U-CF kids score big in robotics competitions

Posted by Press Release on February 11, 2015

Unionville-Chadds Ford School District's FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Team, Flaming Phoenix, won its third straight Engineering Design Award and qualified for the Pennsylvania State Championship Tournament. The team is comprised of five students from Unionville High School — Christy Ammon, Kaelyn Gaza, Austin Hwa, CJ McClure, and KC Simmons — and two students from Patton Middle School —Thomas McClure and Justin Warner.

At FTC competitions, you are teamed up with other schools to compete as an alliance on the field. The teams are also judged individually in competing for awards in engineering, design, programming and community outreach.

In January, UCFSD's Flaming Phoenix team was the first place winner for the PTC Design Award at the Delaware State Championship in Dover and at the South Central Pennsylvania Regional Qualifying Tournament in York. The intent of this award is to expand the competition challenge, inspiring teams to incorporate industrial design into their robots.

These elements can be shown in the simplicity of the engineering design as it applies to the tasks, the look and feel of the robot, and how the design allows us to think of robots in new ways. UCFSD’s team incorporated a number of 3D printed components into their design, which set them apart from the rest of the teams.

At the York competition, UCFSD's team took second place in the Inspire Award, which is the highest award given by FTC. The winners are the “prototypes” for what the judges would like to see all teams achieve during the competition: success on the field, robot design, team spirit and engineering accomplishment.

At both January competitions, team Flaming Phoenix also was a finalist for the Motivate Award, which recognizes outstanding team spirit and community outreach that raises awareness about robotics and STEM programs.