From South Jersey to Houston: Power the LUNATECS!

From South Jersey to Houston: Power the LUNATECS’ STEM Mission!

The LUNATECS dove into the 2025 FIRST Robotics Competition season as a very young team after saying goodbye to 10 graduating seniors at the end of last season. Through the summer and fall, recruits brought STEM projects and skills to the youth in our surrounding community through our summer camps. These camps have taught kids to love STEM and engineering, so much so that 30% of our community-based teams are composed of former campers! In the fall, we spent hours in training sessions with topics ranging from shop safety and basic tool use to FRC programming, First Aid, CAD Design, and effective prototyping to prepare our team for the kickoff of FRC’s new season, REEFSCAPE, on January 4, 2025.

With only 6 weeks to design, build, and program our robot, our young team felt the growing pains. By our Week 1 competition, we drove well and advanced to the quarterfinals with our alliance partners. We were also thrilled to be presented with the FIRST Impact Award in recognition of our ongoing efforts to create STEM pathways through sustainable community partnerships. We presented our “OCEANS” of impact: Outreach efforts, Competitions, Engineering skills, Adaptive devices, New student recruitment, and Sustainability for the future.

Thanks to our top-notch programming team, our team was chosen for the Autonomous Award at our next competition in Bensalem. It was the first time our team had won this award, thanks largely to students like Nikhil, who spent countless hours researching and fine-tuning until our robot smoothly delivered the game pieces fully autonomously. 

At the FIRST Mid-Atlantic District Championship at Lehigh University, the LUNATECS had a tough first day, going 0-4 in our first four matches. Day 2 brought with it a six-game winning streak and moved up in the rankings from 60th to 13th! It was a team effort involving all aspects, led by our determined drive team. We finished the event as part of Alliance Four and are honored to once again be chosen to represent the First Mid-Atlantic District as FIRST Impact Award winners, an award given to a team that best exemplifies FIRST’s mission.

Now, we have set our sights on the World Championship in Houston, TX. We are so excited to continue sharing our Impact Story on this international stage and demonstrating how our efforts to promote STEM in South Jersey are bearing fruit. But we need your help! All donations are appreciated, as they will help our students and mentors continue to represent South Jersey and STEM, and we know we can make you proud!

Your tax-deductible donation to South Jersey Robotics and sharing this campaign will help this dream come true.

More about the us (The Lunatecs, 316):

Website - https://lunatecs.org

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/frclunatecs316

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/316_lunatecs

More about FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Championship:

FIRST® Robotics Competition Championship – FIRST Robotics Competition combines sports excitement with the rigors of science and technology. Under strict rules, limited resources, and time limits, teams are challenged to fundraise, design a brand, exercise teamwork, and build and program robots to compete in an exciting game that includes autonomous and driver-operated periods.

Top teams in the four FIRST programs, including FIRST® LEGO® League (ages 9 to 16, varies by country); FIRST Tech Challenge (ages 12 to 18); and FIRST Robotics Competition (ages 14 to 18) compete in addition to the high-energy robotics matches, 60 teams participated in the FIRST® LEGO® League Jr. (grades K-4, ages 6 to 9) World Festival Expo.