Annual Recruitment
FTC Recruiting Timeline:
- 5/21 Parents Information Session (Coach application opens)
- 5/26 Coach application ends
- 5/27 Coach Interview starts and FTC Team member/application opens
- 6/3 Coach selection finalize and FTC Team member application ends
- 6/10 FTC team candidate skill assessments
- 6/17 FTC team candidate onsite assessments
- 6/17-6/25 FTC Team member / Parent interview
- 6/30 Team build finish and register on FIRST website
FLL Recruiting Timeline:
- 5/21 Parents Information Session (Coach application opens)
- 5/26 Coach application ends
- 5/27 Coach Interview starts
- 6/3 Coach selection finalize and FLL team member/application opens
- 6/9 FLL Team member application ends
- 6/10 FLL Team member candidate and parent interview starts
- 6/10 – 6/30 Team member candidates onsite observations (per coach decision)
- 7/7 Team build finish and register on FIRST website
Coach Application Link: https://forms.gle/pu6XwLnYzH5f2tDU7
FTC Team Member Application (open 5/27 – 6/03) : https://forms.gle/ZLfXbVsH5uHFLM7v8
FLL Challenge Team Member Application (open 6/03 – 6/09) : https://forms.gle/LrrDiJxixzRp2N4N6
FLL Explore Team Member Application (open 6/03 – 6/09) : https://forms.gle/raK53kxa7XFPtWzk6
Potential Team Member Requirement: expecting you to show a strong interest in robotics and engineering, have a foundation in build or coding, have the ability to self-manage and control emotions, and a spirit of teamwork.
Parental Coaching Requirement: expecting you to have a suitable professional background, the preparation and willingness to devote a lot of time on the team, and treat all children equally.
2023 Annual Recruitment:
On the afternoon of May 21, 2023, ACP robots, all ages echelon, showcase and parent information session (indoor, in-person) @ University of Texas at Dallas, ECSS: Engineering and Computer Science Building, 800 W Campbell Rd, Richardson, TX 75080 from 2pm-4pm.
Introduction to ACP Robotics Program
Author: Shuopu Wang
With its first batch of FIRST Robotics teams starting in 2018, and FIRST Robotics Team Advisory service launched in 2019, ACP Robotics Education program has entered its 6th year.
This level typically involves youth from grade 7-12. Commercial off-the-shelf mechanical parts, 3D-Printing, CNC, or Laser-Cut customized parts are all allowed to forge the robot driven by 12V DC motors and PWM servos. Team members in ACP FTC teams are trained to utilize 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) softwares to sketch and verify their build modules before hands-on exercises. Java is the dominant programming language at this level. Team members are using advanced IDEs or simple Web programming interfaces to implement robot control, computer vision, and Al algorithms, as well as integrate complicated software frameworks. 
(In photo: Victor X., David H., and Joseph S. tuning the turret of their team robot from last season.)
ACP FTC Teams:
(18227,19567)
The FTC team 18227 ACP/Area 52 is competing in FIRST Tech Challenge (grade 7-12) in the season of 2021 – 2022. Last season as a rookie team, they won top awards in qualifiers and advanced to the North Texas Regional Championship where they continued to win Inspire Award 2nd place, Design Award 2nd place. With outstanding performances in both field and judging, the team further advanced to the Texas State Championship (Texas Cup) in May 2021, where they ranked 7th place in the division among all elite teams from Texas, and entered the semi final playoffs! In season 2021-2022, this 2nd year team consists of 14 talented members through highly selective recruiting processes and receives mentoring of FTC team 8565. During their 2022-2023 season, the team won the Inspire Award, Think Award, and Winning Alliance – Captain at the B&T League where they advanced to the North Texas Regional Championship. During their regional championship, the team earned the the title of Inspire Award 3rd Place and Winning Alliance – 1st pick. These awards advanced the team to the Texas State Championship where they won the Nikola Tesla Division Finalist Alliance – 1st pick for their efforts.
(In photo: “FTC team 18227 Area52 in the new season of 2021-2022, after they won Inspire Award and Finalist Alliance Captain in the qualifier of 12/04 at Marcus High”)
FTC 19567 ACP/Tier 1 is a team that started in 2021. The team consists of 7 members from different schools around the DFW area. They picked “Tier 1” as their team name from their vision of themselves growing into the best team in the region so that they can qualify to compete at the highest level of the game. In the team’s 2022-2023 season, they won the Inspire Award and Think Award 2nd place at the X^2 League Tournament, qualifying them for the North Texas Regional Championship. During their regional championship, Tier 1 won the Control Award 2nd place, advancing them to the Texas State Championship where they won Connect Award 2nd place. 
Team members in the photo from left to right: Coach Dan Yang, Lyndon Y., James H., Captain Isaac M., Ian W., Andy L., Ryan X., Timothy M., Coach Qing Xia.
