Lake Oswego’s ToborTech robotics team qualifies for the 2024 FIRST World Championship in Houston, Texas

It was a season of lasts for ToborTech, one of Lake Oswego’s student robotics teams, as their coach retires and more than half of the team heads toward graduation.

Last robot, last regional competition, last state competition.

That is, it was their last competition until they qualified for the 2024 FIRST World Championship in Houston, Texas by qualifying at the FIRST Tech Challenge Oregon Championship on Sunday, March 10 at Liberty High School in Hillsboro. The world championship is scheduled to run from April 17-20.

ToborTech won the Innovate Award, judged on creativity and ingenuity, and second place for the Inspire Award, judged on community service and outreach. ToborTech’s coach Wan-Shu Lu also earned the Compass Award to recognize her dedication and support for the students on the team.

The longest-running FTC team in Lake Oswego, ToborTech started 10 years ago and has grown as robotics competitions have. This is the sixth time that ToborTech has qualified for Worlds, but being their last season, this trip will hold special meaning.

ToborTech was also part of the three-team alliance that won the Oregon state competition. In FIRST robotics, teams qualify for the World Championship by earning different awards and winning competitions at the regional and state level.

FTC teams are different than FRC robotics teams. Tech Challenge teams use smaller robots for the competition and involve fewer students who can be as young as seventh graders. While FRC teams like The Lake Monsters operate like a small company with as many students as possible working to manufacture their robot and get it ready for competition, smaller teams like ToborTech can spend more time growing expertise in many different areas and focus on more community service work.

ToborTech’s science outreach work included partnering with the nonprofit Dynasty House to send Lego robotics kits to students in Sierra Leone.

The other three Lake Oswego FTC robotics teams also qualified for the division semifinals at the FTC Oregon Championship: Mostly Operational, All Hands on Tech and WireFire.

The remaining, younger students on ToborTech will form a new team next season with a new coach, so while ToborTech is coming to an end its legacy will carry on.