All-Girls Robotics Team From South Jersey Advances to New Jersey State Championship For 3rd Consecutive Season

Team Outer Galaxy with their robot and awards (Photo provided)

Marlton-based all-girls robotics team 18241 Outer Galaxy earned a spot in the New Jersey State Championship of FIRST Tech Challenge competition to be held on March 17, 2024, by winning Inspire Award 2nd Runner-Up, Connect Award and also a Finalist Alliance Captain Team.

One of the top-performing all-girls teams in the region, they were ranked the number one team based on the ranking points and tiebreaker points for most of the season.

New Jersey has 178 teams in the region with the majority of these representing local high schools.

Team 18241 won all 5 of their matches in the qualification phase of the tournament and also went on to win the semi-finals. One of the highlights of the day was team’s perseverance when the robot claw severed after a collision with the Alliance Partner robot in their second match of the day.

With only eight minutes until their third match, they had to take the field with no claw on the robot. With sheer determination, they led from the front and won that match by scoring 30 points autonomously, launching a drone in zone 1 for another 30 points, and rigging the robot in the endgame for 20 points.

The team fixed the claw with an older 3D-printed version and won the remainder of their qualification matches.

This season the team has been sponsored by companies like Boeing, Franklin Templeton, Gene Haas Foundation, Bristol Myers Squibb, Philips, etc.

They are also mentored by 5 industry professionals, 2 university professors, 1 NASA research engineer and 1 alumni mentor.

One of the highlights of this season is the community impact team has created in the US as well as in India. They have conducted several STEM empowerment through robotics workshops for multiple Girls Scout troops, local elementary school science fair and mentoring 3 FTC teams throughout the season.

In India, team Outer Galaxy formed a robotics club at a school in Goa, and transformed the state of Goa from zero FTC teams in 2022 to 5 rookie FTC teams in 2024. Their STEM and FTC awareness in Goa enabled the government to host the 2024 FTC National Championship in the state of Goa.

There has been nothing stopping the girl power from Outer Galaxy from continuing their mission to empower as many girls in STEM as possible.