April 15, 2015

UPenn, Drexel donate $20K to Central High's Robolancers

By Michael Tanenbaum
PhillyVoice Staff

Mary Kulesa/flickr

The Robolancers will travel to the FIRST World Championships in St. Louis April 22-25 with the help of UPenn, Drexel, and crowdfunded support.

Central High School's Robolancers, established in 1999, have gradually become a competitive tour de force in the world student robotics teams. They've also contributed mentorship and STEAM educational programs to students of all ages, organizing the annual Philly Robotics Expo at the University of Pennsylvania since 2011.

With the FIRST Robotic World Championships coming up in St. Louis next week, the Robolancers found themselves short about $35,000 in trip expenses to attend and represent the mid-Atlantic region as one of its two qualifying teams.

According to Technical.ly Philly, at the urging of Mayor Michael Nutter, UPenn and Drexel offered to kick in the $20,000 needed to cover the difference of another $16,000 the Robolancers raised through a crowdfunding campaign.

The team last traveled to the World Championships in 2013, raising $29,000 to do so, and placed 71 out 100 teams in a 400 team international field.

In the past, NASA and Comcast have sponsored the team, which does not receive funding from the School District.

The team will be led at the competition by coach Michael Johnson, who replaced longtime coach Dan Ueda last year. It's still possible to make donations on the team's GoFundMe page, which will help fund outreach and activities for next year.