Celebrating Super Mentor Paul Markun!

Our 7th season brought our 7th Florida FTC State Championship opportunity, and while we had challenges on the field, our teamwork was solid, and our robot proved reliable and robust, without a single mechanical problem throughout a hard day of competition.

Our design and quality engineering spoke for itself, earning TDT the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award for an “Innovative and Creative Robot design solution”  that featured “elegant design, robustness and ‘out of the box’ thinking with regard to design” that was well documented in our Engineering Notebook.

Dean’s List Award Semi-finalists

Team member Ryder Fitzpatrick was a Dean’s List sem-finalist, a new award this year recognizing “the leadership and dedication of FIRST’s most outstanding secondary school students.”

And our very favorite part of the State Championship, hands down, was our Super Mentor Paul Markun being given the Compass Award. The Compass Award recognizes an adult Coach or Mentor who has provided outstanding guidance and support for an FTC Team throughout the year. Mr. Markun has done just that for the last 7 years, and we’re so glad he was recognized for being the exemplary human being that he is!

The Rockwell Collins Innovate Award earned us a spot at the FTC South Super Regional in San Antonio in March, which is a great honor, but we’re not sure yet whether we’ll attend.

It’s been a full, exciting and successful season, and we’re very grateful to all our wonderful supporters, mentors, family and friends who make it all possible, year after year!  You’re what FIRST is all about!

Thank you from the bottom of our duct tape hearts!

Hearty congratulations to all the great teams who made it to the State Championship, and best wishes to those moving on to the Super Regional:

• Inspire Award Winner, Team 6433 Neutrinos
• Inspire Award 2nd place, Team 5070 N.U.T.S.
• Winning Alliance, 1st team selected Team 5257 Eagles Robotics Xperience
• Inspire Award 3rd place, Team 7477 Super 7
• Winning Alliance, 2nd team selected Team 8909 Robo Mojo
• Finalist Alliance Captain Team, 4997 Masquerade
• Connect Award Winner Team, 5937 Renaissance Robotics
• Finalist Alliance, 1st team selected Team 6451 Tarpon Robotics
• Finalist Alliance, 2nd team selected Team 6323 The Pink Team
• Motivate Award Winner, Team 3888 Greased Lightning

Go Teams!