History

Team 4384 started with 20 dedicated students on January 6th, 2012, the day before the Rebound Rumble FRC Kickoff. The first class of International Academy East graduated in 2012, as the East Campus held its first classes in 2008. Before 2012, we partnered with FRC Team 469, Las Guerrillas. However, once the official FRC Kickoff began in 2012, Team 469 realized that they didn’t have the resources to support the vast amount of students who wanted to do FIRST, and we left to start our own FIRST team, The Exiles. We built our robot in a students' basement, and had a hard time adjusting to the lack of workshop, mentors, and resources.

In 2013, we changed our name to Benzene Bots. Our name reflects our passion for chemistry and the similarity a hex bolt has to the chemical benzene. AxelTech International provided us with mentors and a workshop to help us get on our feet, and it resulted in two awards that season.

In 2015, we lost our workshop at AxelTech International in the middle of the FIRST season due to lack of space. Martinrea started sponsoring us, and gave us a workshop at their plant.

In 2017, our Head Coach Mr. Shake retired, and passed the baton off to Mr. Kemp. Martinrea started building a new plant in Auburn Hills, and as a result we moved into Mr. Kemp's workspace until Martinrea could build their new location.

Recruitment at International Academy East in 2013

OCCRA Competition in 2016

On January 4th of 2018, we moved into the new Martinrea Technical Center in Auburn Hills. Martinrea built us a workshop, gave us machinery, a practice field, mentors, and internship opportunities for our alumni. We are beyond grateful for their contribution to our success as a team.

In 2018, we also officially started our business team and began doing outreach. We won three business awards, submitted the Chairman's Award, and our first nominee for the Dean's List Award, Sanket Nayak, won at the Detroit World Championship.

Moving Into the Martinrea Workshop in 2018