Help Youth Robotics Team Go to Razorback

The Electrifying Engineers, a youth robotics team from the Michiana area, was awarded 2nd place Champion Finalist at the Indiana State Lego robotics Championship this December! They have been invited to be one of two teams to represent Indiana at the FIRST LEGO League Razorback Invitational, a major four-day international robotics competition, held at the University of Arkansas in May 2023.

The five students who comprise our team don’t have the financial means to attend this event on their own. We are seeking to cover the cost of tournament fees, robotics equipment and travel costs for the team and their coaches to attend this once in a lifetime event.

Please help the ‘Electrifying Engineers’ with your financial support. Any contribution, no matter the size, would be greatly appreciated and would make a real difference in helping these talented young students realize their full potential, grow in STEM skills, and build self-confidence!

Electrifying Engineers Media:

Follow Us: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089189616516

Tournament Links:

Razorback Tournament: https://news.uark.edu/articles/60191/international-robotics-competition-held-at-u-of-a

Indiana FIRST Robotics: https://www.firstindianarobotics.org/

Indiana Tournament Results: https://www.firstindianarobotics.org/thank-you-for-a-super-season/

Want to know More….

Our Team’s Story:

In August 2022 a group of strangers, ages 9-14, with a love of LEGOs signed up to join a FIRST LEGO League robotics program in Elkhart, IN. They were assigned randomly to a team with the task of learning how to work together to build and code a robot made of LEGOS to complete missions along with researching and solving a real-world problem around them related to energy.

These kids dedicated two nights a week and sometimes more to working on their robots and talking to a professional civil engineer to discuss their ideas about solar traffic lights. All this is outside of their normal school activities.

FIRST LEGO League is more than robots. It places a strong emphasis on its six Core Values; teamwork, discovery, impact, innovation, inclusion, and FUN. The FIRST LEGO League founder, Dean Kamen says, “We don’t use kids to build robots, we use robots to build kids!”

The Electrifying Engineers prove this to be true! Our team embraced the core values in all they did. They learned how to overcome challenges not only with a crazy robot but also how to overcome differences with each other respectfully. Most of all they discovered that they can do far more than they thought they could at the beginning of the season. Through this experience, our kids have grown in self-confidence! They have found a place where they can excel and be encouraged to focus on the fact that what they discover is more important than what they achieve.

Our team had fun while focusing on the process of engineering design and to their surprise, it led to prestigious awards! As a first-year team, at their regional competition, they didn’t have expectations of recognition. They ended up having their own personal best robot run and were awarded the CORE Values Finalist award along with one of nine advancement tickets to the Indiana State Tournament! Then at the State tournament, with 49 teams, they were surprised to be awarded the 2nd Place Champion Finalist award along with one of two advancement tickets to represent Indiana at the Razorback International Invitational this Spring! This is a huge honor for these kids and proves that hard, honest work can shine through!

The Electrifying Engineers plan to prepare for their next competition by learning new skills in coding and robot design while reaching out to their community to help more kids get involved and share their love of robots with others!