Robotics team qualifies for world championships

Team members include Jai Daniel, Ishaan Sharma, Harsh Mali, Sidharth Nambiar, William Whitman, Josh Beitler, Matt Beitler, Rohan Inampudi, Ava Liu, Sam An, Felix Chen, Aaron Jiang and Ashwin Vasudevan. The team is coached by Rich and Sarah Beitler.

“The team competed against 40 of the best robotics teams from across the state, demonstrating exceptional skill, innovation, and teamwork in a highly competitive environment,” Mrs. Beitler said.

To qualify for the world championships, TeraBridges earned the Inspire 3 Award at the Pennsylvania FTC Championship, held March 8-9, 2025, at Bellefonte Area High School. The Inspire Award recognizes a team that performs well in all categories and is a model FIRST Tech Challenge team both on and off the playing field. This team shares its experiences, enthusiasm and knowledge with other teams, sponsors, their community, and the judges.

“After a thrilling competition, the team earned the Inspire 3 Award, which honors the team that truly embodies the spirit of the FIRST Tech Challenge robotics program,” Mrs. Beitler said. 

The international FIRST Championship is a culminating event for the youth robotics competition season and an annual celebration of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The event will bring together more than 250 FTC teams from throughout the United States and beyond.

“TeraBridges is honored to represent Pennsylvania at the World Championship in Houston alongside other top teams from the state,” Mrs. Beitler said. “Although TeraBridges plans to make minor enhancements to their robot, the team’s focus will be on embracing the experience of the World Championship, cheering on their fellow competitors, learning from others, and celebrating the global community of young engineers and innovators.”

The TeraBridges team is currently seeking support to help fund its journey to Houston. To learn how you can help, contact Tracy Smith, USC Robotics coordinator, at tsmith@uscsd.k12.pa.us. 

In total, three of Upper St. Clair’s five FTC teams participated in the state championships – TeraBridges, ROGO Lotus and BotsBurgh. In addition to TeraBridges success, ROGO Lotus was recognized for its community impact.

“ROGO Lotus won the Motivate Award for all of the amazing work they do with our community to promote robotics education,” Mrs. Smith said.

The Motivate Award recognizes a team for its collective effort to make FIRST known throughout their school, and community and sparks others to embrace the culture of FIRST.

According to the judges, the ROGO Lotus team “collaborated with both the local and international community through their various workshops to bring the mission of FIRST. This team is dedicated to inspiring young girls to become future STEM leaders and raised substantial funding for their outreach programs.”  

Team members for ROGO Lotus include Maya Guizzi (captain), Maddie Kovacs (captain), Yaqoot Zalloum, Noa Guizzi, Aanya Agrawal, Aadhya Agrawal, Suhavi Singh, Hannah Zheng, Augusta Bottonari, Jillian Paoly and Avani Ashwini.

“We are incredibly proud and grateful to have been awarded the Motivate Award, the most prestigious honor for ROGO because of our core mission and dedication to outreach,” Maya said. “We are excited to continue working hard in outreach to bring FIRST and robotics both locally and globally.”

Maddie, ROGO’s founding member, appreciates the full-circle of winning the Motivate Award.

“It’s been an exciting three years to watch ROGO grow from two girls who wanted to do it their way to two all-girls teams now,” she said. “We have stayed true to our mission to encourage and inspire girls and others in our community and beyond in STEM, and this award is the ideal season closure for ROGO and my personal FIRST journey.”