A Robotics Triumph
A team of sixth‑formers from Friends' School in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, has captured the imagination of the UK robotics community by winning a national competition with a basketball‑playing robot designated 25416.
The students devoted hundreds of hours to designing, building and programming the machine, ensuring that it could both pick up balls and shoot them with speed and accuracy.
Teamwork was at the heart of the project; each member brought a distinct expertise, from hardware assembly to software control, allowing the robot to tackle the competition’s fast‑paced challenges.
Beyond the lab, the trio shared their enthusiasm with younger pupils, running workshops that sparked early interest in STEM and demonstrated how collaborative problem‑solving can turn ambitious ideas into reality.
Their efforts were rewarded with a trophy for first place, yet the victory comes with a caveat: the team will not travel to the European final, choosing instead to focus on their A‑Level examinations.