The robot design and programming at this level often involves youth from grades 4-8. All LEGO parts are allowed to build the team robot driven by LEGO EV3 or Spike core set motors and sensors. Advanced teams in ACP are expertise in LEGO CAD software to implement their design ideas into highly extensible and complicated competition robots. Although block (Scratch) is the mainstream programming language at this level, many ACP teams are efficient in Python to implement advanced control algorithms which often lead to more robust and consistent robots in the competition field.
(In photo: FLL-C level award-winning competition robot designed by team 40657 in past seasons.)
ACP FLL-C Teams:
(40657, 50653, 50657, 50661, 52360, 52402, 55786)
Free Wifi(40657):
FLL-C team 40657 ACP/Free Wifi has won the Robot Design Award – 2nd place in the North Texas Regional Championship of season 2020-2021. In the same season they also advanced to the Texas State Championship (Texas Cup), then won the Spiritual Poster Awards and the Core Value Award, 3rd place.
In season 2021-2022, the team consists of six members from grades 5 to 7: Vivian, Alex, Luchen, Tiger, Nick and Chris.
“Our team members are anxious to participate in the 2021-22 Cargo Connect season. The team is off to a strong start this season. Doing core values exercises is very fun and instructive. This helps the team to learn how to work together better. The research project tasks are very engaging, and the team is learning a great deal about how to define the problem, ask questions, and get the answers. Our robot game ambition is for every team member to be skillfully trained to build sensor-feedback programs, compact sturdy driving bases, and innovative attachments for missions. Work hard, play harder. More focused, more fun, this is Team Free Wifi.”
EV-TR3KK3RS(50653):
FLL-C team 50653 EV-TREKKERS with members in season 2021-2022: Andrea T., Ariel Y., Aurora C., Ben Y., Jean G., Kenny Y., Kevin C., and Coaches Fang Xu, Yi Qian and Zhihua Cai. The team was taking a picture with two real robots which were made for food delivery in restaurants. During the team’s 2022-2023 season, they won the Champion’s award and Robot Performance 1st place during their qualifier, advancing them to the regional championship. During the regional championship, the team won Robot Performance 3rd place.
“We, EV-TREKKERS, believe in the FIRST core values. We come together, to learn and discover new things, to innovate, to make our work have some impact in our community. We work together as a team with everyone included. The most important point is that teamwork brings us a lot of fun.”
Tech Titans(50657):
FLL-C 50657 ACP/Tech Titans (previous W.A.R.S) has won Robot Design Award – 1st place in the North Texas Regional Championship of season 2020-2021, and advanced into the Texas State Championship (Texas Cup). In Tech Titan’s 2022-2023 season, the team qualified for the Regional Championship by winning the Robot Performance 2nd place and the Breakthrough Award at their qualifier. During the Regional Championship, the team won the Champion’s award 2nd place and robot performance 1st place. These awards allowed the team to compete in the State Championship where they won the Rising Star Award.
“Our team is a group of inspiring innovators who have a passion for coding and building. We chose our team name to show we have great strength and intelligence, especially with technology. We work together to have fun but do our best to stay safe even in the times of the pandemic.”
FLL-C 50657 team season 2021-2022 members in photo: Clement, Edward, Samuel M, Isabella, Evan, Kalem, Alisa, Samuel L and Coach Pan; Zhang and Melanie.
RobotKidz(50661):
The Coppell based FLL-C team 50661 ACP/RobotKidz has won Robot Performance Award – 1st place in Texas State Championship (Texas Cup) in season 2020-2021, which made them the top of all FLL-C Teams in Texas. During the team’s 2022-2023 season, the team won the Champion’s Award 2nd place and Robot Performance 2nd place, qualifying the team for the Regional Championship where they won Innovation Project 1st place.
“As second year into the competition, we aim to have kids take more on team management and schedule management. Let them enjoy programming and building robots as well as working as team solving and inventing solutions for real-world problems. We hope each kid has a fun and challenge-packed season.”
Season 2021-2022 members in the team photo from left to right: Xuyong Tu(Coach), Andrew H., Bo Wei(Coach), William T., Gloria S., Emma W., Felix S., Ethan H., Jilin Huang(Coach)
RoBoGo(52360):
The FLL-C 52360 ACP/RoBoGo team is a new robotics team. The team consists of 6 talented and passionate members. They are in 5th or 6th grade. The goal of the team is to study robotics, learn how to code and have fun. In RoBoGo’s 2022-2023 season, the team qualified for the Regional Championship by winning the Robot Performance 6th place. During the Regional championship, the team won the Championship’s Award 2nd place where the team further competed at the State Championship, winning the Motivate Award.
“ We are building a winning team. We want to build robots to make the world better! ”
The team members in the photo (from the right) are: Sophia Y., Melody J., Christopher A., Andrew Z., Julie S. and Ryan C. The coaches (not in photo) are Ling Ge, Jie Zheng and Frank Yang.
