Cambourne kids head to Australia for FIRST LEGO Robotics Championship

Children from Cambourne, near Cambridge, are set to represent the UK in the Asia Pacific FIRST LEGO Robotics Open Championship, which will be held in Sydney in July.

To reach the grand final in Australia, teams from the Cambourne Educational Robotics Club (CERC) competed with 75 regional champions from schools across the UK and Ireland. At the IET-backed FIRST LEGO League UK Final, CERC teams achieved 2nd, 5th, and 8th places. The winning team was Exploding Ketchup, an out of school group.

“Our mission, clear from the outset, has been to pave the way for our children’s futures,” said Dr Shrobona Bhattacharya, who has helped mentor the CERC teams, as part of her organisation, Cambridge Electronics and Robotics Academy. “With unwavering dedication, the parents, teachers, and mentors of the Cambourne Educational Robotics Club have poured their hard work, time, and vision into this journey.”

“Previously, participating in the Nationals was a significant milestone, representing Cambridgeshire on a national stage. Now, we are thrilled to announce that the Cambourne (Cambridge) Children, securing an overall 2nd place in the UK National Champions, have earned the honour of representing the UK in Sydney this July for the Asia-Pacific FIRST LEGO Championship!”

The Cambourne team members who will represent the UK in Australia are as follows:

Mehta, A
Jagdale, V
Chandawar, A
Patil, A
Wang, Y
Singla, P
Kucharalapati, S
Mamidi, S
Dave, S
Varma, Y

The IET will be supporting the team with £3,000 towards travel costs. The remaining amount, however, will need to be fundraised by the team. You can see the full list of IET Award allocations for the UK.

Note that Dr Bhattacharya also highlighted the commendable performance of two additional teams from Wales and Glasgow in the national arena. It meant that, in total, her organsiation – run with her husband Dr. Sujit Bhattacharya, had mentored 125 children, aged 8 to 14, from 32 schools across the UK for the FIRST LEGO Robotics competitions this year.

Congratulations to all who took part!

Time for the big one!

The Champion Award goes to… Exploding Ketchup!

Amazing work team!

See also: Lego league gets children thinking STEM in the North East