, Maryland FRC and FTC gathering. It was also, great seeing our other FIRST Chesapeake teams competing in other Divisions too. Overall, they had a great STEM experience and had fun. Now we are in travel back home. Hope safe travels to all teams. More posts coming soon on our experience and special thanks.