Downingtown Robotics team advances to world championship

DOWNINGTOWN » The Downingtown High School Robotics team has advanced to the world championship to be held later this month in Michigan following impressive victories in international competition. Downingtown’s team is Team 7244, Out of the Box Robotics.

The four-day international competition to be held in Detroit will host 1,400 teams from the U.S. and 62 countries encompassing all four FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) programs, with over 60,000 attendees expected. Approximately only around 2 percent of United States FTC teams advance to the World Championship level. Out of the 129 FTC teams in Pennsylvania, only Out of the Box Robotics and another team outside of the Pittsburgh area advanced from the East Super Regionals to the World Championship. Thirteen states were represented at the East Super Regionals, with 72 teams present. There are over 5,500 FTC teams worldwide.

In Scranton, Out of the Box Robotics was the first pick of Alliance Captain 9971 LanBros from Southhampton, N.J., with team 7117 Blockheads from Burke, Va. being the second pick. Together they were able to be the winning alliance of their division which advanced them to Worlds.

FIRST Tech Challenge is a robotics competition for grades 7-12 in which teams design using CAD, build and program a robot to compete in an annual challenge. This year’s challenge is called Relic Recovery.

FTC Team 7244 Out of the Box does more than just build and program an amazing robot. They also do a tremendous amount of outreach in the community. This season they started and mentored 2 FLL Jr. teams, introducing young students in K-4 grades to the world of STEM and robotics. They were also an integral part of starting FTC team 13669 Raiderbots at Coatesville High School, teaching Coatesville teacher Mrs. Octavia Warren-Ward the workings of running a FTC team. Out of the Box gave the Coatesville team a $500 sponsorship to buy a robot kit, motors and other needed parts. They also helped them secure a team grant to pay for team registration and electronics system. In addition, they mentored the Coatesville team two times a week at the Out of the Box workspace at the Technical College High School-Brandywine helping them to advance to the Pennsylvania State Championship at their first qualifier at Emmaus High School. Out of the Box has hosted and worked with the Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts and Brownie troops this season to help them fulfill requirements for merit badges. Community outreach is a huge part of this team’s mission.

For the next few weeks the team will be busy making improvements to their robot and updating its programming to enhance the robot’s autonomous capabilities.

After the team returns home from Worlds they will begin the quest to find a new home and meeting space for their team. For the past two years they have been donated workspace by the CCIU/TCHSBrandywine on Boot Road in Downingtown. Right before they left to compete at the East Super Regionals in March they were informed by the CCIU that they would be losing that space as TCHS-Brandywine is expanding and transforming the current warehouse space where they held their meetings into classroom space. They need to be out of the building by June 30 and currently have nowhere to go.

SUBMITTED PHOTO The Downingtown High School Robotics team has advanced to the world championship.