Champaign-Urbana Robotics Team Headed to FTC State Competition
On December 10th the inaugural Champaign-Urbana FTC (FIRST Technology Challenge) team will be competing in the state FTC tournament at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
Champaign-Urbana fielded an FTC team in this state-wide competition for the first time this year. Twelve area high school students have been meeting since September--designing, building and programming a robot to complete several tasks. They initially needed to design and build their robot out of a variety of components, then figure out how to get their robot to manipulate racquetballs and milk crates through programming and by remote control. The team was aided by student mentors from the University of Illinois and volunteer coaches.
November 19th, at the regional competition in Batavia, the Champaign-Urbana team received a Motivate award for sportsmanship and team spirit.
This team represents University Laboratory High School, Urbana High School, Centennial High School, Central High School and Jefferson Middle School in a collaborative effort.
The FTC competition is a national competition designed for teams of high school students who want to compete head to head, using a sports model. The teams of students are responsible for designing, building, and programming their robots to compete against other teams. Teams are required to develop strategy and build robots based on sound engineering principles and awards are given for the competition as for well as for community outreach, design, and other real-world accomplishments. FTC offers the opportunity for motivated students to learn and utilize creativity, teamwork and technical skills to develop their own solutions to the challenges presented to them.
The formation of this team was made possible through the sponsorship of Caterpillar, Inc. The Atkins Group provided a warehouse for the build activities.
CONTACT: Julian Norato, Coach
(217)255-8579
julian.a.norato@gmail.com
Mike Kasten, Coach
(217)355-4612
kasten94@gmail.com