Meet BONDS Robotics of Dayton, OH

Today we’d like to introduce you to BONDS Robotics.

BONDS, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
In the summer of 2015, a group of friends out of the Dayton-local Oakwood School District had just aged out of their middle school robotics team. Their high school, however, did not have any robotics opportunity for the student body. Nearby schools also didn’t have any programs available to them. They decided they wanted to start their own high school robotics team and invite students from other local schools to join them. They named the team BONDS, which stands for Bringing Opportunities Near Dayton Students.

BONDS 5811 is a FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Team. FIRST is a robotics non-profit organization that facilitates the teaching and mentoring of over three quarters of a million students worldwide every year. There are four program levels so that students of all ages have the chance to participate. Teams of students are given a sport-like game to solve with robotics guided by the FIRST core values and their mentors. Working STEAM professionals, teachers, and parents all give their time to mentor students in their local community and pass on a culture of innovation, dedication, and teamwork to the next generation.

In their initial season in 2016, BONDS was a collaboration between Oakwood and DECA (Dayton Early College Academy) students. Over the course of only six challenging weeks, these students worked together to build a 120 pound robot that would traverse obstacles and shoot dodge balls. Their hard work paid off, and at their first competition, they received the highest award a rookie team can earn, the Rookie All-Star Award. This award recognizes a rookie team whose efforts excels in inspiring their students and community, and it grants them an invitation to the World Championships.

In the recent 2024 season, we ended as a member of the third place alliance following playoffs at both competitions we attended. Fast forward to present day, BONDS remains a student-led team whose mission is to connect local students with STEAM opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have. We currently have twenty-five students from eight local schools. Over the summer, we received a grant from the Dr. and Mrs. John Genovesi Fund of The Dayton Foundation that is funding an outreach robot to bring to schools and community events. This gives our students, both new and returning, the chance to practice building a robot in the offseason. As we gear up for the 2025 season, our students and mentors are looking forward to another exhilarating season of making friends, learning new skills, and building an amazing new robot!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Running a community high school robotics team can be very challenging. Because our team is not tied to a high school, we don’t have automatic access to student outreach, mentors, funding, or a workspace.
We may have additional challenges that school-based teams may not have to deal with, but these challenges also provide an opportunity for those involved with our program. Our team gets to be made up of passionate students from all over the Dayton area who want to push themselves. Finding our team and traveling to get to practice requires extra time and effort, but they know that the opportunities they get from being on the team will accelerate their growth as students and members of our community. As a part of our fundraising requirements, students must reach out to local businesses in order to give presentations about the team. This teaches public speaking and presenting skills, and in turn, educates students about the local businesses and organizations that make up their community. We also get the chance to work with some amazing community partners, like K12 Gallery and TEJAS, where our workshop is located, and more recently, The Dayton Foundation.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Since the team’s inception, BONDS 5811 has always made it a priority to give students and mentors from all over the Dayton area the opportunity to get involved with robotics. We strive to give students an incredible hands-on technical education based in teamwork, mentorship, and the courage to innovate. Our students give us so many things to be proud of. We’ve won awards in the past, but the one we’re most proud of is the Impact Award. In 2019, we won the Impact Award at our competition in Pittsburgh, another award that gifted us a ticket to compete at the World Championships. The Impact Award is the most prestigious award in FIRST Robotics Competition – it honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the mission of FIRST. While we didn’t ultimately win the award at World Champs, it showed our students that their dedication to our team and greater community was well worth the effort.

We’re also proud of our fundraising structure and the positive impact that it has on students. Our students give presentations and field questions from local businesses, with whom they’ve set up meetings, to tell them more about our team’s mission, accolades, and needs. As a parent or mentor, you can really see the benefit from an outside perspective as you watch students’ confidence and abilities grow during their time on the team.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
It takes a village to ensure that everything works out. Firstly, we are so thankful for Dave and Katie Dunn. They started the team in 2015 and still work behind the scenes running RaiseSTEM!, a Dayton non-profit that supports local FIRST teams. Without them, BONDS would have never been created, and the positive impact it’s had on local students would have never happened. K12 Gallery and TEJAS, whose woodshop we work out of, has also been a great partner since the very beginning. We’re grateful for the use of their incredible space, and the inspiration we get from constantly being surrounded by art!

We are also so grateful for our sponsors! Without their generous donations, our team wouldn’t be possible. Their funding pays for operational expenses, team bonding, competitions, robot materials, and new tools and technology that allows us to continue teaching our students and following their interests. Matrix Research, MTSI, DODSTEM, and MTSI are our top sponsors, and we’re thankful for the partnerships that we’ve built with them. Next up is our mentors – they give their time, expertise, and passion day in and out. They care about the students as people, in and outside of the team, and their dedication is immeasurable. Last but not least, students! Without interested students, there would be no need for a team. They dedicate their time and attention every build season to our robot-creating task. They pour their heart and souls into pushing themselves (and their mentors) to shoot for the stars. We are only as capable and passionate as our students, and we are so thankful for all of the past, present, and future students who have and will continue to shape BONDS into being the best that it can be.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bonds5811.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bonds5811/?igsh=M3V6bTJ6d2VxajZt
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bonds5811
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BONDS-lv1il