What better time to announce our four new Qualcomm Innovation Ambassador teams than during #NationalInventorsMonth?

Thanks to the generous support of Qualcomm, this season we created the Qualcomm Innovation Ambassador Team grant. The grant was inspired by the 2021 FIRST Innovation Challenge sponsored by Qualcomm which gave students the opportunity to explore what it means to be an innovator and find solutions to society’s greatest challenges that impact the world for generations to come.

We are so proud to have 16 semi-finalist and 4 finalists from California FIRST Robotics Competition teams for the FIRST Innovation Challenge!

“Innovation is at the heart of everything we do,” said Natalie Dusi, Corporate Responsibility Manager, Qualcomm Incorporated. “We couldn’t be more proud of the teams who participated in this year’s challenge and are thrilled to see so many California teams represented as finalists.”

QUALCOMM INNOVATION AMBASSADOR TEAMS

California FIRST Robotics Competition teams that were selected as FIRST Innovation Challenge semi-finalist were able to apply to be a Qualcomm Innovation Ambassador team for their region.

The Qualcomm Innovation Ambassador designation honors the teams that have committed to exploring the many facets of what it means to be an innovator and best embody the Qualcomm ethos of “We dream big. We invent bigger.”

The teams selected for this grant will help us grow the Innovation Challenge and raise the bar of amazing and creative solutions coming from our FIRST teams.

We had a lot of remarkable applications and it was a tough decision, but we are excited to announce the winning teams for the 2021 Qualcomm Innovation Ambassador Grant as:

• Team 115 – MVRT from Cupertino, @MVRT115
• Team 867 – Absolute Value from Arcadia @ahsedd_team867
• Team 3749 – Team Optix from San Diego, @teamoptix
• Team 5458 – Digital Minds from Woodland @frc5458

Please take a moment to listen to winning team’s personal stories of impact that resulted from participating in the the FIRST Innovation Challenge.

GREATER SAN DIEGO INNOVATION AMBASSADOR

Team 3749 – Team Optix
San Diego, CA

GREATER LOS ANGELES INNOVATION AMBASSADOR

Team 867 – Absolute Value
Arcadia, CA

GREATER CENTRAL VALLEY INNOVATION AMBASSADOR

Team 5458 – Digital Minds
Woodland, CA

GREATER SAN FRANCISCO BAY INNOVATION AMBASSADOR

Team 115 – MVRT
Cupertino, CA

Congratulations to our new Qualcomm Innovation Ambassador teams!  We are excited to see how they use their ingenuity to ignite future inventors with their stories and passion!

Why is Math always sad? Because it’s got nothing but problems.

This and many other bad jokes kept the audience of students, mentors, and coaches for San Diego FTC amused in between technical and information sessions at a regional FTC workshop held virtually on 12/19/20.

FTC Regional Program Partner Matt Nilsen shared that the region will assign teams to their league in January and that teams will get to test out the virtual systems in mid-January league meets.

Over eighty attendees logged in to learn what to include in their Robot Inspection videos, how the Remote Hub works, details and deadlines for Dean’s List applicants, and technical breakout sessions hosted by local teams. Throughout the call attendees designed a region-wide fun challenge at the end of the call to wrap up the session with a hands-on, virtual competition using game elements from this season’s challenge.

Devin Briese provided an overview of what teams need to include on their Hardware Inspection videos and shared where teams can get more information.

Julie Bonnardel reviewed the process for students to apply for Dean’s List followed by Victor Cicarrelli providing the region their first overview of the remote hub. Cicarrelli will host subsequent training classes for teams to get more experience with the virtual hub before regional league play begins.

Three teams, Roboctopi, Crash Test, and Mechanical Advantage then led breakout sessions to help other teams with their industrial designs for this season’s robots.

Students and coaches got into the fun sharing seasonal and other bad jokes like these: Who is the fattest knight at the round table? SirCumfrence. He got that way from eating too much pi.

Follow more fun from San Diego FTC at sdftc.org!

Though the events may be virual this year, the excitement is 100% real!

The below video captures the surprise and joy from team Athena when they learn they are Champions of the Los Angeles FIRST LEGO League Challenge Championship event.

Following the Qualifying Tournaments, Los Angeles FLL held their Championship on Saturday, December 12. The awards ceremony was held live on LAFLL YouTube.

59 teams competed in Los Angeles FLL Qualifying Tournaments November 21st and 22nd.

Teams submitted and were judged on their videos of their Robot Performance as well as  a 15 minute video of the Innovative Project, Robot Design and their Core Values.

The awards were held live on YouTube with the following teams awarded trophies and 25 teams advanced to the Championships.