Several Mars Area students competed in the FIRST® Tech Challenge (FTC) Pennsylvania State Championship held March 2-3 at Oxford Area High School (Oxford, Pa.). 

The “Giant Diencephalic BrainSTEM Robotics Team” members of which included junior Adrian Zugehar, was named an Allegheny Winning Alliance captain, a Championship Finalist Alliance captain, received the Inspire Award, and qualified to compete at the FTC World Championships to be held April 24-27 at the Cobo Center (Detroit, Mich.).  

The “Martians” team, members of which included freshmen Timothy Jayamohan, Raghav Kalbhor and Max Solich, was named semifinalist in the Pocono Division competition. And, the “Mars Advanced Robotics Squad,” which included junior Matthew Gourash; eighth-graders Lindsey Gourash and Zoey Miller; and seventh-graders Emmett Bishop, Miles Stoops, Evan Szafranski and Isaac Thoman, earned the Judges Award

The theme of this year’s competition was “Rover Ruckus” and asked to design and build a robot to accomplish simulated space rescue missions. Team had to descend from the lander; collect minerals from a crater; sort minerals into a cargo hold; perform autonomous tasks; and navigate a playing field.

The FTC program, open to students in Grades 7-12, challenges students to design, build and program robots to compete in a team challenges.

For more information, visit www.ftcpenn.org.