FIRST Tech Challenge Team 25 Rock N Roll Robots, a Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles (GSGLA) all-girls robotics team sponsored by NASA, Raytheon Technologies, and Microsoft, advanced to the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge (FTC) World Championship that was held on April 18-22 in Houston, Texas. GSGLA sponsored two FTC teams composed of Girl Scouts in grades seven-12 who are mentored by engineers and professionals from Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and other industry leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics

(STEM). FTC 25 and sister team FTC 5218 Javabots both finished at the top of their local league and advanced to the Southern California Regional Championship where FTC 25 qualified for the FIRST World Championship. Only four teams out of over 170 in Southern California qualified for this championship event.

This year’s FTC game, “Power Play,” featured game elements such as cones, junctions, substations and terminals. During the match, teams raced to score cones and create circuits during 30 seconds of autonomous operation followed by two minutes of driver-controlled play.

FTC 25 and FTC 5218 started off the season providing the training to the new members through summer camp, coding workshops and outreach events. Over the last four months, each team member worked countless hours to design, build, and program the robot with dedication and great responsibility.

At the World Championship, Team 25 competed with top teams from across the country and around the globe. They also had the opportunity to attend technical and professional development seminars and observe championship tournaments in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) and FIRST Lego League (FLL) divisions. FTC 25 members include Victoria Barry from Flintridge Preparatory School, Rowan Clark, Rosemont Middle School and Holland Wolpert, La Cañada High School 7/8.