FTC 6911 "James Ruse Robotics"

FIRST was founded in 1989 to inspire young people’s interest in science and technology. It is a non-profit public charity based in New Hampshire that designs programs to motivate young people to pursue education and careers in science, technology engineering and math.
A quote from the founder, Dean Kamen, “To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders.” (http://www.usfirst.org/ )

FIRST came to Australia through Macquarie University in 2005 and now there are over 200 teams competing in Australian FIRST competitions every year. Worldwide there are 314,000+ people from the ages of 6 to 18 participating in FIRST competitions, with over 29,000 teams, and 2,779 teams participating in our division, the FTC (First Tech Challenge).
In August 2012 Dr David Inglis, a lecturer and researcher in Engineering and Physics at Macquarie University was paired with Ms Sheila Pooviah, the Head Science Teacher at James Ruse Agricultural High School, an academically selective public school, through the CSIRO’s Scientists in Schools program. The focus of this partnership has been participation in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC). After David mentored the first James Ruse robotics team that incidentally also qualified for and competed at Internationals, he started mentoring our team starting in 2013, when our team was founded.

Every year, FTC teams from around the world have 4 months to design, build, and program a robot to compete in a sports-model, alliance-format, season specific game. A new game is developed every year so teams must start fresh with limited resources and time to solve a problem. More information about the game can be found at: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/ftc/game. Both James Ruse teams currently in the Robotics Club won the Regionals as an alliance and our team won the national competition held at Macquarie University. As a result we have been given the opportunity to represent Australia on an international stage.