North West youth robotics teams to compete on national stage

Two North West youth robotics teams are set to compete on a national stage as they progress to FIRST Tech Challenge UK’s championship event in June, following their regional triumphs.

Quarry Robotics from Calderstones School and Technically Wired from UTC Warrington will
progress to the More Than Robots UK Championship, having won the Inspire Award and
being crowned Winning Alliance Captain, respectively.

The Inspire Award is FIRST Tech Challenge UK’s most prestigious award. It goes to the
strongest team across a range of categories, including engineering, STEM outreach and
developing innovative solutions. Being Winning Alliance Captain means the team designed,
programmed, built and competed with the tournament’s highest-scoring robot.

FIRST Tech Challenge UK’s championship event will be held at the London Copper Box Arena
on 26 and 27 June 2025. It will welcome 48 teams from across the UK and 16 international
teams. Quarry Robotics and Technically Wired will represent the North West.

During the 2023-24 season, 76% of participants in FIRST Tech Challenge UK, aged 12-18,
said they were better at overcoming challenges after taking part. 80% declared they are better
at working as a team.

The tournament saw teams put their student-built robots to the test in this year’s
water-themed challenge, ‘INTO THE DEEP’. During two-and-a-half-minute matches, alliances
of two teams competed to score points by completing complex tasks using robots
programmed for both autonomous and driver-controlled operation. Beyond technical skills,
the challenge fosters teamwork, problem-solving and resilience under pressure.

FIRST Tech Challenge UK is driven by its community of volunteers from the STEM industry,
who collectively donated over 3000 hours of their time during the 2023-24 season.

Liam Edgeley, team lead for Quarry Robotics and teacher at Calderstones School, said: “It was fantastic meeting so many fabulous teams and seeing so many awesome robots at the North West regional tournament. The standard was so high this year, with every team taking a creative approach and competing with some astonishingly clever mechanisms.

“I’m thrilled to see Quarry Robotics make it through to nationals alongside Technically Wired from UTC Warrington to represent the North West!”

FIRST Tech Challenge UK empowers young people aged 12-18 with the technical knowledge
and soft skills to thrive in STEM and beyond. They work like teams in industry to design, build
and program a robot to compete at progressive events. Teams hone new skills such as
communication, teamwork, programming, project management, fundraising and engineering.

The programme is run by charity, FIRST UK, with a mission to make STEM less intimidating,
more diverse and inclusive. Supported by Arm, XTX Markets, RTX, Gene Haas Foundation,
Bloomberg, Salesforce and Qualcomm, the charity is part of the global FIRST movement
established in 1989, which reaches 650,000 young people worldwide each year.