Local Victoria high school students were honoured with two prestigious awards ahead of more than 1,200 international students at the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) robotics contest in Houston, Texas last week.

The team is sponsored by local Victoria tech companies and organizations; Codename Entertainment, Actuonix, Prototype Equipment Design, and Makerspace have donated money, space, or materials, to the team as part of their ongoing support and advocacy for growing the tech industry both locally and for Canada.

Team member, Aila Simpson, was selected for the 'Dean's List' award, the first time that a Canadian FTC student was chosen for the honour in the seven-year history of the award.

The team also won the Inspire Award, the highest FTC award that recognises excellence in robot design and teamwork.

The FIRST Tech Challenge International Championships was held in Houston, Texas in the United States on April 19-22, 2017. FIRST Tech Challenge teams (up to 15 members, grades 7-12) are challenged to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge in an alliance format.

FIRST Founder Dean Kamen said: “It is critical to develop more kids with the toolset, the vision and the ability to work together to deal with difficult problems. At FIRST, we inspire enthusiastic young people to learn, work hard and one day – change the world.'

• For more information about FIRST Tech Challenge visit www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc  

• FIX IT 3491 photos: http://bit.ly/FIXIT3491

• Official FIRST Tech Challenge Twitch Channel: https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires/videos/all

About Team FIX IT 3491

Team FIX IT 3491 are five local students that attend Mount Douglas Secondary School, Victoria High, Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, and one home learning student. The Victoria team is one of only three teams from Canada out of the 120 international teams.

The team coach is Christine Nicholls, a local member of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) non-profit organisation, a role she has performed for the last ten years.

The team is sponsored by local Victoria tech companies and organizations; Codename Entertainment, Actuonix, Prototype Equipment Design, and Makerspace have donated money, space, or materials, to the team as part of their ongoing support and advocacy for growing the tech industry both locally and for Canada.

About FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship

FIRST Tech Challenge teams (up to 15 members, grades 7-12) are challenged to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge in an alliance format.

The Championships is also an opportunity to showcase talent to attending recruiters from leading colleges and universities, including MIT and Yale University. All participants have the option to apply for $50 million in scholarships from colleges and universities around the world.