They’ll now progress to compete at the UK Championships in London among 64 of the UK’s top teams, a massive achievement for their first year competing.
The Mercia School team took home the Connect Award in recognition of their outreach with other teams to promote STEM opportunities and were crowned runners-up to the challenge’s most prestigious award, the Inspire Award, which recognises them as inspirations to other young people in STEM. They were also part of the Winning Alliance, meaning their duo with another local team had the strongest-performing robots.
The team left the event already preparing for the UK Championship with plenty of ideas to make them stand out from the UK’s very best. The UK Championship will be held at the London Copper Box Arena on 26-27 June. From there, they’ll have the chance to represent Team Great Britain at FIRST Global in Panama, the Olympics for robots, if they manage to take home the top award.
FIRST Tech Challenge UK is part of the global FIRST movement, established in 1989 which reaches 650,000 young people worldwide each year. This year’s game, INTO THE DEEP, presented by RTX, challenges teams to design, build and code robots for a water-themed game. During two-and-a-half-minute matches, teams navigate their robots through complex tasks, combining autonomous and driver-controlled operation.
FIRST Tech Challenge UK empowers young people aged 12-18 with the technical knowledge and soft skills to thrive in STEM and beyond. From September to March, working like teams in industry and often supported by a mentor, they design, build and program a robot to compete at progressive events. Teams hone new skills such as communication, teamwork, programming, project management, fundraising, design and engineering.
The programme is run by charity, FIRST UK, with a mission to make STEM less intimidating, more diverse and inclusive. They are supported by Arm, XTX Markets, RTX, Gene Haas Foundation, Bloomberg, Salesforce and Qualcomm.