Lazybotts Robotics Team Not so Lazy, Advances to World Championship 2nd Straight Year

Eden Prairie, MN, March 31, 2016 --(PR.com)-- FTC Robotics Team 6389 “The Lazybotts” from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, has advanced to the FIRST World Championship tournament for the second straight year. The team competed at the 2016 FTC North Super Regional Championship in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, March 16-19, 2016, and qualified for the world championship by receiving the 2nd place nomination for the Inspire award. Nominations for this judged award are given to the teams that truly embody the ‘challenge’ of the FTC program, are strong ambassadors for FIRST programs, and are top contenders for many other judged awards at the event. The team also received the 1st place Think award. This award is given to the team that best reflects the journey they took as they experienced the engineering design process during the robot build season. The Engineering Section of the notebook is the key reference for judges to help identify the most deserving team, and focuses on the design and build stages of the team’s robot. Tomer Ran-Ressler, the team's Treasurer and Engineering Notebook Manager, said “Our team was very honored that the judges acknowledged our team's engineering notebook and community outreach efforts, but the best part of the tournament for our team was making it all the way to the championship matches and finishing on the finalist alliance.”

During both days at the competition, the team only had a few problems with their robot, nicknamed Clifford. One of the drivers of the robot, Anna Youngs, said, "Unfortunately, we forgot to keep our scoring arm greased and that put way too much strain on the motor that extends it for scoring. That motor wore out halfway through the very last match of the championship round, and we weren't able to move it at all." Tyler George, the other robot driver for the team said, “We are making some modifications to our robot over the next three weeks that will hopefully make the scoring arm slide in and out more smoothly. That should relieve some of the stress on the motors.” Members of the Lazybotts team include Eden Prairie Sophomores Rachel Davis, Tomer Ran-Ressler, Anna Youngs, and Nikunj Chawla, Freshman Kyle George, eighth grader Abhi Nallamalli, seventh graders Ty Valiton and Tyler George, and sixth grader Noa Ran-Ressler.

According to Wikipedia, The FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is designed for students in grades 6–12 to compete head to head, using a sports model. Teams are responsible for designing, building, and programming their robots in a 10-week build period to compete in an alliance format against other teams. The robot kit is reusable from year-to-year and is programmed using Java or the MIT App Inventor. Teams, including coaches, mentors and volunteers, are required to develop strategy and build robots based on sound engineering principles. Awards are given for the competition as well as for community outreach, design, and other real-world accomplishments. The ultimate goal of FTC is to reach more young people with a lower-cost, more accessible opportunity to discover the excitement and rewards of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

The Lazybotts are currently trying to raise the $1000 entry fee required to attend the 2016 World Championship event. They have set up a GoFundMe account at www.gofundme.com/Lazybotts2016 to accept donations from the public. “Every donor gets their name placed on the side of our robot,” said Rachel Davis, the Lazybotts team captain. The 2016 FTC World Championship Tournament takes place April 27-30, 2016, in St. Louis MO. Additional information can be found at www.firstchampionship.org/first-tech-challenge.