Help Queenstown Robostormers compete in FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC)

Our group of young engineers have been LEGO MINDSTORMS enthusiasts for many years. Not satisfied with just building to the instructions, they are the ultimate Master Builders. They have created many fully autonomous robots using the LEGO platform to compete in national robotics competitions such as FIRST LEGO League (FLL) and RoboCup Junior.

The Robostormers successfully competed in the national FLL robotics competitions for the last 3 years. They have twice been placed second and won a best Research Project award. Most recently they have qualified to compete at the Asia-Pacific Invitational competition later this year in Sydney. Our current team of four High School students each work upwards of 6 hours a week after school building their robot, working on their research project prototype and teaching younger kids how to code and build robots at our weekly Code Club. They are actively training the next generation of FLL and RoboCup competitors to join the Robostormers. You can read more about our activities on our team website, https://robostormers.nz

We really need your help to see them progress to the next level called FIRST TECH Challenge (FTC). This is an international robotics competition series for ages up to 18 using TETRIX Robotics kits and REV Robotics hubs. The good thing is that once we have the kit of parts we can use it year to year. You can read more about FIRST TECH Challenge on their Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIRST_Tech_Challenge.

With your support the team will have the opportunity to compete at more international competitions and may even get offers for university scholarships, tech industry internships etc.

FTC is designed for students to compete head to head, by designing, building, and programming a robot to compete in an alliance format against other teams. The robot kit is programmed using Java, the MIT App Inventor, or other Android programming systems. Teams, with the guidance of coaches, mentors and volunteers, are required to develop strategy and build robots based on innovative and sound engineering principles. Awards are given for the competition as well as for community outreach, design, and other real-world accomplishments.

Many of todays internationally successful tech entrepreneurs were once competitors in the FIRST Robotics Competition games.