Robotics teams shine at state qualifier

“All-girl teams ROGO Lotus and ROGO Rose had a fun and successful weekend, bringing home two awards and a trip to the FTC State Championship,” Tracy Smith, USC Robotics coordinator, said.

ROGO Lotus earned the second place for the Inspire Award, which qualifies the team to compete at the Pennsylvania FTC Championship in March. The Inspire Award is given to the team that “is a strong ambassador for FIRST programs and works to promote FIRST and make it loud in their community. The winner of this award is an inspiration to other teams, acting with gracious professionalism both on and off the playing field.”

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.

ROGO Rose was chosen by the sixth-place team as their alliance partner and earned the Think Award. This award is given to the team “that best reflects the journey the team took as they experienced the engineering design process during the build season” and honors the team’s creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

ROGO Rose is comprised of Kesahi Mathanachandran (captain), Nishma Ghimire (captain), Sofia Alfredson-Themudo, Shrida Devaki, Charlotte Swanson, Gloria Wu, Maria Alfredson Themudo, Lily Seal, Hanna Qian, Mahi Thacker and Sadie Dilmore.

Both ROGO teams are coached by Lisa Kovacs and Candi Chen with assistance from key mentors Jake Seal, Amrit Singh, Dipti Thacker, Sarah Withee and Liza Allison.

"I am proud of all the girls for working so hard, and especially the girls from last year's team who made the tough decision to split up into two teams so that all interested girls could join a team with experience," Ms. Kovacs said.

ROGO Lotus is one of two USC Robotics teams that have advanced to the state-level competition. Team Terabridges qualified in December at the Greyhound Sprint Qualifier.

“ROGO Lotus is the second USC Robotics team to qualify for the FTC PA State Championship, a testament to the growth and success of our STEM program,” Ms. Smith said.

USC Robotics teams have additional opportunities to qualify for states.

“We have the last qualifier hosted by USC on Feb 22-23, where the other teams still have a chance to make states,” Ms. Chen said. “Our goal is to get all five teams to states this year!”

The two ROGO (Robotics Offering Girls Opportunities) teams are both all-girl robotics teams. ROGO Lotus was first established in 2022. ROGO Rose was formed in 2024 due to growing interest.

“ROGO has two all-girl robotics teams due to the great demand by girls to have an encouraging and welcoming environment to explore STEM,” Ms. Chen said. “We grew from seven to 24 girls in a year.”

In addition to the two all-girls teams, USC Robotics has three coed FTC teams – BotsBurgh, TeraBridges and USC Dynamics.

“All five teams have continued to support each other through this season,” Ms. Smith said. “It is due to unifying themselves as USC Robotics that has truly led to their growth and continuing success.”