What is FIRST® Tech Challenge?
FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is an international STEM competition where students design, build, and programme robots to complete challenges in a dynamic, alliance-based game format. Aimed at secondary school students, it provides a hands-on opportunity to apply engineering, coding, and problem-solving skills in a competitive but collaborative environment.
Each season introduces a new game and theme, meaning teams must adapt every year by developing new designs, strategies, and solutions. Alongside the robot competition, teams are also assessed on their teamwork, outreach, and how well they demonstrate the core values of FIRST® such as innovation, respect, and inclusion.
This Year's Theme
The theme for this season was DECODE™. It invited teams to explore the idea of uncovering hidden meaning through technology, encouraging them to think about how data, patterns, and systems can be interpreted to reveal something new.
The challenge blended this idea of discovery with robotics gameplay, where teams programmed their robots to complete a series of tasks under time pressure. A key part of the game involved collecting plastic balls and shooting them into turrets, requiring accuracy, control, and carefully designed mechanisms. Teams also had to adapt their strategies depending on the flow of each match, making quick decisions to maximise scoring opportunities.
The FTC Northern Ireland Qualifier event took place at W5, Northern Ireland's leading Science and Discovery Centre, the ideal environment for a competition built around exploration and innovation.
In the months leading up to the big day, build days were hosted at W5 LIFE, where teams were able to refine, test, and improve their robots in preparation for the competition. These sessions gave teams valuable time to troubleshoot designs, develop strategies, and make final adjustments before the event.
On the competition day, teams took part in qualification matches, forming alliances and working together to achieve the highest possible scores.
Outside the arena, teams participated in judging sessions where they presented their engineering notebooks, explained their design choices, and reflected on their overall development throughout the season. Judges evaluated not only technical performance, but also communication, teamwork, and how effectively teams demonstrated FTC values.
The Winning Teams
- Inspire Award - Software Therapy
- Inspire Award 2nd Place - MCB Robotics
- Winning Alliance Captain - Software Therapy
- Winning Alliance 1st Team - Ctrl Freaks
- Finalist Alliance Captain - Foyle Roboclub
- Finalist Alliance 1st Team - The Resistance
- Think Award - RBAI
- Connect Award - Ctrl Freaks
- Sustain Award - SPC Beltel
- Innovate Award (Sponsored by RTX) - The Resistance
- Control Award - Ballymena Academy
- Reach Award - Foyle Roboclub
- Design Award - Wallace High School
- Judges' Choice Award - LoughBots
Overall, the event showcased a huge range of creativity, effort, and problem-solving from all teams involved. The FTC DECODE™ competition was a brilliant celebration of student engineering, bringing together innovation, collaboration, and a shared passion for robotics.
Congratulations to Foyle Roboclub, Software Therapy, and Ctrl Freaks for advancing to the UK Championships!