The Lady Robo-Rangers FTC Robotics Team #13523 competed at the FIRST-RGV Hawking League Championship held at Alton Memorial Jr. High on Saturday, February 2, 2019. They were the #3 Alliance Captains and they won the Hawking League Championship. They were awarded the Winning Alliance and Control Award Winners. The team selected two other teams for their winning alliance (FTC #15181 Rogue Rangers and FTC #14109 Vanguard Academy). All three teams from the winning alliance automatically advanced to the FTC RGV Championship.
There is a total of four leagues with about 30 teams in each in the Rio Grande Valley. Every league hosts a championship with one coming up on February 15-16, 2019 at Royal Technologies. After this upcoming championship only 17 teams will advance to the FTC South Championship to be held in New Braunfels, Texas on March 1-3, 2019.
The Lady Robo-Rangers are a second year FIRST Technical Challenge (FTC) team that started with the “Rover Ruckus” Season Challenge in September 2018. They are part of the 125+ teams that participate in three FTC League Meet competitions that make up four leagues throughout the Rio Grande Valley. The Lady Robo-Rangers FTC #13523 is made up of twelve 7th and 8th graders.
They are part of the organization known as, “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology” (FIRST) which is a world-wide robotics platform that consist of a four-level program for students in K-12.
In FTC, teams consist of up to 15 members that are challenged yearly to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head theme challenge in an alliance format. Participants call FIRST, “The Hardest Fun You’ll Ever Have.” FTC teams are guided by adults, coaches and mentors that encourage students to develop Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) skills and practice engineering principles like completing an engineering notebook. Students develop the value of hard work, innovation, and cooperative learning. The robot kit is reusable from year-to-year and can be programmed using a variety of languages, including JAVA.
Teams must raise funds, design, and market their brand. Community outreach like service projects or volunteering is encouraged to promote STEM Awareness in the local community. Teams can also win other awards and are not only based on robot performance. All participants have access to tens of millions of dollars in college scholarships. Each season concludes with Regional Championship events and one FIRST World Championship held in April 2019 in Houston, TX.
For more information on the Award List and League Results click on the following links:
FTC Hawking League Results & Awards
https://events.firstrgv.org/hawking/
FTC RGV Championship