The Athenian Robotics Collective (ARC) provides an experiential learning program that allows exploration into engineering for those who participate. For some this may be a springboard into a high technology career. For others it is a fascinating hobby that complements science education at Athenian. The FIRST Foundation's competition - For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology - gives students the opportunity to design, program and build a robot to compete with other robots in regional competitions and at a national Championship Event.

ARC's Team 852 was founded in the fall of 2001, and is active throughout the academic school year and intensifies during the six week build period. The students work many additional hours and weekends getting their robot prepared for the FIRST competition. Their well-built robot is one of the best ambassadors for FIRST Robotics. Team 852 has been asked many times to perform community outreach to spread the FIRST Robotics message in diverse forums and even inspired a benefactor to bring the Athenian Airplane Project to campus.

 
2008 Athenian Robotics Collective           

Below is a listing of the competitions Athenian Team 852 has participated in, plus the 2008 competition they will be participating in. The FIRST organization characterizes the program in this excerpt from their site- Competition events are, in the words of our teams, "full of passion, excitement, joy, and sorrow.the thrill of success and the agony of defeat." In 2008, our reach will expand to over 36,000 students representing approximately 1600 teams. These teams will come from every state in the U.S., as well as from Brazil, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Israel, and the Netherlands. FIRST has truly become an international program and is continuously growing. These teams will participate in 42 Regional Competitions and can qualify for the Championship Event at The Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia.

Year 2002:  Zone Zeal
Year 2003:  Stack Attack
Year 2004:  FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar
Year 2005:  Triple Play
Year 2006:  Aim High
Year 2007:  Rack n' Roll
Year 2008: FIRST Overdrive