Robotics world title shot 'To Be Confirmed'
A team of whizz-kid robot experts won a national competition in Telford and now have their sights set on a world title.
Team TBC, with one Telford member and four from Birmingham, impressed at the VEX Robotics Competition National Championship, which concluded at Telford's International Centre last weekend.
The five boys began their team in 2016 and participated in the VEX competition, and this year made it to the UK finals where they were crowned winners with only one loss in 16 head-to-head robotics challenges.
Chris Chen lives in Priorslee. Telford, and studies at Haberdashers' Adams School in Newport. His mother Jessica said the boys picked TBC or 'to be confirmed' as a placeholder name while they focused on designing their robot, but never got around to changing it.
MORE:
They have qualified for the world finals, to be held in Kentucky in late April, but need to raise money for their team to travel there and hope to attract more sponsors.
Dr Dongsheng Guo, whose son Bart is part of the team, said: "We formed a VEX team named TBC, we are proud to be an independent team.
"We started from scratch in the 2016-2017 season and now we stormed the UK Championship final this year to be crowned as the UK champions, with extraordinary stats."
The VEX competition takes a different format every year, with this year's challenge, Turning Point, saw teams try and outscore each other by using their robots to shoot balls at targets and park quickly and accurately afterwards.
TBC won their final match as part of the Red Alliance with another team of boys.
Dr Guo continued: "We have decided to participate in the VEX World Championship to be held in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, from April 24-27. Apparently, given the scale of the event and the holiday period, the trip would be costly for five boys and two parents.
"Hereby we plead for your kind financial sponsorship. We have reserved some spaces on our team jerseys for a couple of names, to show your brand, to the world-wide STEM community, on the big stage of the VEX World Championship."
Anyone interested in being sponsored can contact Dr Guo on 07900 922177.
