The Fairport Robotics
Origin Story
Our Origin began when the Team was founded at Fairport High School in 1997, Team 578 has worked hard to continuously improve in every aspect of the FIRST® program. Although the team has changed since its inception; name changes, sponsor changes and philosophical shifts over the years. Team 578 has always built on their experience and knowledge from the previous years to create a competitive robot.
Proudly sponsored by numerous businesses & corporations as well as local suppliers, the team would not be able to have its successes without the generous support of the Fairport Central School District and the Fairport community.
Through our efforts of mentoring FIRST® LEGO teams, community service projects, demos and creating partnerships with other FIRST teams, we continue to grow, develop, and embrace, all that comes our way!
Below is an account of our team's origin and major events and milestones along the way.
We would enjoy hearing any fun facts and team history from our past mentors and team alumni. Our early history is a bit fuzzy, we could use some stories from those early days.
Contact us below.
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For more information about Team 578 and other teams you can follow the links below for FIRST® and The Blue Alliance archives.
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Check out our Team Awards page that show our achievements from our past Robotics Competitions. Click here.
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Red Raider Robotics:
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In the summer of 2010 it was decided that the team was not connected enough to the high school, causing confusion as to who FIRST® Team 578 actually was. Most of the other teams at Fairport High School were known as the Red Raiders, while FRC Team 578 was Fairport Blue Lightning. To reduce this confusion, the team’s name was officially changed to Red Raider Robotics. Then in 2016 it was changed to R³ for short.
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In 2025, due to the fact that a neighboring 'red' high school team (Raider Robotics, Team 1518) had a similar name, we decided to just go by Fairport Robotics.
Blue Lightning:
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In the interest of updating the team’s image, the team’s name was changed to Blue Lightning. Blue is one of Fairport High School’s colors, and lightning symbolizes the team’s energy. The original slogan was “Thunder makes the noise, but lightning does the work.”
Blue Lightning held another school-wide art contest to come up with a new logo. The team ended up winning the Philadelphia Regional in 2000.
In 2001 the team registered as Team 578 for the first time and attended the NASA Langley-VCU Regional (in Virginia). Every year that Blue Lightning competed in FIRST® Regionals, the team learned about building team/robots, 3-D animation, marketing, and much more. But even more important is the impact FIRST® has had on the team. In 2005, 100% of the members went on to college to study something related to science and technology, and all of the members that have gone through the program have graduated from high school. The trend continues to this day.
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Fairport Intelligence Agency:
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As the team entered its third year of operation in 1999, their primary sponsor, Kodak, experienced changes which left the team sponsor-less.
Fortunately, The Gleason Works company recognized the team’s need for sponsorship and adopted them. Team 52 re-registered with FIRST® as Team 277 , changing their name to the “Fairport Intelligence Agency,” aka “FIA.”
During the 1999 season, the “Fairport Intelligence Agency” won the Team Spirit Award at the Mid-Atlantic regional gained a spot at, and attended the World Championships in St. Louis, Missouri. (FIRST® Thinks the team attended the Phiadelphia Alliance Regional in 99, not Mid-Atlantic)
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KOD-RED:
According to the FIRST® website archives, Team 36 was first registered in 1996 season.
It originated within the Fairport NY community by Mr. Gene Gordon and 27 students.
Inspired by the team’s original sponsor, Kodak, and the high school’s mascot, the Red Raider, Team 36 was named “Kod-Red.”
A school-wide contest was held at Fairport High School to design a logo for the team, from which the original “Kod-Red” logo was chosen. There is something of note that Team 36 attended the Mid-Atlantic Regional as a rookie team, and was presented with the Judges Award for unique robot function. (As a note, there is no record of Team 36 attending any events for either the 1996 or 1997 season on either the FIRST® or The Blue Alliance websites though.)
One year after its creation, the team’s number changed from 36 to 52. Despite the change in number, the “Kod-Red” name remained and the team competed at Mid-Atlantic Regional for its second year in a row.
(Note: Looking on both the FIRST® and The Blue Alliance Events web pages, indicates that Team 52 won the Judges Award for both the 1997 and 1998 Mid Atlantic Regionals. Also based on FIRST® registration records, the robot's name for both the 97 and 98 seasons was 'Robotworks Y')
