Girbau supports First Tech Challenge Championship in Spain

The Epiteugma Revved Up team from Cyprus won the First Tech Challenge Championship in Spain held this month at the American School of Barcelona. The team has won the Inspire Award, giving them the chance to travel to the United States and take part in the world final in Detroit from 24 to 27 April.

This year sees the start of Challenge in Spain, thanks to the backing of the Girbau Group, the Scientia Foundation and the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia. A total of two hundred people aged between 16 and 18 took part in it, in 18 teams from Catalonia and the rest of Spain, but also from Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Cyprus and the Czech Republic.

Entrants had to design, create, test and programme autonomous robots operated by controllers to perform a series of missions and tasks on a specific test area to meet the “Rover Ruckus” challenge, which this year focused on exploring the galaxies beyond the solar system.

Apart from the winner, The Encrypted Gentlemen from the Netherlands took the Think Award for the ability to solve engineering problems creatively. The HP SA team from the Netherlands won the Connect Award for being the best at connecting the elements of STEM. The RoboCats from Germany won the Collins Aerospace Innovate Award for design and innovation in a robot. The FROG (Frog Robots of Germany) team took the Design Award for using industrial design in a robot. The Can-Alpha Space team from Tenerife in Spain won the Motivate Award for teamwork, while the German Eagles won the Control Award for the best use of sensors and software for the purposes of functionality in the field. Finally, the German Eagles and FROG (Frog Robots Of Germany) took the Winning Alliance Award, while the Mechanical Sharks from Manlleu (Catalonia) and the Casimir Tech team from the Netherlands won the Finalist Alliance Award.