Birmingham schoolgirls progress to world’s largest robotics competition’s UK Championship

The Inspire Award is FIRST Tech Challenge UK’s most prestigious award. It goes to the strongest team across a range of categories, including engineering, STEM outreach and developing innovative solutions. They’ll now progress to the UK Championship, competing against 47 other UK teams and 16 international teams.

The event’s panel of industry judges shared, “Team Girliebots has shown excellent teamwork, problem-solving skills and initiative throughout the programme. They have become social media influencers, with posts showcasing their excellent robot design. They have also shown huge commitment to promoting women in STEM.”

This year’s game, INTO THE DEEP, presented by RTX, challenges teams to design, build and code robots for a water-themed game. Their robot must navigate through complex tasks under of both autonomous and driver-controlled operation.

“The teams’ incredible creativity, resilience and problem-solving skills truly demonstrate what it takes to succeed in STEM and their futures. Not only have they risen to the challenge, but they’ve also reminded us all that teamwork and collaboration are what’s needed to tackle tomorrow’s biggest challenges. A huge congratulations to all teams for being true representations of their region. We’ll see some again at the UK Championship and others back even stronger next year!” shared Patrice John-Baptiste, Head of Impact and Engagement at FIRST UK.

FIRST Tech Challenge UK empowers young people aged 12-18 with the technical knowledge and soft skills to thrive in STEM and beyond. From September to March, working like teams in industry and often supported by a mentor, they design, build and program a robot to compete at progressive events. Teams hone new skills such as communication, teamwork, programming, project management, fundraising, design and engineering.

The programme is run by charity, FIRST UK, which aims to make STEM less intimidating, more diverse and inclusive. Supported by Arm, XTX Markets, RTX, Gene Haas Foundation, Bloomberg, Salesforce and Qualcomm, the charity is part of the global FIRST movement established in 1989, which reaches 650,000 young people worldwide each year.