First Tech Challenge at EIB Etoile : EIB Team First

A Challenge in 6 Months

After six months of hard work, we are proud and happy to present our robot, marking our entry into the First Tech Challenge competition. In this article, we want to share with you the result of our relentless efforts. With countless hours of design and testing, our team is proud of little 28193. Each member contributed their specific skills, allowing us to overcome complex challenges and create a high-performance machine ready to compete.

This project is more than just a technical experience; it embodies our commitment and determination. We look forward to having you read about our journey and celebrating together the potential of a robotics project.

First Tech Challenge

The First Tech Challenge, is much more than just a robotics competition. It is an adventure that pushes us, as high school students, to engage in a project combining science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and entrepreneurship. Imagine designing, building, and programming a robot capable of tackling complex challenges—all while working as a team!

What makes FTC truly unique is its international dimension. Every year, teams from all over the world come together to participate in this Olympic-style competition in the United States! And we have the chance to qualify for this international championship. It’s exciting!

September 2024

We learned about our participation in this competition in September when Ms. Grancher visited all the high school classes to invite us to join the robotics team. At the first club meeting, held on a Wednesday evening, we had the opportunity to meet our mentor, who explained the different stages of the competition. He also gave us the kit containing the necessary components for the robot and answered all our questions.

Goals and Objectives

Goals:

• Fully experience this competition.
• Design a robot capable of completing the competition’s key missions.
• Improve communication, assign roles, and strengthen team spirit.

Objectives:

• Build a robot capable of completing at least 40% of the tasks before the deadline.
• Organise a meeting once a week to make progress on the robot.
• Try to go as far as possible in the competition.

October 2024

After sorting the parts to ensure nothing was missing, we started building the robot. Meanwhile, the team in charge of finding sponsors worked tirelessly to secure the first funds and sponsorships.

November 2024

Despite two weeks without being able to meet, the team continued making progress. The marketing team started receiving responses from sponsors and continued exploring new ideas to reach a broader audience, including the idea of creating an Instagram account.

December 2024

The Marketing Team

To advance its initiatives, the team decided to create videos to share on social media to increase visibility and potentially secure funding. However, they faced legal issues, including the requirement to obtain image rights permissions before publishing photos or videos online.

The Mechanical Team

The robot made significant progress in just a few months, thanks to the dedication and hard work of the team developing it. By December break, they decided to accelerate the pace to leave only a few finishing touches for January.

January 2025

After a well-deserved holiday break, the team focused on programming and finalising the robot. We were getting close to the goal.

Meanwhile, our marketing team had the opportunity to meet with the Marketing Department of our high school. We received valuable communication advice to attract sponsors, boost our social media presence, and, most importantly, address our concerns about image rights. We also secured the support of our high school, which provided T-shirts and uniforms for the big day.

February 2025

Here we are: the competition will take place on February 1st. Everyone is excited to showcase the skills and achievements we’ve gained throughout the year in front of an audience and to see our robot in action.

But as the big day approaches, our robot still isn’t moving. We thought we were close to the finish line, but we were struggling to reach it. Fortunately, we could count on our FTC partners—other high school students competing alongside us were also our allies. The Lucie Aubrac High School team from Pantin welcomed us with expertise and generosity, helping us make the final adjustments.

On February 1st, 2025, almost our entire team arrived at the regional qualifiers in Levallois-Perret! The day started with the inspection phase to ensure our robot complied with the rules. Once again, we received the necessary help to complete our robot’s configuration.

Once the robot was officially competition-ready, we rushed to the training sessions to prepare in real conditions for our upcoming matches! Then, the qualifications began. We won our first match! Our robot tackled numerous challenges afterward but didn’t make it to the top of the podium.

 

These five months of teamwork were an invaluable experience, and we are excited to see our robot in action in future competitions. This project has been a human and collective adventure, a chance to learn and push our limits.

We are all ready to establish a new club and take on the challenge again next year!