The LAE Robotics Team has gone from strength to strength in recent years, and on 14 March, the team had the chance to participate in the extremely competitive First Tech Challenge. Year 12 student Thabie reports below.

Thirteen students from the LAE Robotics Club embarked on an insightful trip to the American School in London to participate in the South East Qualifier for the First Tech Challenge  – an event that shaped how the team would continue for the rest of the academic year, to prepare for the championships in the summer or wait for our next opportunity in the following year.

Prior to the competition, we had the goal of constructing the robot, coding for it and writing up their portfolio – a documentation of our progress that had to “tell the story of [the] team through the current season” - all of which a panel of judges would assess and determine whether or not we would gain an award for our efforts.

Over the course of the day, the team both competed and presented, celebrated wins and grieved losses, working together like a well-oiled machine in order to reach our goal of qualification to the championships.

Presenting the portfolio to the judges was something the team was dreading but added an extra layer of anticipation to the event. As a rookie team, there was a sense of callowness amongst us all, as almost every other team competing had gone through this process before – the wait, the hope, the dread – but we were able to overcome that and come through, coming third in the competition and top 20 in the UK.

After making it through to the semi-finals, teamed up with one of the ASL teams - King Kong Wobbegong – we lost 91-74 to the LAE Tottenham partner teams, a bittersweet ending to an otherwise successful day.

- Thabie, Year 12

You can see a full breakdown of how the LAE Robotics Team did here: FTCScout