FRC 868 - TechHOUNDS

The TechHOUNDS End of Year Banquet is always a great time to reflect on our team’s hard work, dedication and season accomplishments! This year we competed at 2 district events, the Indiana State Championship and World Championship accomplishing: - Columbus District Event Impact Award Winner - �Washington District Event Winner - Washington District Event Engineering Inspiration Award Winner - Washington District Event Judges Award Winner - �Indiana State Championship Engineering Inspiration Award Winner - �World Championship Newton Division Winner - World Championship Einstein Tournament Finalist - FIRST Leadership Award Our team also graduated 16 seniors, and we wish them luck wherever they are headed next! FIRST is about more than just robots and the TechHOUNDS and TechPUPD are so proud to truly take that to heart and prioritize giving back to our community! REBUILT has been a season for the record books! Let’s go 868 and 761! #omgrobots #first #frc #firstrobotics #firstinspires

To wrap up our recap posts following worlds, we want to congratulate Emma Langlais for being awarded the FIRST Leadership Award! Emma has been involved in robotics for over 10 years, participating in FLL Jr., FLL, and FRC! On our team, she served as our Vice President this season, but had also held positions in every area of our team in the past! Emma is incredibly hardworking and dedicated, and we are so proud of her accomplishments! She has done an incredible job with transforming our team while inspiring the next generation of girls to participate in robotics! Congratulations Emma! 💙💛

While in Houston, we had the honor of cheering on the TME STEAM Club during their first trip to worlds! We were able to watch their robot runs, tour all the FLL pits, and celebrate them in their pit! Through mentoring this team over the last few years, we have developed strong relationships with the students, helping to strengthen our local robotics community! Congratulations to them and all their hard work, we are so proud of you! 💙💛

This year at the FIRST Championship, we achieved things that the team hasn’t done in over 20 years and had an incredible showing. To kick off the championship, the TechHOUNDS were members of the Newton Division, and the TechPUPS were members of the Hopper Division. Both teams then participated in 10 qualification matches over the next two days. During these matches, both teams had the chance to play with and against the best teams in the world. Throughout quals, both teams were interviewed for several awards, and had the chance to tour the pits, talk to other teams, attend conferences hosted by other teams, tour the innovation fair, and experience all worlds had to offer! At the end of qualification matches, TechHOUNDS was ranked 22nd with a record of 6-4, and the TechPUPS were ranked 46th with a record of 5-5. During Alliance selection, the TechHOUNDS were picked by the number 1 seeded alliance with @jackinthebot , @bearmetal2046 , and @robo_vikes . The TechHOUNDS then went on to become the Newton division champions, something the team hasn’t accomplished in years! Moving onto the Einstein field, the team had the ability to compete in front of 50,000 spectators alongside other elite teams. We advanced to the Einstein finals and eventually lost 1-2 to become the world finalists. Additionally at worlds, Emma Langlais had the honor of being awarded the FIRST Leadership Award in recognition for her contributions to FIRST and dedication to our team! While in Houston, we also went on many sidequests and sightseeing! We ate dinner at the aquarium and after the last day of competition we visited NASA’s Johnson Spacecenter for the day. We had the opportunity to take a tram tour to see a model of the Saturn 5 rocket, touch a piece of the moon, and celebrate our accomplishments together.  All of this truly would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication from each and every one of our students, mentors, and coaches. Thank you all for your hard work, we couldn’t have done it without you! Onto Biocore! 💙💛

I know I should sleep… but the voices in my head want more @first_official_ Championship… 🤖🏆 Back in bed, but my mind is still at FIRST Championship replaying every moment… the energy, the matches, the people, the impact 🙌🏽 Anyone else still not over Champs?! ⬇️ #FIRSTChampionship #MoreThanRobots #STEM #Robotics #EngineerSomeday

After an exciting District Championship here in Indiana, both TechHOUNDS and TechPUPS are officially worlds-bound! We are so incredibly proud of everyone’s hard work this season, and are endlessly grateful to those who helped support our team. That being said, traveling to worlds and transporting two robots and pits is expensive. If you are able to, making a donation would be tremendously helpful in getting us to Houston! If you are interested in making a donation, please click the link below and follow the directions on the page. https://adkqveqm.donorsupport.co/page/TechHOUNDSWorldsComp Stay tuned for our State Championship recap, and SEE YOU IN HOUSTON 💙💛

As we gear up for state, we wanted to extend a HUGE thank you to one of our amazing sponsors, Mr. Button!! Mr. Button has supplied all of our buttons this season, allowing us to immerse ourselves in the community of the pits during competitions. We are so incredibly thankful for everything they have done for us, and we can’t wait to share these buttons with everyone at state!! See you there 💙💛

