Robotics Teams Qualify for National Events

Steel Synapse earned first place in the Core Values category for its demonstration of inclusion and gracious professionalism. Starfish Quartz captured the Motivate Award, which recognizes team spirit and enthusiasm.

The state championship was held Feb. 14, 2026, at Palmyra High School near Hershey and featured 36 of the top 388 FLL teams from across Pennsylvania. Participation is by invitation only, with teams qualifying through regional competitions.

Steel Synapse is comprised of seventh graders from Fort Couch Middle School, including Rayansh Kature, Benny Rovner, Aditya Singh, Siddh Patel, Ayan Sharma, Porter Guarino and Tarun Bharath. The team, which finished sixth at the State Championship, will compete at the international Worcester Polytechnic Institute Annual FLL Event June 11-14, 2026, in Worcester, Massachusetts.

“This is an incredible opportunity for our students to represent their school district, our community, and the state of Pennsylvania on an international stage,” Minnie Sundaram, Steel Synapse head coach, said. “We could not be prouder of their dedication, resilience and teamwork.”

The Starfish Quartz team includes Boyce Middle School sixth graders Ishanvi Kuppili, Claire McCluskey, Nabanya Raja, Priyal Baskota and Callie Chen as well as fifth graders Kendall Brown and Lilly Qian. The team will travel to the fifth annual American Robotics Invitational on June 6-7, 2026, at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, where they will be among 60 high performing teams, representing 41 different FLL regions from across the United States.

In addition to Steel Synapse and Starfish Quartz, a team of sixth graders from Boyce Middle School, Digital Dominators, also competed at the FLL Pennsylvania State Championship. Team members include Tessa Bins, Pragnya Chetlur, Srinidhi Senthil Kumar, Shreya Nambiar, Seetha Muthiah and Grace Li.

The FIRST LEGO League Challenge emphasizes collaboration and creativity as students in grades 4-8 engage in research, engineering, coding and problem-solving. Teams design and program LEGO robots to complete a series of missions, while also developing innovative solutions to real-world problems connected to an annual theme.

For more information about Upper St. Clair’s FLL opportunities, contact Tracy Smith, USC Robotics coordinator, at tsmith@uscsd.k12.pa.us.