A ROBOTICS technoclub at Ysgol Gyfun Emlyn has been invited to represent the UK in the annual FIRST Robotics World Festival taking place in St Louis USA at the end of April.

Team Lightning will be the very first Welsh team to represent the UK in the 25-year history of the Robotics World Festival and is made up of three Year 11 pupils from the Newcastle Emlyn School - Edward Upton, Ben Dodd and Joseph Stadius.

Each team member has his own key role in the team: robotics programming, robotics development and project innovation.

The World Festival is the accumulation of a year’s worth of local, national and international events with teams from more than 50 countries around the world competing.

The Welsh Technoclub Team Lightning, based at Ysgol Gyfun Emlyn in Newcastle Emlym, was awarded best robot design at the UK and Ireland competition in Bristol earlier this year and will try to repeat this success when they represent the UK at the international finals in the States.

Each year, robotics teams undertake a two-part challenge based on a real-world topic. This time, teams explored what might become possible when we work together with our Animal Allies via a project and robot game.

The project sees teams research and solve real-world problems just like scientists and engineers. The Robot Game sees teams build and program an autonomous robot using a Lego Mindstorms kit to solve a set of missions.

Edward, Ben and Joseph said: “It all really started with Mrs Ling, who was driving us to the regional competition, who said, `If you don’t go on to win today, I won’t be driving you home!’

“From that point onwards, we were particularly focused to win! We went on to win the robot design and project category which was enough to be declared the regional winners!

“We didn’t hold high hopes to win the national event in Bristol, especially after seeing the competition on the day. However, we were overwhelmed to be award `Best Robot Design’ and subsequently given the opportunity to compete at the World Festival”

The team was first established two years ago when preparing for the 2015 Technocamps annual robotics competition which that year was themed “Robo Sports Cup”. Its name was Ben’s idea, and comes from the first robot being called “Zeus” as it required lightning fast reactions.

Ysgol Gyfun Emlyn’s robotics – and more generally computer science – journey started back in 2012 when assistant headteacher, Sarah Thomas, attended a Technocamps teacher briefing to learn about the Technocamps robotics competition and a club was subsequently formed at the school.

Headteacher, Hugh Thomas, said: “The school is enormously proud of the boys in getting this far in the competition. They have worked tirelessly on the project since the beginning - building the robot and developing their project idea – and it has evidently paid off. We know that they will do well in representing the school and wish them well in St Louis.”

Arranging the trip to America has not been straightforward, and the team have been working tirelessly to secure the more than £5,000 sponsorship needed to fund their trip.

A range of local and national organisations have donated towards the fund including Technocamps, the IET, Cier Cawdor Cars, Philip Ling Estates, Quinetiq, Cyngor Y Dref and Small Holding Centre.

The World Festival is fast approaching. With the support of a mentor-coach from Technocamps, Team Lightning has set its sights on the big prize - to return to Wales as the World Festival Champions.