More opportunities for high school robotics students
Queen City Robotics Alliance has announced the creation of two new FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC) teams in Charlotte. These two new teams will expand the opportunities for Charlotte-Mecklenburg high school students to become part of a team engaging in friendly competition while also making new friends and preparing for their future studies and careers.
QCRA CFO Kaiwen Cheng made the announcement on July 20, and now QCRA is working hard to recruit not only new student team members, but adult mentors and volunteers.
“As we prepare for the 2025–2026 robotics season,” Cheng explained, “we’re excited about the possibilities ahead, but we need your help to make it all happen.”
What is FIRST Robotics Competition? FIRST founder Dean Kaman began what is now a global non-profit in 1989 to “combine the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology.” FRC teams across the country design, program, and build industrial sized robots (weighing between 80-100 pounds!) to participate in action-packed games and challenges at tournaments. Teams compete on a playing field that has a different theme each year. The theme for the 2025-26 competition season is FIRST Age – Rebuilt presented by Haas with an emphasis on archeology.
EVENT: To reach more potential volunteers and student team members, QCRA is hosting two Volunteer and Student Recruitment nights in August at our facility The Zone. The events are Wednesdays, August 13 and August 20, from 6-8 pm. It is an open house-style event so families and potential recruits can visit at a time convenient for them. Guests will be able to meet our current FRC teams, ask questions of team members and mentors, tour our classrooms and facilities, and learn how to volunteer and/or register for a FIRST FRC team. Those who cannot make the in-person events can email QCRA at info@queencityrobotics.com for more information.
QCRA is also thrilled to announce one of the new FRC teams will be made entirely of girls. This will be an opportunity for girls who are interested in robotics and engineering – but may be reluctant to join a co-ed team – to participate in what can be male-dominated field. The hope is to instill confidence in young women so they can succeed in STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and perhaps even go on into science and technology fields as a career.
Last year both of QCRA’s FRC teams qualified for the World Championships in Houston. Team 3506 YETI Robotics has existed for over 10 years and has qualified for worlds three out of the last four years. Team 2724 Avalanche Robotics is a new team in its first year of competition, however, the team’s lead mentor has been involved with FRC and QCRA for many years. Both of our existing teams will be partnered with one of the new teams to guide them through their first year of competition.
Please help! We need more adult mentors for all of our teams. By reaching out to you in the Charlotte media, we hope you’ll find room in your publications, newsletters, and programs to feature us so we can find enough adult volunteers to support our teams for years to come. The requests from students and their families for more teams has been increasing since we moved into our new, larger facility in 2023, but without adults leading the teams, we have had difficulty meeting the demand. While we have had success in creating teams for younger kids, this is the first attempt we have made in several years to increase the number of high school teams. We can’t do it without your help.
MEDIA OUTLETS: Any media outlet wanting more information, photographs, or interviews with team mentors and students, please contact Carrie Dow at 303-523-3758, carriedow@queencityrobotics.
