Well, veteran students call it “the hardest fun you’ll ever have!” It’s an international competition that fosters creativity, community, problem-solving, and service through designing, building, programming, testing, and operating real robots that compete in an alliance format competition against other teams. But calling it just a robotics competition would be doing it a disservice. Fielding a successful team also requires learning business and entrepreneurial skills such as fundraising, marketing, special events, community outreach, and budgeting. The atmosphere is more like a tech startup than just a robotics team. You can find more information at the following link: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc.

One of the great things about FIRST is the culture that it fosters. Concepts such as “gracious professionalism” and “coopertition” are emphasized and encouraged. While competition at events can be intense, there is a camaraderie and willingness to help that crosses team lines and infuses every FIRST activity. Students often help other teams, participate in community outreach events together, and support one another throughout the season. Respect for each other’s abilities and differences are on full display. These are behaviors and attitudes that are needed for success in life as well as FTC!

We are looking for students who enjoy working with their hands, or programming, or writing, or posting on social media, or web design, or videography, or serving others, or organizing stuff, or meeting new people, or managing money--or some combination of all these things. Since fielding a team is a lot like running a business, we need a wide variety of different skills and personalities! 

Any student interested in technology—from either a technical or a commercial perspective—would benefit greatly from being part of a FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) team. Maybe you just think robots are cool and want to be a part of a community of like-minded students. Then FTC is for you.

Each season officially begins when the competition game rules are released to the general public in early September. After game release, students are asked to commit to a team and pay the annual team dues (see “What does it cost?” section below).

In North Carolina, there are state regional qualifying tournaments held in January and February, which is when the robots need to be ready to compete. If a team qualifies at one of these tournaments for the North Carolina State Championship tournament, that will be held in late February or early March in Greensboro. Of the 35 or so teams that will compete at the NC State Championship tournament, only two to four will qualify for the FIRST World Championship Tournament, which is held in Houston, TX in April.  A nice graphical summary of a typical season can be found here: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc/season-timeline.

FIRST rules state that the minimum number of FTC student team members is 1, and the maximum is 15. From experience, we believe one of the most important factors impacting how much students get from the program is the coach-to-student ratio. The ideal ratio is one coach for every two students. This allows the coaches the time necessary to introduce and teach important concepts and skills to new students, and mentor and guide the veteran students on both technical and leadership skills. Therefore, our membership is limited by the number of coaches. By rule, FTC students must be in grades 7-12 at the beginning of the season (September). So that translates to roughly ages 12-18.

During most of the build season (September through January), the teams meet regularly twice per week, on Mondays and Thursdays from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. There will also be periodic special meetings like a marathon build day, scrimmage tournament, or outreach events. As the calendar draws near to the first local qualifying tournaments in January, the teams will almost certainly meet more frequently than twice per week. If a team does well enough at a local regional tournament to proceed to the NC State Tournament, then the team will continue to meet biweekly (or more) through February, and more often in the 2-3 weeks leading up to the NC State Tournament in February or March. In addition, students sometimes do more activities on their own outside of the meetings, as well as community outreach events, but rarely does this account for more than 2-3 hours per week in addition to regular meetings. During the off-season (Mar-Aug), the team will continue to meet approximately once per week, while taking off the month of July.

In general, we counsel students that to get the most out of our program, they can do FTC and one other extra-curricular activity. Because the entire season for FTC builds on itself and is inherently iterative, missing meetings can have a significant impact on the student’s ability to contribute and therefore learn from the experience. This is particularly true for new ‘rookie’ students.

Biome Robotics teams meet at The Science House, currently located on the Dorothea Dix campus of NC State University (https://sciencehouse.ncsu.edu/). The address is 715 Barbour Drive, Raleigh. In addition, teams may periodically meet at other locations for specialized activities (i.e.: outreach, machining, welding, composite layup, etc.)

We currently have two active teams, #7083 TundraBots and #24260 Out Of the Blue. However, we have had up to three FTC teams which share a roof, coaches, and tools but that compete independently.  We may start more teams if we are are able to recruit more coaches and if there is enough interest from new prospective members.

Annual team dues vary from year-to-year but have never exceeded $400 per student. This provides a ‘bare bones’ baseline budget for each team which will cover a basic robot build, tournament fees, and annual registration fees. However, fundraising will also be conducted by the teams to help cover any additional robot parts, services, and team apparel. Also, the farther a team progresses beyond regional qualifying tournaments, the more expenses will be incurred for travel and tournament fees but this only becomes significant if a team goes to World Championships in Houston, TX. It should be noted that since the inception of these teams, we’ve never had a parent or family member complain about the cost because the value of the experience far outweighs it!

Since Biome Robotics is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, all donations are tax-deductible. Email donate@biome-robotics.org for information on how to make a donation. Note that student fees are generally not tax-deductible according to current IRS rules for 501(c)(3) organizations, although any donation made by a parent above and beyond the official student fee would be tax-deductible. 

Team rosters are currently full for the 2024-25 FTC season. To get on a waiting list, or for more information about future enrollment, please email info@biome-robotics.org.  

There are five officially-registered adults who act as coaches. However, there is always a need for mentors with experience in mechanical, electrical, programming, fabrication, project management, marketing, fundraising, and finance. Adults with any of these skills are encouraged to participate as team mentors! It’s important to note that FIRST is student-led, and as such the role of coaches and mentors is to teach, encourage and advise—not actually build and program the robot or market the team themselves. Obviously, younger students will need more help than older ones in some areas, but the goal is eventually for older students to mentor the younger ones and for the adult coaches and mentors to advise and supervise. For more information on being a coach or mentor, email volunteer@biome-robotics.org.