Our Story

Dover Shockwave Robotics was founded in 2013 when a Dover High School student’s passion for robotics inspired his father — a local business owner — to help fund a brand new FRC team. We started with a small group of students with no technical background and a chemistry teacher willing to serve as faculty coach. That first season we earned the Highest Rookie Seed Award and the Rookie Inspiration Award — a sign of what this community was capable of building.

We have run year-round activities with students since 2016. The program grew steadily over the years that followed, earning competition awards for engineering excellence, design, and innovation. Then the COVID-19 pandemic forced every FRC team in the country to halt in-person meetings. Some programs never returned. We rebuilt from the ground up when in-person work resumed in 2022, and have fielded a competitive team every season since our founding without exception.

Today Dover Shockwave Robotics operates as an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Two of our original board members from 2013 continue to serve today, including the founding father who helped fund the team’s creation — and who often says it remains the best investment he has ever made.

That investment has come full circle. One of our earliest alumni, whose path into engineering was shaped by his years on this team, has returned as our programming mentor. He is now a senior engineer at the company whose founder helped start Shockwave in 2013. A second alumni has returned in a different capacity, serving on our board of directors.