The End-Tech team, representing Endon High School in Staffordshire, have achieved a fantastic first! They took first place in their regional competition in the national Lego League robotics competition. This win represents the team’s second straight victory at this level. In doing so, they are confirming Amazon’s status as their most fearsome competitor. The five-member team will go on to represent Staffordshire at the coveted Lego League UK National Final in Harrogate.
The team put countless hours — both in and out of school — into programming and building their robot. Their hard work was rewarded as they constantly refined their robot in the run up to the competition. The students competed against dozens of gifted and talented teams, tackling hands-on challenges presented by industry judges in an effort to score points. Each challenge pushed the limits of their engineering and programming know-how.
Malachi, one of the team members, underscored a major improvement in their methodology. “We’ve swapped to a new coding software that uses Python so it’s much more accurate than it used to be,” he explained. This switch to a more robust coding environment was a large part of their robot’s increased performance and efficiency.
James, another member of the End-Tech team, portrayed competition day as “nail biting.” He emphasized the intensity of the contests, noting, “It came down to the wire, there wasn’t much between any of the teams. We are all good teams; it’s just all about meeting new people and participating.”
Owen, on the design team, told us all about their brand new robot, which has color sensors for the first time this year. This technological change was central to their success, helping them to overcome obstacles more effectively.