Lake Oswego robotics team ToborTech takes home third place Control Award at FIRST World Championship in Houston

Members of the Lake Oswego High School robotics team ToborTech celebrated an incredible achievement at their final competition.

ToborTech earned third place for the Control Award at the FIRST World Championship for high school robotics in Houston from April 17-20.

“ToborTech extends their gratitude to their mentors, supporters, and sponsors who have played a significant role in their success. Their unwavering support has allowed the team to reach new heights and inspire future generations of young innovators and engineers,” the team said in an email.

ToborTech is one of many FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams in Lake Oswego. Lake Oswego High School and Lakeridge High School also host a joint FIRST Robotics Challenge team, the Lake Monsters. FTC teams are smaller in team size and robot size than FRC teams, which operate more like an F1 team or small company.

After 10 years of coaching, mentoring and organizing, six World Championship qualifications and numerous state accolades, ToborTech’s coach Wan-Shu Lu is ready to retire from FTC. The younger students on ToborTech will reform a new team, with a new team number, next school year.

To earn the Control Award, ToborTech team members identify the control aspects of the robot they are the most proud of. A robot’s control systems encompass the actions it’s capable of completing, the information it can gather and how it maneuvers around the competition field.

ToborTech secured the coveted award among hundreds of teams from 36 countries.

“This achievement is a testament to the hard work, ingenuity, and teamwork displayed by the members of ToborTech. Through their dedication to FTC and work in improving STEM access, both in the Oregon community and globally through their project ‘Stem for Sierra Leone,’ ToborTech is an exemplar of what highschoolers can do if they set their minds to it,” the team said by email.