First Tech Challenge Team Compete in National Championship

The St Paul’s First Tech Challenge team, SParkS, competed in the National Championship held at London’s Copper Box Arena on 26 and 27 June 2025.

Between regionals in March and the final last week, the SParkS team completely redesigned and built their robot – all whilst undertaking their GSCE exams. Our team were competing against 63 other teams and had to present their robot to industry judges, who commended them as being the most impressive rookie team that they had seen in the competition, labelling them as “one to watch”. SParkS left the competition with third place in the ‘Control’ category, which recognises use of sensors, code and overall robot design.

The competition, described on its website as “Glastonbury for robots”, seeks to “empower a generation with the STEM and lifeskills to engineer a better future”.

Congratulations to Arnav Bhargava, Kshitij Dubey, James Gronow, Azmere Hassan, Alex Reynolds, Joseph Sternberg, Dylan Siow, Maxence Borms (all of whom are in Sixth Form) and to Artem Lipko (Lower Eighth).