January 2017  – On Saturday Jan. 21, a First Tech Challenge Robotics (FTC) competition was held at The Grauer School in Encinitas.  In a field of 16 teams competing from the region, the team from R. Roger Rowe Middle school, RSF Singularity, earned the first place position and received the Winning Alliance trophy.

FTC Winning Alliance Team Members holding trophy (L to R): JT Young, Dylan Powell, Jake Malter, Jack Pollin, Carlee Weber, Kanvar Soin, Brandon Powell

What is First Tech Challenge?  
FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams (grades 7-12) are challenged to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge in an alliance format. Guided by adult Coaches and Mentors, students develop STEM skills and practice engineering principles (like keeping an engineering notebook), while realizing the value of hard work, innovation, and sharing ideas. The robot is programmed primarily using Java. Teams also must raise funds, design and market their team brand, and do community outreach for which they can win awards.
FTC and The League: 
The primary programming language used by advanced FTC teams is Java.  This requires a significant effort by the team to learn what can be a challenging programming language to learn – especially for middle schoolers.  The League of Amazing Programmers was instrumental in preparing RSF Singularity for the FTC competition and especially important in positioning them for the Winning Alliance trophy. Brandon Powell, Dylan Powell and Kanvar Soin (all students of The League) are all involved in the advanced programming of the team’s winning robot and have received all of their programming training from The League school.