February 5, 2017 | For Immediate Release
The Philadelphia High School for Girls’ Technobots, led its alliance to victory in the Philadelphia FTC Qualifier on January 28th, 2017.
The Technobots are one of six teams supported by the Central Robotics Coalition, a new initiative of the Central High School RoboLancers to expand robotics programming in Philadelphia public schools. The RoboLancers work with these teams to provide funding, technical mentoring and business support to help them grow their own capacity.
The Technobots are now moving on to compete in the FTC State Championship competition at Dallastown Intermediate School on Feb. 25.
A second coalition team, Abraham Lincoln High School’s Lincoln1, reached the semi-finals as the captain for its two-team alliance.
In this year’s FIRST Tech Challenge competition, high school robotics teams have to work together in a series of shifting alliances to skillfully maneuver their robots to accomplish a variety of tasks within the two and a half minute Velocity Vortex game.
This was the first competition for the six teams which are part of the new Central Robotics Coalition. The Coalition is a new initiative of the RoboLancers to expand robotics programs to additional Philadelphia public schools. It provides funding, mentors, workshops and support to teams to create an ecosystem that introduces students to STEM.
In addition to Girls High School and Abraham Lincoln, teams that received grants from the Central Robotics Coalition include: Edison High School, Frankford High School, Parkway Center City, and the Workshop School.
The Coalition is initially funded through a transformative three-year challenge grant from the Neubauer Family Foundation, which promises $25,000 this year and up to $50,000 in matching funds for the second and third years.
This was the first opportunity these teams had to compete against other schools. Girls High School will go on to compete in the state championships — demonstrating the early impact of the coalition’s work with these teams.
All six teams that are funded by the coalition performed to the best of their abilities and showed the hard work and effort they put into their robots. While some of them will not be moving on to states, they still have time and resources to improve on their robot.
With this marks the end of the official FTC season for many of our Coalition teams, but there is still another exciting opportunity for teams! We will be holding an FTC off season event on May 13th at Central High School. We hope to see you there!
Media Contact
Michael Johnson | 267-666-0246 | contact@roboticscoalition.org