Two London-based teams have jointly secured a new UK record for their robots' performance in the world's largest robotics competition, FIRST Tech Challenge.
Norwood Industries from the Norwood School and Barking Tech Titans from Barking Abbey School worked together in an alliance to score 204 in this year's INTO THE DEEP game. The same game is played by over 7000 teams worldwide competing in FIRST Tech Challenge.
Until now, the high score achieved by UK teams was 141, set in 2024 by three teams working collaboratively.
Norwood Industries, as captain of the alliance, then progressed to the elimination rounds and after another victory, will now progress to the UK Championship at the Copper Box Arena in London on 26 and 27 June 2025. They’ll go head-to-head against 63 other UK teams.
Norwood Industries also achieved the Inspire Award, FIRST Tech Challenge UK’s most prestigious award. It goes to the strongest team across a range of categories, including engineering, STEM outreach and developing innovative solutions.
“It’s a great honour to lead my team to champs and we’re really looking forward to it. Good luck to the rest of the teams” reflected Adam, Norwood Industries’ team captain, on their win.
The tournament saw teams put their student-built robots to the test in this year’s water-themed challenge, ‘INTO THE DEEP’. During two-and-a-half-minute matches, alliances of two teams compete to score points by completing complex tasks using robots programmed for both autonomous and driver-controlled operation. Beyond technical skills, the challenge fosters teamwork, problem-solving and resilience under pressure.
“The teams’ incredible creativity, resilience and problem-solving skills truly demonstrate what it takes to succeed in STEM and their futures. Not only have they risen to the challenge, but they’ve also reminded us all that teamwork and collaboration are what’s needed to tackle tomorrow’s biggest challenges.” shared Patrice John-Baptiste, Head of Impact and Engagement at FIRST UK.
FIRST Tech Challenge UK empowers young people aged 12-18 with the technical knowledge and soft skills to thrive in STEM and beyond. They work like teams in industry to design, build and program a robot to compete at progressive events. Teams hone new skills such as communication, teamwork, programming, project management, fundraising and engineering.
The programme is run by charity, FIRST UK, with a mission to make STEM less intimidating, more diverse and inclusive. Supported by Arm, XTX Markets, RTX, Gene Haas Foundation, Bloomberg, Salesforce and Qualcomm, the charity is part of the global FIRST movement established in 1989, which reaches 650,000 young people worldwide each year.