The Epiteugma Revved Up team from Cyprus wins the FIRST Tech Challenge Championship Spain

The Epiteugma Revved Up team from Cyprus won the FIRST Tech Challenge Championship Spain, which was held at the American School of Barcelona last weekend. The team won the 'Inspire Award,' which gives them the opportunity to travel to the United States and participate in the international final in Detroit from 24 to 27 April.

This event marks the beginning of the FIRST Tech Challenge in Spain, organised by the Scientia Foundation, the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia and the Girbau Group. A total of two hundred people between 16 and 18 years of age participated, in 18 teams from Catalonia and elsewhere in Spain, as well as from Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Cyprus and the Czech Republic.

Apart from the team finishing in first place, The Encrypted Gentleman team from the Netherlands received the Think Award, which is given for the ability to solve engineering problems creatively. The HP S.A.S. team from the Netherlands won the Connect Award, for being the best at connecting STEM elements. The RoboCats from Germany won the Collins Aerospace Innovate Award, which is given for the design and the innovation involved in the team's robot. The F.R.O.G. Frog Robots of Germany received the Design Award for having incorporated industrial design into their robot. The Can-Alpha Space Team from Tenerife won the Motivate Award, which rewards teamwork values, and the German EAGles team won the Control Award for making the best use of sensors and software for functionality in the field. Finally, the German EAGles and the F.R.O.G Frog Robots Of Germany won the Winning Alliance Award, while the Mechanical Sharks from Manlleu (Catalonia) and Casimir Tech form the Netherlands won the Finalist Alliance Award.
 
The most important STEM programme worldwide

FIRST Tech Challenge is the largest international STEM programme for young people aged between 16 and 18 years old, as it has 47,000 participants, in 4,711 teams from 25 countries all over the world. It provides engineering and fun in its purest form, and is aimed at fostering scientific and technological vocations among young people. The FIRST Tech Challenge is one of various programmes run by the Scientia Foundation, including the FIRST LEGO League and the FIRST LEGO League Junior.

The participants in the FIRST Tech Challenge Championship Spain had to design, create, test and program autonomous robots operated by drivers which had to perform a series of missions and tasks on a specific field of play, according to the "Rover Ruckus" challenge, which this year focused on exploring galaxies beyond the solar system. When making the robots, the teams were able to use real pieces as long as they did not exceed certain specific measurements and weights, and they had to present their "engineering notebook" to a jury, to explain how they had built the robot.

Next year in Vic

In the coming years, the FIRST Tech Challenge Championship Spain will be held in Vic, at the university in the city. The three institutions organising the event - the Scientia Foundation, Girbau and the UVic-UCC - reached an agreement to that end.