Volcanix Recruitment Update
The Volcanix Team · Membership Updates
The Vol-comeback is happening.
The Team, consisting of students from the King’s College London Mathematics School, brings together competition-specific expertise from former members of teams who have competed across Europe, to technical know-how from several Arkwright Scholars (a prestigious engineering scholarship). Additionally, the team is bolstered by skilled mentors ranging from the FUN Robotics Network, the leading robotics media network; Evan Dave, a lead of the team which won the Champion’s Award in the 2023-2024 Masterpiece season of the First Lego League (a feeder program into FTC), and who also is now a hobbyist embedded systems engineer with projects such as a quadruped robot; and other highly-capable advisors.
Whilst challenges around the acquisition and retainment of FTC-specific knowledge exist for any team recruiting in a 16-19 school exist, this has been rebuked via the recruitment of three team members which have previous experience in the Into the Deep and Decode seasons – and who bring incredibly valuable experience with regards to shooter design and general strategy. They look forward to partaking in Coorpetition® with their former teams in future events.
The view from the top.
Team leads mention being incredibly proud that they have started the season with a running start, by assembling a starter bot – for the purposes of providing hands-on experience – and beginning the process of designing a competitive, reliable, and cost-effective robot. With considerations of the exceptional talent pool at the School (which remains as one of the best-performing Sixth Forms in the country), removal of some of the burdens from last year (such as a delayed start, and issues with handling finances), and a firm management team, there is reason to be watchful for an auspicious future.
But there's a catch..
However, optimism must be kept in check with the reality of constrained funding, alongside rigorous academic demands. The Team must therefore emphasise their gratefulness for their current sponsors, Oshen, Apian, and Airhive amongst them, and for any future confirmed supporters of a promising team aiming to break into the upper echelons of FTC performance.
The New Team
Where the Money Goes
Funding is the constraint named above, and it is the reason every member of the new roster will spend time approaching sponsors and schools. Sponsorship pays for parts, competition entry fees and outreach.
We publish our books rather than summarising them, so every transaction is listed in full with what it was for.
Thank You
Our thanks to the sponsors backing the team into this season: King’s College London and AirHive at Vector tier, and Apian and Oshen at Matrix tier.
If your company wants to help fund the season, the tiers start under £100 and our books are public. Sponsor the team →
What’s Next
Commencing the building of the first robot, which will be performing in Regional rounds