INDIANA – On February 11th, several FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams from Lawrence and surrounding counties competed at Crane’s Westgate Academy for a chance to compete at the State Championship at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds on February 25th. There were a total of 14 teams in attendance.
The 2022 Season of PowerPlay presented by Raytheon Technologies started on September 10th. Since then, teams of middle and high school students from around the state and world have designed and built robots in order to complete the tasks presented to them.
FIRST Robotics is an international robotics competition provider with thousands of teams across the world. Their goal, according to founder and inventor Dean Kamen, is “…to compete for the hearts and minds of kids with the excitement of the Super Bowl.”
Between Bedford, Bloomington, and Shoals there will be 5 teams competing at the State Championship on Feb 25. There will be two from Bedford (#8971 Diamond Blades and #19366 CTF), two from Bloomington (#11329 I.C.E. Robotics and #18505 Something to do with Waffles), and one from Shoals (#9864 Jug Rox Robotix). The 6th team to qualify from Crane was #17994 Ragnabotics from Poseyville.
Teams can advance to the next round of tournaments for various reasons. I.C.E. Robotics and Jug Rox Robotix advanced because they were the winning alliance on the robot competition field.
Diamond Blades and Something to do with Waffles advanced because they were the finalist alliance on the robot competition field.
Ragnabotics advanced because they won the Think Award. The Think Award goes to a team “…that best reflects the journey the [t]eam took as they experienced the engineering design process during the build season.”
While CTF was in the elimination matches, even as a captain of their alliance, the robot is not what got them to State. They won the Inspire Award–the most prestigious award in FIRST Tech Challenge. The Inspire Award goes to the team that is a model FTC team and one that other teams should emulate. You can see the full results of the tournament by clicking here.
These six teams from Southern Indiana are among a total of 27 teams that will compete at the State Championship on Feb 25th at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds. The event is free and open to the public, but will also be streamed live on Twitch.
Matches will start around 10:30 a.m. local time and end around 5:30 p.m. or 6 p.m. with the Awards and Closing Ceremonies immediately following.
For more information about the event go to this link.
