Two local Montgomery County FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) robotic teams were among 59 teams that recently competed at the Virginia state championship in Richmond.
The Red Beard Pandas FTC Team 4924 consists of nine students from Blacksburg and
Christiansburg middle and high schools. Coached by Virginia Tech engineering student Ethan Bass, the Pandas have worked since August 2019 on a robot that can collect, turn and stack large Lego bricks.
Bass said, “It was an honor to be competing with the very best teams. Although we are a rookie team, we fit right in. Everyone had a great time.”
The Pandas finished in 24th place in their division at the end of the day’s competition.
The Wailing Wendigos FTC Team 17465 has seven students attending Auburn Middle School in Riner. Phillip Ashby, a technology education teacher at Auburn and Shawsville middle schools, and Caleb Henderson, husband of the Shaw Middle School Art teacher were the coaches on this wild ride. This team meets after school to engineer and program their 18-inch cubed robot to collect large Lego bricks and dispense them onto a building platform.
The Wenidgos finished an impressive 17th in their division.
Ashby said, “We are a completely rookie team and had a huge success drumming up support in the community. None of our students or coaches had any experience in FTC, and we are excited to see how we can grow the team next year.”
