COATESVILLE, PA — FIRST Tech Challenge Team 7244 Out of the Box Robotics, from Coatesville, was one of three teams from Pennsylvania to advance to the FTC World Championship Tournament.
The FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is a robotics competition in which teams design, build and program their robots to compete as alliances against other teams.
The local team competed against 35 other teams in the Pennsylvania State Championships at Saucon Valley Middle School on March 4th. Out of the Box Robotics won the Inspire Award from the FIRST Tech Challenge.
According to the First Tech Challenge website, www.usfirst.org, this award is given to a team that “serves as an inspiration to what this program, and the young minds involved, can accomplish.” It states that the criteria for this award are based on the match performance, the team’s engineering portfolio and what the judges observed during interviews with the team.
The four-day international competition to be held in Houston from April 19th to April 22nd will host the top 160 FTC teams from the U.S. and 62 countries, with over 60,000 attendees expected.
Less than 2 percent of United States FTC teams advance to the World Championship level. Out of the 140 FTC teams in Pennsylvania, only Out of the Box Robotics and two other Pennsylvania teams advanced to the World Championship. There are over 6,400 FTC teams worldwide.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a non-profit organization devoted to helping youths to discover and develop a passion for science, engineering, technology, and math. According to its website, www.usfirst.org, the program engages them to build science, engineering and technology skills, that “inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.”
The First Tech Challenge is offered to students in grades 7th through 12th.
Founded in 1989 by inventor Dean Kamen, the 2021-2022 FIRST season attracted more than 400,000 youths and more than 130,000 mentors, coaches, and volunteers from more than 80 countries, according to organizers.
Team 7244 is comprised of twelve members representing eight different high schools in Chester County. They are mentored by the Beauchamp Family, Sririam Krishnan, Andy Moscarelli and William Barker. The coaches said that the youths work as a unit and they demonstrate success in accomplishing the task of creating a competitive robot and reaching out to their community.
FTC7244-Out of the Box Robotics thanked the following organizations for their donations and support: Janssen, Coatesville Area School District, Johnson & Johnson, Gene Hass Foundation, Lockheed Martin, VFW Post 845, BCS Motion, goBilda, Monster Bolts, e-Beach Wagon, Hatt’s True Value and the parents of the team members.
In an effort to help alleviate some of the significant costs of sending the team and robot to the World Championships, the team has set up a GoFundMe page (https://gofund.me/b5408a0d) to help raise funds to help offset these expenses.
To learn more about Out of the Box Robotics or to contribute to FTC7244, contact the team at ftc7244@gmail.com.
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