Corona Del Sol Robotics Team Earns National Recognition

Press release from Tempe Union High School District:

June 4, 2021

FIRST® Robotics Competition announced 20 finalist teams would advance to the 2021 FIRST® Global Innovation Awards powered by Star Wars: Force for Change. Corona del Sol’s AZTECH Robotics Team 6479 was selected from more than 850 entries from around the world. The team is sponsored by Corona del Sol teacher and FIRST® Robotics 2021 Teacher of the Year winner, Stephen Heiser. Their outstanding solution demonstrated sound and innovative design, feasibility, and the potential to have significant impact in the world.

Teams who participate in the FIRST Innovation Challenge must design a solution, create a business model and pitch their idea, and advance their skills by using technology as part of the process. Inspired by the season’s sports and fitness theme, teams must explore the invention and innovation process through identifying a problem or opportunity to help people and communities keep, regain, or achieve optimum physical and/or mental health and fitness through active play or other forms of movement.

AZTECH Robotics Team 6479 has invented Swish! Connect: Master Motor Skills through Adaptive Technology for the FIRST Innovation Challenge presented by Qualcomm Incorporated. Swish! Connect helps special‐education children develop their motor skills in an engaging way, helping their ability to easily and independently complete daily tasks. There are 3 key components of this project: an auto‐adjusting basketball hoop, an app, and a website. The team will join other finalists from FIRST® Tech Challenge and FIRST® LEGO® League to attend virtual workshops, showcase their solution, and present to industry leaders and expert judges from June 28 – 30th.

On June 30th at 2:30 p.m. ET on the FIRSTtv Twitch channel, the Global Innovation Awards will culminate with an awards show broadcast. The winning team will be awarded experiential, one‐ of‐a kind prizes from sponsors, including mentorship with top industry experts. Additional awards will be given live to where runners up, an Innovation Impact Award, Implementation Award, and Create Award. All teams will receive Star Wars: Force for Change commemorative items, designed exclusively and available only to participants of the 2021 FIRST Global Innovation Awards.

Under strict rules and limited time and resources, FIRST Robotics Competition teams in grades 9‐12 (ages 14‐18) around the world are challenged to create a team identity, raise funds, hone 1 teamwork skills, and build and program industrial‐sized robots to play a themed field game in an action‐packed alliance format!

The 2021 Global Innovation Awards powered by Star Wars: Force for Change are sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton, Cheddar News, Collins Aerospace, John Deere, and LEGO Education and in collaboration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

FIRST Innovation Challenge sponsors include: Presenting Sponsor Qualcomm, Key Sponsor BAE Systems, with the support of John Deere and the global healthcare company Abbott and its foundation the Abbott Fund, Media Partner Cheddar News, and in collaboration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

This press release was produced by Tempe Union High School District. The views expressed here are the author's own.