"Tech Fusion Team 279 is a partnership between Toledo Technology Academy (TTA) and Dana Holding Corporation. TTA is a part of the Toledo Public School System in Toledo, Ohio. The partnership began in 1999 with students from the sophomore class at TTA working with engineers and professionals from Dana Holding Corporation. Participation in the team has grown to include all grade levels at TTA and students from Rogers High School, another Toledo Public School."

"The goal of our team is to involve the students in all aspects of the FIRST experience. Students work side by side with the mentors to develop a team strategy, design the robot, and build the robot. Teams work on programming, web design and spirit as well."

"Safety is an important part of all team activities. Each team meeting starts with a safety message from one of the students."

"Several students from our team have taken advantage of the scholarship opportunities available through FIRST to further their education."

- Brenda   

"The Game Objective portion of our team deals with the game piece manipulation part of our robot. At the very beginning of build season the entire team gets together and decides on strategy for the new game. As build season progresses Driveline and Game Objective break away from each other and work on their separate components. Every year both sub-teams have to come up with a new solution for a new playing field. In previous years Game Objective has dealt with fabricating pieces such as arms to lift two robots(Rack 'n Roll), a shooting mechanism to power push moon rocks into a trailer(Lunacy), arms to knock balls off of an overpass (Overdrive). Basically the Game Objective part of the team fabricates the game piece manipulation portion of our robot. This year in the game Breakaway the game manipulation of the robots can vary between a kicker, hanger or defense. Best of luck to all the teams out there!"

- Taylor   

"The driveline team is composed of a group of students and mentors whose objective is to design and build the drive train and chassis to get the robot moving. It is important that the team works directly with the game objective team so that both team can join their designs together and have a reliable working robot. Some of their challenges include designing a transmission that has an ideal output torque and speed as well as a robust chassis to support the entire robot. They are also given the task of designing and mounting bumpers that are legal for the game and reliable enough to protect the robot during matches. "

- Julius   

"The Power & Electronics team is primarily responsible for fabricating and installing the power supply and electronic components for the robot. The team does the layout of the electronic components on the chassis and then the mechanical and electrical hook-up of the components. This team has to work very closely with the Game Objective team as to what motors and where the motors and sensors have to be installed. The team must work closely with the Drive Line team too as most of the electronic components are located on the chassis and must share space with the drive line and game objective. When not working on the robot the team works with the Programming team to design and build the Operators Station. The operator's station is the devise that the driver and game objective operator use to communicate to and control the robot wirelessly. This device is used to program the robot too and has to interface with the FIRST field."

"The P&E team works with several disciplines such as mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. They have to use hand tools to install the electrical devices and insure that the installation is mechanically sound and will not fail during competition. The team also must understand wiring practices as to where power and signal wires should be run and the proper termination of the wiring."

"This team is an important part of the whole team concept of the FIRST Robotics experience as the robot would not move or be able to think without the help of this team."

- Skip   

"The programming team is what make our robots move year after year. Our robots are entirely “drive-by-wire.” They cannot move and perform without the aid of their onboard computers. The computers connect to a wireless network in competition, and translate the intent of the robot drivers into mechanical action. When the driver moves a joystick, a radio signal is sent over the network to the robot's computer where the robot's programs determine the correct course of action, blending sensor input (gyros, video cameras, speed sensors, switches, clocks, etc) with a dynamic programming game strategy to determine the correct course of action. "

- Chris   

"The website section of the team is very important. They create a website for the purpose of spreading the name of Team 279 and FIRST Robotics. It's because of this that the website team strives to create not only a esthetically pleasing team website, but also a website of information and inspiration. To prove our enthusiasm for our team we even went as far as build the website tag by tag, and class by class, without a website generator!"

- Louis