RoBarts Robotics Team Debut
On 29 April, RoBarts robotics team made their debut at the FIRST Tech Challenge regional tournament in Oxford. After arriving at school at 7:00a.m. for final robot adjustments, the team travelled to Oxford and immediately began refining their design, prior to their judging interview session and inspection. Matches at the tournament involved alliances of two teams competing in both autonomous and student-controlled phases, requiring both precision programming and real-time strategy.
Despite being new to the competition, the team of 12 students demonstrated exceptional skill, teamwork, and resilience – earning the Control Award for their innovative programming, and finishing as runners-up for the Inspire Award, which recognises teams that exemplify the values of the FIRST Tech Challenge and serve as role models for others.
The students dedicated months to designing, building, and refining their robot – often staying after school and even organising Saturday sessions. When asked what the most important thing they learnt from taking part in the First Tech Challenge was, Ryan (12C3) responded “Managing time effectively for weekly robotics sessions and working under pressure trying to debug and test code in case something didn’t work, especially right before a match so learning to adapt in these stressful situations was important.” Ryan led much of the coding effort and after receiving the Control Award, he reflected, “I felt incredibly proud. It was great to see our hard work on the programming being recognised especially after continuously testing and refining the code making sure it was both efficient and maintainable.”
The team’s success extended beyond the technical. Tejas (9C2) led on sponsorship, securing support from Collaboration Betters the World (CBTW) and nowFundamentals. “The biggest challenge I faced was not getting responses from a lot of companies and overcoming it by keeping on trying,” he said. We are incredibly grateful to both companies for their generous support.
For many students, the experience was transformative. “I learnt the importance of tech in this society and what it can be used for, but also the importance of teamwork,” shared Asmi (8P2). Meanwhile, Lawri (9C2) helped the team get their 3D printer back online – an essential tool for producing parts for the robot. “My experience at the FIRST Tech Challenge was an interesting opportunity to build teamwork skills and allow us access to kits and parts that we couldn’t use at home.”
With plenty of creative ideas already emerging for next season – including improving the robot’s autonomous mode, led by Arpit (12E1), who has been teaching himself Java – the future looks bright for the RoBarts robotics team.
RoBarts may not have made the Championship finals this year, but their Control Award win and Inspire Award recognition are remarkable accomplishments for a first-time team. They’ve laid a strong foundation for the future – and we can’t wait to see what they do next.
