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  3月30日午间，美国《论坛邮报》发布一则振奋人心的消息：

　　“圣玛丽中学的两个机器人团队(C4和TNT)双双进入世界级机器人锦标赛——先锋科技挑战赛（FIRST），这是美国西海岸地区唯一一所能有两支团队入选的学校，初赛阶段，由来自18个国家超过4000个小组进行激烈角逐，只有128个团队入选，冲击4月的冠军赛！”

　　初赛：选手被分为2个小组（金组和硅组），每小组36人， C4赢得硅组第4名， TNT 赢得金组第14名，当然，还获得了“最佳控制奖”，该奖的定义：“用创新思维的控制系统，解决困境，如自主操作、提高机械系统与智能控制”。

图为TNT队的机器人正在接受加州奥克兰FTC西部赛区官方测评

　　TNT和C4队将于4月27-30日，在圣路易斯环球航空公司角逐冠军，届时，美国太空探索（SpaceX）、波音和微软等顶尖科技公司的招聘人员，美国空军、麻省理工学院、耶鲁大学的代表都会到场。教练称，这是南俄勒冈选手第一次在FIRST走这么远。

　　“这是一个大惊喜，我们所有人都没有料到，”TNT小组的教练Catherine说，“孩子们真的付出了很多心血。”

　　先锋科技挑战赛FIRST —“为科技寻找灵感和认可”，基于新罕布什尔的一个国际非盈利组织，每年都会组织多种机器人竞赛，其宗旨是激发青少年对科技的兴趣，开展的比赛包括：4-8年级的第一乐高联盟大赛，7-12年级的联邦贸易委员会大赛，以及针对高中生的机器人大赛。

　　比赛中最具挑战的项目--Res-Q，灵感来自于救援山地救援队伍所面临的情况，小组将两两结合，通过重置救援灯塔，将攀登者送入避难所，在山顶或修复区停车中得分。所有的行动都在12英尺10英尺有围墙和软泡沫地板的空间内实施，每个回合2分30秒，最开始30秒是自主操控机器人时间。

　　“我们从去年9月份就全心投入机器人项目了，不断在反思、重建、测试和构建，”16岁的小组成员 Quady说，“每个人都有独特的想法，也敢于创新，虽然很难把这些想法拼凑一体，但只要大家齐心协力，结果却是出乎意料的惊喜。”

　　“大家来自不同年级拥有不同背景，” Quady 说，“但团队需要的合作和配合，让这些差异都消失了”。

　　15岁的小小程序猿Gordon说：“比赛可能有些可怕，但有了这次经历，我们的团队已经通过不懈努力达到了期望的高度，未来，我们蓄势待发，不是一时兴起，而是真的有信心做好”。

  St. Mary's School is delighted to announce that both of their FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) Robotics teams did exceedingly well at the Google-sponsored FTC West Tournament in Oakland, CA last weekend and both will be competing in the FTC World Championship in St. Louis at the end of April. This marks the first time that a team from Southern Oregon has ever advanced to the World Championship.

The FTC West Tournament brought together 72 teams from 13 western states and 3 countries – the top 7% of teams in the West. St. Mary's two teams – TNT (Trial-n-Terror, coached by Kent and Catherine Dauterman) and C4 (Computational Center
for Competitive Circuitry) coached by Ted Willhite and Jeff Hewitt)– each competed in 9 matches over 2 days and got to share ideas with the best teams in the west. C4 ended the day ranked 4th in the Silicon Division of 36 teams, and so they advanced to the semifinals and were captains of the alliance that lost in their division finals. TNT finished a very solid 14th out of 36 teams in the Gold Division and were chosen by　the judges to receive the Control Award, a prestigious award that recognizes "innovative thinking in the control system to solve game challenges such as autonomous operation, enhancing mechanical systems with intelligent control, or using sensors to achieve better results on the field."

So now both TNT and C4 will compete in the FTC World Championship at the TWA Dome in St. Louis in April. This tournament brings together 128 FTC teams from 18 countries. They will be in the top 2.7 percent of 4,629 FTC teams worldwide. This Championship will bring together leaders of FIRST, leaders of top tech recruiters like Spacex, Boeing, Microsoft, and the US Air Force, and representatives from
prestigious universities all over the world, including MIT, Yale, WPI, Harvey Mudd,Rensselaer, and others. All these representatives will be there to have a chance to talk with what they consider to be some of the best young tech minds in the world.

FTC stands for FIRST Tech Challenge, and FIRST -- "For Inspiration and Recognitionin Science and Technology" -- is an international organization devoted to promoting STEM throughout the world by organizing and promoting robotics teams and competitions at a variety of levels throughout the world. The FIRST World Championship brings together the very top FLL (FIRST Lego League), FTC, and FRC (FIRST Robotics Challenge) teams from around the world to compete, share ideas, and celebrate STEM with peers, with representatives from technology industries, and with elite tech schools.

This year's FTC season began back in September 2015, when the season challenge, Res-Q, was revealed. Since then, FTC teams all over the world have been working hard to build and program robots to exacting specifications. TNT and C4 competed in a number of league tournaments, advanced from the league championship to the Oregon Super-Qualifier, and then earned top spots at the Oregon FTC State Championship. C4 and TNT competed in a newly-formed FTC League, S.O.A.R. (Southern Oregon Area Robotics), an FTC league of 16 teams from Roseburg to Medford and from Klamath Falls to Coquille. League organizers Kent Dauterman (co-coach of TNT) and Linda Koontz (former coach of Glide's Absent-Minded　Geniuses) worked tirelessly to form, organize, and run this new league, and now two teams from the new league are advancing to the World Championship. This is the first time that teams from Southern Oregon have advanced to the World Championship.