Photo Courtesy of EagleBots FTC Team 13532 Social Media

An area robotics team is going to the world championship. The team, featuring students from Mid-Prairie’s Middle School and Home School Assistance Program, has qualified for the FIRST Championship, a competition featuring the best robotics teams from all over the world. 

EagleBots, a team based out of Iowa City, placed fourth out of 72 teams in FIRST Tech Challenge state competition, clearing the bar needed to qualify for the world championship. The team features students from the Iowa City Community School District, Mid-Prairie Community School District, and homeschooled students from around the area. Mid-Prairie area students who compete with Eaglebots include Ben Lothamer, Ella Chiang, Carl Gustafson, Maverick Diller, Maeve Diller, and Cecis Nuxol.

In addition to qualifying for worlds, the team also was given the Inspire Award, the top honor a team can earn at competition. The award is given to the team that “best embodies the spirit of the competition.” It is a judged award, given to a team that excels in the areas of technical design, engineering design process documentation, community outreach, and professionalism on and off the field. The award is based on team documentation, presentation, observations, and hours of team pit judging questions and responses.

The FIRST Championship is held in Houston, Texas, starting April 29. Last year, the championship featured over 19,000 students comprising over 1,000 teams from all over the world.