A Cascade Effect of Fun & Success at the Florida FTC State Championship
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!
TDT Wins Rockwell Collins Innovate Award!
Team Duct Tape took home the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award at the Seminole High School Techtacular qualifying competition last Saturday. The award recognizes teams whose “designs come to life” and have creative solutions to the game challenges , an elegant design and a robost robot. We had all of that, but couldn’t quite get it all to work at the same time on the field!
Bowled Over is a tough game with some amazing competitors, especially as the season moves on and teams continue to tweak and improve. (We’re not done yet, either!)
Rookie team Brick Buddies took the top Inspire Award – way to go Brick Buddies!
This competition also marks the very first time TDT has ever been nominated for the Motivate Award. Sure, some teams
pooh-pooh the Motivate Award, but for a bunch of staid self-described geeks and nerds, getting recognized for “costumes” and “outstanding spirit” is a first! The nomination came thanks to the hard work of new team member, Adi, who created our fantastic TDT Duck mascot. It took a little persuasion, but by the end of the day, several team members (including one of the coaches) had taken a turn in the outfit, or at least in different parts of the costume!
We also had a great time visiting our long time mentor and benefactor, Paul Markun, of Tampa Technik, who helped us fashion custom side panels for the robot, one set for show and one for competition. Now we can strut our stuff in style wherever we go!
Now it’s back to the practice field for much needed driving practice, and
a few more tweaks before we head off to the FTC State Championship in Daytona in February. Thanks, Seminole High School, for a great competition!
Team Duct Tape 