Early VT CRO History
Lavery
VT CRO was founded in November 2023 during a senior design robotics project organized by Stephen Moyer and the IEEE branch at Virginia Tech. Initially, the senior team worked exclusively on their capstone project, and a small group of underclassmen were allowed to contribute. Sensing a larger need for a robotics team at Virginia Tech, Marco Gonzalez Hauger proposed starting an independent design team.
In the late night of November 8th, 2023, Marco Gonzalez Hauger, Maxwell Kawada, Jayson De La Vega, and Ramzy Saffarini met in a room in Lavery Hall. Marco laid out three options: Help the senior team, build a dedicated component for the senior team, or start their own design team. The cons of starting a team were: everyone was doing difficult majors, had limited time, and didn't have extensive experience in the subject matter of robotics. After much debate, the team decided to do it anyway, and the name Competitive Robotics Organization was mentioned for the first time.
Later, a small group of seven students, including Marco Gonzalez Hauger, Maxwell Kawada, Jonas Von Stein, Ramzy Saffarini, Jayson De La Vega, Zach Moas, and David Bonds, agreed to take on the challenge despite the risks of heavy workloads and limited resources. The VT CRO Charter was written, outlining the vision for a new student robotics organization. Stephen Moyer, who recruited the original seven members to help the senior team fully supported the group, and provided guidance to build the team.
Durham 373
Over winter break, the team maintained momentum through online Zoom strategy meetings, solidifying plans for their first robot. Once the students returned, they had the first election, where Marco Gonzalez Hauger, Maxwell Kawada, and Davids Bonds ran as President, Chief Engineer, and Treasurer respectively, all unopposed. There wouldn't be another election for the club until March 2025, two and a half years later.
The newly elected President drew the structure of VT CRO on the white board (seen in picture) that allowed for an operations team, support teams and multiple design teams with sub teams, anticipating a large scaling of the club.
By early spring, VT CRO’s first recruitment campaign exceeded expectations, drawing 32 students to an interest meeting. To establish the club and secure funding, a professional website (vtcro.org) was created, professional headshots took, along with a new branding strategy.
Funds were secured from the Student Engineers' Council for materials and travel after a funding proposal was granted. Impressed with the organization's vision and branding, the Senior Design Team that CRO was originally supposed to support was placed under the VT CRO umbrella, doubling membership.
Among the first recruits was a Sophomore in Aerospace Engineering, Tyler Kraics, who would become indispensable as the VP of Operations.