More Than Robots – FIRST Tech Challenge UK
On Friday, June 27th, I visited London’s Copper Box Arena with fellow SOLIDWORKS Champion and London SWUG leader Kirby Downey. We were there to attend FIRST Tech Challenge UK’s, ‘More Than Robots’ Championships 2024-2025. First UK has a mission, ‘To make STEM less intimidating, more diverse and inclusive, empowering young people to make informed choices about their future,’ and I would say I definitely witnessed this at the event.
The students arrived at the Copper Box Arena, situated in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, a day before the event. Here, students could start their robot assemblies and robot inspections, and set up their presentation/display for their stands, highlighting their work. They can also use this time to test their robots out in the practice arena, start socializing with other teams, and decide with which teams they want to form alliances for the head-to-head competitions.
Seeing how the robots have evolved over the years from simplistic drive trains with basic coding, to unique, CAD designed, 3D printed, complex engineering solutions incorporating autonomous sensor based programming – is evidence of both how the charity has matured and critically how young people are empowered through the FIRST Tech Challenge program to develop the technical knowledge and life skills to thrive. None of which would be possible without the commitment and support of our game-changer volunteers and industry partners.
“Talent wins games. Teamwork and intelligence wins championships”
Founding CEO – FIRST Tech Challenge UK, Ed Cervantes-Watson
To get to this stage, teams went through Scrimmages between December and January. Here teams met for an afternoon at a local Champion Organisation to practice on the game field, meet other teams, share knowledge and grow their networks. Then moving onto the Tournaments, between February to March, there were one-day events where teams play qualifying matches, compete for industry-judged awards, and a coveted spot at the UK championships.
This year’s theme was ‘Into The Deep’, with 64 of the top UK teams coming together to compete. The teams were divided into two divisions: Team Pacific and Team Atlantic. They must then work together to gain points by placing blocks into baskets or connecting them to the centre submersible. Extra points are awarded for teamwork, how many blocks are placed into the baskets, and for robots placing blocks autonomously. Teams are also judged on the design and build of the robot, robot coding, robot drive, the robot’s ability to solve problems, plus a team presentation, portfolio and fundraising.
Students from schools and community programs as far as Northern Ireland, Scotland, down to London and everywhere in between were in attendance. There was such diversity, but even though students are competing, there is a strong community atmosphere where students are encouraged to help out other teams, learn from each other, and gain those invaluable professional and social skills for the future.
It was also exciting for me to see more girls getting involved in robotics, there were a good proportion of girls in some teams, while also having some all-girl teams present too. Here’s what Mina from team Girlie Bots, had to say on the event, and what its like being an all girls team in Robotics.
‘Hi we are an all girls team from King Edward VI Camp Hill in the West Midland. We have recently attended the FTC National as we won the inspire award in the regional. As we have limiting funds, we use objects that’s around which make us stand out from the other groups. For example, for the claw, we used claw clip. We have also used exercise bands for lifting and a custard can lid as part of the pulley system!
“Being in an all-girls team makes us so supportive and understanding of each other as a group, and we often share the same idea. People would usually associate robotics as a rather male dominated field, which is true to same extend as more than half of the people from the FTC match were males (over 90% of the coaches are male) and being an all-girls team we want to change that and show the community that robotics is not just a boy’s hobby, us girls can enjoy building robots and shining in this field as well. More of us on the team take further math and physics as our A-level, and we enjoy the subject as well as problem-solving, which is probably the reason why we are gathered together. Lots of the team members want to pursue engineering-related careers, while some of us just simply enjoy robotics and love working as a team.
We never thought about being qualified for Nationals as this is our first year joining. None of us have any experience building robots (maybe Lego!) and it is definitely challenging, but without support from teachers and everyone, we made it work! We felt connected immediately when we see other girls from the match and also on the internet, and they feel that as well. It is just delightful to see so many other girls share the same excitement when it comes to robotics, and perhaps have helped the community erase the stereotype that robotics or even engineering in general is a ‘male’ industry.”
Mina from team Girlie Bots, King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls
We met an inspirational team while we were there from Edinburgh, team ‘Passion 4 Fusion’. They meet every Saturday at their community centre for 2-3 hours. Unlike many of the other teams, they had no access to any 3D printers. Instead of this being a disadvantage, they creatively overcame challenges, including building key components without access to a 3D printer, which includes using a little picker as their block picker. It is a real testament to the ingenuity, resilience, and teamwork of the team. I was very happy to see they were awarded the ‘Connect Award.’ They have many more awards from their past robotics events, too, including the Nations Inspire Award 2024, Champions Motivate Award Winners 2024, and Nations Inspire Award Winners 2025.
“Being part of this competition was an inspiring journey for our young people. It demonstrated that with creativity, resourcefulness, and collaboration, limitations can become opportunities. The recognition through the Connect Award means the world to our team—it celebrates not just technical skills but also the power of community, teamwork, and perseverance. We hope our story inspires others to innovate, adapt, and never give up.” Justine Ehimen – Passion4 Fusion Team Leader
Kirby Downey, Senior Production Technician from 3DPrint UK commented on the teams’ use of 3D printing.
“It was amazing seeing all the teams embracing 3D printing to rapid prototype their ideas. Seeing if their ideas work in reality in mere hours of designing and then making the necessary iterations, speeding up the learning process. But the teams that didn’t have this technology to hand were competing on the same level, all with different challenges to face, and seeing how they solved problems without this technology was fascinating. With the way teams collaborate with each other for competition. It’s a great opportunity to peer review each other and learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
“As a Senior Production Technician from 3DPrint UK, I was impressed by the teams’ use of 3D printing in the competition. It was amazing to see how they were able to quickly prototype their ideas and make necessary iterations in just a matter of hours. This not only sped up the learning process, but also allowed them to test their ideas in reality before finalizing them.
However, what was even more fascinating to me was observing the teams that didn’t have access to this technology. Despite facing different challenges, they were still able to compete on the same level as those with 3D printing capabilities. It was truly inspiring to see how they solved problems using traditional methods and techniques. The collaboration between teams during the competition also stood out.”
Huge congratulations to all the teams that made it to the Championships, and to all the award winners at the event. Congratulations to Powercut Robotics from Langley Park School for Boys, for winning the UK Inspire Award and being ‘Winning Alliance Partners’ alongside ‘Captains’ from Norwood Industries at The Norwood School.
‘At Powercut Robotics, we design and assemble every component in CAD. This is greatly helpful to us – not only does it allow us to have a guide for fast and precise building, but also allows us to easily print custom parts in our 3D printer, removing the need for multiple iterations and trial and error. This helped us create unique aspects for our robot, such as our state-of-the-art active intake and custom parallel plate drivetrain, allowing us to come first in the entire competition!’
Adrian Gupta, Project Manager – Powercut Robotics
I was so inspired by all of the teams, I wish I had access to programs like this when I was at school. The skills that these students and young communities are gaining are invaluable; they are acquiring hands-on experience with 3D CAD design, mechanical engineering through building, testing and producing prototypes. They are also learning electronics, wiring, and programming skills.
Then there are the professional skills they’re developing, as well as working as a team. They are taking on different responsibilities, including all aspects of the event, such as marketing, gaining sponsorships, team leadership, presenting skills, and managing time and budget across the whole project. It was interesting to speak with team members to see the different roles they had taken on, and how well they worked together and with other teams.
The First Tech Challenge UK is bringing about a growing, regional reach for STEM across the UK, which is very exciting to see. I look forward to watching it grow and see the future generation inspired to move into STEM careers.
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