Greetings MA FTC Team Mentors!
As many of you know out of 7000+ FIRST Tech Challenge Teams, 192 advanced to the FIRST World Championship that just took place in Houston, Texas, April 19-22.
BTI and MA FTC were strongly represented in each of the four (4) divisions: Team 8644 The Brainstormers in Edison, Team 18754 Galactic Narwhal Chicken Effect (GNCE) in Franklin, Team 19411 Tech Tigers in Jemison, and Team 18438 Wolfpack Machina in the Ochoa Division.
We would like to share the following in recognition of each of these amazing teams.
The Tech Tigers, making their first World’s appearance, demonstrated their fortitude, determination, willingness to take chances with a thorough robot robustness improvement and redesign, and voracious learning as a team. “It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the thrill of the fight, rising up to the challenge of our rivals.”
This young team is a shining example of the emerging talent in the MA FTC Community, and will be a force to reckon with in the years to come.
Congratulations and Kudos Tech Tigers!
The Brainstormers capstoned their farewell year competing at World’s. They were the #1 draft pick and fought valiantly through the semi-finals, and were recognized as the Edison Division Innovate Award Sponsored by Ratheon Technologies Finalist.
In their World’s Robot Reveal Video, they celebrated the team’s storied history and volumes of happy moments that can be seen here. “The mission of the Brainstormers was to have fun, eat pizza, and build an epic robot to do impossible things.” Brainstormers, you accomplished these objectives with tremendous grace and humility – please take a well-deserved bow.
But wait there’s more; we heard your performances as the ‘Barnstormers Onesie Dance Troop” was a big hit! And, we think we need to share this with our MA FTC Community – maybe we will see a special reunion/guest appearance of the troop next season at a MA Qualifier or State Championship? Let’s talk…..
Congratulations and Kudos Brainstormers!
Galactic Narwhal Chicken Effect (GNCE), our MA FTC State Championship Inspire Award Winner, spatially multiplied their efforts 10X by improving their robot, strategy, and judging presentations. GNCE was bolstered by younger members of their GNCE Diamond team helping to prepare, support, and compete alongside the OG GNCE Carbon team members, and they were better for it. Their vision system put them in serious contention for control awards and allowed them to be in the top 8 with an opportunity to become an Alliance Captain throughout most of the qualification matches. Furthermore, a reimagining and multiple iteration optimizations of their presentation led them to be contenders in most other major award categories.
This year GNCE planned and submitted a successful proposal for a middle school Robotics Engineering Lab to support the future of Weston Schools’ FLL and FTC teams for generations to come. Their goal was to raise $80,000, but within less than a month they had raised $100,000 to fulfill the dream of their 8th grade Innovation Project. GNCE has graciously shared their project proposal with BTI and will be working with us to help other MA Schools and FTC Teams build similar Robotics and Engineering Labs. Their willingness to help change the educational landscape has extended beyond our state borders and caught the interest of the New York Yankees to support a similar effort for schools in the poorest Congressional District of the South Bronx.
For the team’s altruistic and overall impressive efforts, the Judges recognized them with the Franklin Division Inspire Award.
Congratulations and Kudos GNCE!
Finally, Wolfpack Machina has been performing Lycanthropy wherever they go turning students, parents, administrators, other teams, as well as Ministers of Education, Ministers of Communication from around the world, and even the FIRST Board of Directors into Wolf Cubs, Fans, and Strategic Partners. The team has been committed to leaving a legacy and investing in the future both in Waring and underserved and underrepresented communities in Massachusetts, as well as creating curriculum and having boots on the ground starting, mentoring FLL teams and planning and hosting FLL Tournaments in African Countries such as Rwanda.
Wolfpack emerged from hard fought qualification matches as #1 Seed and captained their alliance to winning the Ochoa Division Championship as well as to the DC Conference Finals. After 7 years of these students collaboratively working together, they not only won the Ochoa Division Inspire Award, they also won FIRST Tech Challenge’s Highest Achievement: The World Championship Inspire Award!
Winning this award qualifies the team to represent the United States in the FIRST Global Challenge taking place in Singapore this fall.
Congratulations and Kudos Wolfpack Machina!
Finally, a big Thank You goes out to Lead Judge Advisor Bob Cullen, FIRST Technical Advisor and Lead Scorekeeper Craig Taranto, and to all of our MA FTC teams and volunteers who helped prepare and Cheer our World’s teams on.
A great photo of the teams together:
BTI Internships Update/BTI LEGO Robotics Summer Workshops – Seeking Teaching Assistants
We want to thank all of you who have inquired about BTI Internships. We apologize for the later-than-planned communication back on this. We have been in discussions on them since states, trying to see what might work for our BTI team to deliver them, but unfortunately, due to team scheduling issues we will not be able to run them this summer.
This said, we are pleased to announce we are partnering with NE FIRST to run 8 weeks of LEGO Robotics workshops (grades 4-6 youth) at our Cambridge offices. The workshops will run June 26 through August 25, and we are seeking a select number of TAs to help us run them. Please pass along the below link to team members 17 years and older who may be interested. At this link they will find a posted job description and application information. These are paid positions.
https://bostontechinitiative.
We look forward to building a stronger relationship across the FIRST family of programs by working with our friends at NE FIRST this summer and having some members of our FTC community join us!
Youth Workshop Spots Available! Please share this link with those you know who might be interested in getting their youth (grades 4-6) involved in LEGO Robotics – or even for those involved that want to strengthen their skills – as we have space in each week available. The registration process is easy, and we are happy to answer any questions pertaining to the workshops at the contact information provided.
The youth of LEGO today are our FIRST Tech Challenge team members tomorrow!
BTI Off Season Event
We are striving to settle details related to an off-season event and will communicate this out once we have more information – stay tuned!
The FIRST & U.S. Air Force Leadership Experience (USA Only) – DEADLINE TO SUBMIT THIS FRIDAY MAY 19th!
The FIRST U.S. Air Force Leadership Experience is back for the 11th year July 23-27. This summer, the U.S. Air Force will be hosting 24 lucky FIRST® FTC and FRC Mentors & Coaches (must be a K-12 teacher within the continental USA) at Patrick Air Force Base in FL for a 3-day, 4-night all-expenses paid trip filled with leadership training, guest speakers, and amazing tours. If you’re interested, please submit an application at https://www.airforce.com/
Have a great rest of your week, and as always please let me know if you have any questions.
Warmly,
Deb
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