STATE-BOUND 💙💛 Last weekend, TechHOUNDS and TechPUPS had the chance to compete at the Washington District Event. We had such an incredible time at this event, and we want to thank all of the event staff and volunteers who made this possible! Coming into the event from a 2-week complete rebuilt of their robot, TechHOUNDS were ranked 2 coming out of qualification matches and were honored to Captain Alliance 2, teaming up with our sister team 761 the TechPUPS and 7657 the Thunderbots for the elimination round. Our entire alliance fought hard all the way through the upper bracket and finals, with everything coming down to finals match 3 against Alliance 1. We are incredibly honored to be the Washington District Event champions, and we couldn’t have done it without the support of our team’s coaches, parent volunteers, and amazing sponsors. TechHOUNDS also has the honor of being awarded the Engineering Inspiration Award sponsored by SpaceX, which is awarded to a team who demonstrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school and community. The TechPUPS had the honor of being awarded the Judges Award! Our sister team is made up entirely of freshman and sophomore students, most of which this is their very first FRC season. They have done incredible and surpassed all expectations absolutely crushing this season! We also want to give a special congratulations to Emma L, the TechHOUNDS Vice President for earning the FIRST Leadership Semifinalist Award! Emma has been involved with FIRST for over 10 years, and we are so proud of everything she has accomplished! Onwards to state!! 💙💛 Event Results: Event Winner - 868 and 761 Judges Award - 761 Engineering Inspiration - 868 FIRST Leadership Award - Emma L.

Last weekend, we competed at the FIN District Columbus Event at Columbus East High School. TechHOUNDS finished their qualification matches ranked 6th with a 9-3 record. TechHOUNDS was honored to captain Alliance 4, and thank you to our amazing alliance partners @cyberblue234 @panthertech292_official . We are so incredibly proud of our performance at this event, from fast turn arounds between matches to reattaching our turret after taking a tumble. TechHOUNDS is honored to have been awarded the FIRST Impact Award in recognition of their team’s outreach efforts in giving back to the community and spreading the message of FIRST. Additionally, congratulations to our sister team FRC 761 TechPUPS on competing in their first event ever! TechPUPS finished their qualification matches ranked 13th with a 6-6 record. They were honored to be the first pick of Alliance 5, and had an amazing time being alliance partners with @frc8116 and FRC 8430 The Hatch Batch! The TechPUPS were resilient throughout the entire competition, from swapping out bent intake shafts to repairing hopper walls. We are so proud of them, and can’t wait to see what they do next! Thank you to @frcteam4926 for hosting this amazing event! Now, we’re gearing up for the FIN Washington District Event this weekend! See you there! 💙💛 @firstinrobotics #omgrobots #finfam #frc

The TechHOUNDS and TechPUPS are excited to compete this weekend at the FIRST Indiana Columbus District Event! Please join us this weekend or watch us online on @firstinrobotics on Twitch! Important Info: Columbus East High School 230 S Marr Rd, Columbus, IN 47201 Saturday, March 20 10:30-7:00 Sunday, March 21 10:00-5:00 Twitch Link: itch.tv/firstinrobotics We hope to see you there! 💙💛

Save the date!! Our robot reveal will be Wednesday, March 4th from 6-8pm. At this event, we will have this season’s robot on display, raffles, concessions and merch for sale, and we will also show our Impact video to celebrate how our team has given back to the community! All transactions will be cash only. We can’t wait to see you there! 💙💛

TechHOUNDS Summer Camp 2026 registration is live! Come experience all the STEM fun and a battle bots style competition with the Carmel High School Robotics team! Registration is now open until 6/1 or once 80 students have registered, so don’t delay! 💙💛 Sign-up Form: https://forms.gle/EcA5XUxDsHozSota6  Camp Details: Dates : July 20th - July 24th Time: 12:30-4:00 PM, except on Friday (will be 12:30 - 6:30 PM) Where: Carmel High School Cost: $250 Description: This summer we will have 2 camp options during the week: 5th-6th grade (PUPS Camp) and 7th-8th (HOUNDS Camp)! Campers will create their own fully programmable robots for daily challenges and wrapping up in a competition tournament that will take place on the last day of camp! Students will explore topics including computer programming, robot designing, problem solving and collaboration skills as they take on learning the various principles of STEM through immersive activities. In addition to robotics, campers will explore other STEM related fields in daily hands-on challenges including chemistry experiments, design challenges and more!