A Strathcona County robotics team is ready to show off their work to the world.
The Cyber Eagle Silver senior robotics team received the Inspire Award at the First Tech Challenge (FTC) Alberta provincial championships a few weeks ago.
The win qualified the team for next month's world championship in Houston, Texas.
Nate Stork, the lead builder on the team, says it's been a moment they have been working toward all year.
"You get the challenge at the beginning of the year," said Stork. "Throughout the entire year, you are developing your robot, improving it bit by bit, and going through multiple rounds."
"The Inspire Award is kind of the top award for FTC. It acknowledges the work you put into your robot and design of it as well as your team's core values."
When robotics competitions come to mind, it's easy to immediately think about two machines fighting in a ring, but that is not the type of competition that Stork and the rest of his team are involved in.
"This competition is more cooperative, but you are still against another alliance," said Stork. "Basically, you get teamed up with another team, so it would be two robots against two robots."
"What we had to do this year is [the robot] had to pick up cones from the side of the field and place them on heights of varying junctions."
The Cyber Eagles were obviously very successful at this year's challenge, and they say things will only get busier after the victory.
"We're working hard on developing new systems for our robot as well as we are going to do several other outreach events," said Stork.
This will be the fifth time that the team has attended worlds, but that doesn't mean they won't be soaking everything in.
"One of the most exciting things about going to worlds is seeing all the different teams," said Stork. "It's really cool seeing their experience with [FTC], how they have built their robots through the season, and seeing all the new ideas."
"You definitely learn a lot and take home a lot."
The First Championship is set to run from April 19 to 22.
To learn more about the Cyber Eagles and ways to get involved with the team click here.