A team of innovative students from Endon High School in Staffordshire, known as End-Tech, recently achieved remarkable success by winning their regional robotics contest. In this FIRST Robotics Competition, teams designed, constructed and programmed large robots. These robots took on both practical and fun challenges set by a panel of judges. The team, made up of five exceptionally bright Future City ambassadors including James, Malachi and Owen, showed remarkable creativity and talent. Their excellent progress saw them qualify to represent Staffordshire at the National Tournament taking place in Harrogate later this year.
The free, all-day contest drew high school teams from throughout the region, with teams traveling as far as Bradford. This year’s competition proved to be more challenging, as Malachi noted, “We’ve swapped to a new coding software that uses Python so it’s much more accurate than it used to be.” With this software onboard, the small team was able to push their robot beyond expectations to impress judges and secure a victory.
What truly set End-Tech’s robot apart, and allowed it to stand out in navigating multiple different types of obstacles, was its advanced colour detectors. Owen stated, “We’ve got a whole different robot with colour sensors this time, that makes it a bit easier to use.” This technological upgrade played a crucial role in the team’s ability to complete the assigned challenges successfully and gain valuable points during the competition.
From there, the team spent a considerable amount of time during and after school building and fine-tuning their robot in time for competition. All of their intense efforts were rewarded! That earned them a historically landmark victory and was their second consecutive win at this stage of the competition. Through it all, the team’s dedication to each other and a “one team” mentality have defined their run and proven to be staples of success.
The regional competition ended with End-Tech being recognized for their superior performance excellence and technical excellence. The team now prepares for the first ever Lego League UK National Final in March. They’ll be going head to head with some of the best teams from across the country! We members of End-Tech are already looking forward to next year’s challenge. In doing so, they acknowledge how far they’ve come and take pride in the skills they’ve learned and honed during the process.