Santa Barbara’s only FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) robotics team, Syntax Error, qualified this past Saturday for the Los Angeles FTC Regional Championships by earning the 2nd Place Inspire Award at a qualifying tournament in Claremont, CA.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a non-profit organization devoted to helping young people discover and develop a passion for science, technology, engineering, and math. FTC teams design, build, and program their robots to compete on a 12-foot x 12-foot field in an alliance format against other teams. Robots are built with a TETRIX® platform.
In their second season, high school seniors Collin Dutter, Kyle Kovacs, and Andrew McGuan from Dos Pueblos High School and Ryan Weideman from San Marcos High School learned about this year’s game challenge in September. Also known as Team 6077, the boys meet twice weekly with coach Kristen Kovacs and with Christian Marx, an MIT graduate and new team mentor.