Florida FTC Challengers Use 3D Printing for Robot Competitions

UPDATE 4/4/24- Java the Hutts Heads to World Championship with Hopes of Back to Back Wins!

Fort Myers, March 5, 2024 -- Fort Myers based FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) robotics team, Java The Hutts, has advanced to the World Championship to be held in Houston, TX, April 17 - 20, 2024. Fifty-six teams competed at the State Championship held in Winter Haven, FL, on March 2, 2024. Java The Hutts won the overall first place Inspire Award which earns the top bid of the 4 allocated to Florida teams to advance to Worlds. This remarkable achievement marks their second qualification for the World Championship, having previously secured the World Champion title in April 2022. One of the team members, Dhruva Sharma, was also named as Dean’s List finalist, which is an award given to students to recognize their leadership and dedication to the FIRST robotics program. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a global robotics community with teams spread across over 100 countries, with primary focus on advancing STEM education. FIRST Tech Challenge is a category of robotics competition developed by FIRST for students in the age group of 12 to 18. Teams design, build, and program a robot to compete in an alliance format against other teams. MatterHackers is proud to be a filament sponsorship to help the team meet their goal - go get em! 

UPDATE 4/5/22 - Java the Hutts won the World Championship! Read below about the victory: 

Java The Hutts is part of the winning alliance comprising of three teams – other two teams are from Romania (Alliance Captain) and Longmont, CO. 160 teams from all over the world including 44 states in the USA competed in the 4-day robotics competition. At the end of eight qualification rounds, Java The Hutts was placed 12th in the division (consisting of 80 teams) and was selected by the first seeded team for the division, Delta Force from Romania, to form an alliance along with Up-A-Creek Robotics from Longmont, CO. The 3-team alliance dominated the division semifinals and division finals and moved on to the overall tournament finals to face the opposing division (another group of 80 teams) finalist. Some of the top-most and very experienced teams played in the semifinal and finals matches. Despite being at Worlds for the first time, Java The Hutts helped its alliance rise to become the tournament champions winning the best of three playoff matches. In addition, Java The Hutts was also named as a finalist for the Innovate Award which recognizes teams that have the most innovative and creative robot design solution to any specific components in the FIRST Tech Challenge game.

ANOTHER UPDATE - Java the Hutts creates an awesome video about how they use MatterHackers materials to help them be World Champions! 

Java The Hutts is a FIRST Tech Challenge team located in Southwest Florida and is part of the I Will Mentorship Foundation, a foundation dedicated to providing STEM opportunities to students from underserved communities. FIRST Tech Challenge, also known as FTC, is part of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) a global robotics community with teams spread across 110 countries, with a primary focus on advancing STEM education. FIRST Tech Challenge is a category of robotics competition developed by FIRST covering grades 7 through 12. Teams design, build and program a robot to compete in an alliance format against other teams.

For the most recent season (2021–2022), Java The Hutts have built a phenomenal robot that features many robust systems such as a suspension, turret, and elevator system. Not only have they designed the robot, but they manufacture most of the parts using a CNC machine and 3D printers. This allows them to create innovative parts and subassemblies to streamline their robot design.

FTC is not only about robotics; a very important part of FIRST is also sharing the experience with others. Java The Hutts have done over 35 different outreach activities this season, from hosting a robotics summer camp to being featured on the local news three times! Not only that, but they have also donated to other local FTC and FLL (FIRST Lego League) teams and also mentored several teams to help them flourish this season. Since the founding of the team four years ago, the main goal has always been to spread awareness of robotics and encourage more students to be involved with FIRST robotics programs.

Over the course of the season, Java The Hutts have done exceptionally well winning first place at both the regional and state competition, as well as scoring a state high score. The team now moves on to the World Championship competition in Houston, Texas where teams from several countries come together to compete in one of the most exciting robotics competitions in the world!

For more info on Java the Hutts, you can check out their team Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/Javathehutts

To learn more about the I Will Mentorship Foundation, visit their site here:

https://iwmf2.org/join-us/