Pythoneers(52402):
The FLL-C 52402 ACP/Pythoneers team members in photo: David X., Adam Z., Madeline X., Allen T. Jessica Z., and Aiden J. During the Pythoneer’s 2022-2023 season, the team qualified for the Regional Championship as they won the Champion’s Award and Robot Performance 1st place in their qualifier. The team also won the Champion’s Award and Robot Performance 1st place at the Regional Championship. During the State Championship, the team won the Champion’s Award 1st place once again and placed 2nd in Robot Performance, qualifying the team for the FIRST World Championship in Houston, Texas in April, 2023. For the team’s efforts at the FIRST World Championship, the team was the Innovate Project Award Finalist.
“Our team “The Pythoneers” (FLL-C 52402) is a new team based in Highland Park. We are dedicated to learning robotics and coding. We meet virtually and in-person every week, and our meetings are full of fun activities. The team photo shows our own logo design competition in August (we chose “The Pythoneers” as our team name and logo). We look forward to a great season! ”
SaBOTage(55786):
The FLL-C 55786 ACP/SaBOTage is a rookie team during their 2022-2023 season. In their rookie season, the rookie team competed at their first ever qualifier where they won the Champion’s Award and Robot Performance 1st place, qualifying the team for the Regional Championship. During the Regional Championship, the team won the Innovation Project award 3rd place.
This level is for building up competencies and providing an outlook of what FIRST Robotics can be to the junior kids typically in grades 2-4. Less competitive but more fun robots building and regional exhibitions are designed based on LEGO WeDo 2.0 kits and updating to the LEGO Spike Essential set, where basic mechanisms of structures, moving parts with motors, gear transmission, and sensors can be learned.
(In photo: 1st grader Anni from ACP FLL-E team 24414 experimenting with gear rack transmission mechanisms from WeDo sets.)
ACP FLL-E Teams:
(18443, 16061, 23436, 24414, 21098, 26589)
Dragon Builders(18443):
During the Dragon Builder’s 2022-2023 season, the team won the Solid-As-a-Rock Model Design Award.
FLL-E 18443 ACP/Dragon Builders team members in photo:
“We are the team 18443, The Dragon Builders. We build all kinds of creative, innovative, and fun projects together. We are a team of 6 boys, William (10y), Benjamin(9y), Eric(8y), Jack (8y), Zander (7y), Aaron(6y).”
Lightning Builders(16061):
FLL-E 16061 ACP/Lightning Builder is a local FLL-Explore team in Coppell, with 6 team members: Ayden J., Lawrence T., Elizabeth S., Aaron T., Alan H. and Alex W. “We all love the lego game, and have worked together to complete our missions. We choose the Lightning Builder as our team name as we are going to build fast and sharp! We have started Lego training and each one of us has chosen a sport to build.” The team 16061 will continue to win in the new season under coach Yi Hong and coach Donglan Xia.
MasterMinds(23436):
FLL-E 23436 ACP/MasterMinds is a second year FLL Explore Robotics team. They name themselves Master Minds because they believe they are brilliant thinkers.
In season 2021-2022, the team consists of 6 team members: Allison C., Milton C., Winston Y., James Y., Andrew W. and Tommy L. The majority of them are 3rd or 4th graders. Last season as a rookie team, MasterMinds interviewed ParaOlympic medal winner Tucker Dupree and was inspired by his ideas to build a recreation center that consisted of a natatorium and mud run activities. They have a good start of the new season and are engaged in looking for a solution to address current cargo capacity issues impacted by COVID-19. During the MasterMinds’ 2022-2023 season, the team won the High Five Award.
Wild Robots(24414):
FLL-E 24414 ACP/Wild Robots is a first year FLL Explore team with team members Alexander, Anni, Fiona, Felix, Stanley, Ethan, Coach Yan Wan and Coach Cathy Hao. During the team’s 2022-2023 season, the team won the Best Coding Award.
“Wild Robots is a brand new team in Plano this year. We are truly explorers and learners in the whole new world of Lego Robotics. Our team name comes from a book called The Wild Robot. We will challenge ourselves to build smart robots that can survive and live in harmony in the wild. We will be a creative and positive team. Go Wild Robots！”
Energy Pros(21098):
FLL-E 21098 ACP/Energy Pros, in the team’s 2022-2023 season, they won the Coding and Community Award.
(26589):
FLL-E 26589 ACP, in the team’s 2022-2023 season, they won the Coding Award.
Team 8565, Technicbots is the lead mentor for all ACP Youth Robotics Teams. This is Technicbot’s ninth year as a First Tech Challenge Team. Technicbots was selected from all US FTC teams to represent the US as Team USA to compete in the 2021 FIRST Global Challenges where 8565 won the grand prize of the tournament, the FIRST Global Discover and Recover Award along with Team Zimbabwe after 12 weeks of hard work.
ACP recruited World-Class FTC team 8565 TechicBots and its coach, Dr. Fang Wang (VP of ACP) for leading this effort. The TechnicBots team was founded in 2010 and had its first year of high school graduates in 2019. They are one of the top-tier teams in North Texas and have advanced to South Super Regional and Houston World Championship multiple times. They were one of the semifinalist alliance captain teams at the 2017 World Championship, and the Finalist teams for Inspire Award at the 2019 World Championship. In the 2021-2022 season, they were the Franklin division finalist alliance, as well as the Inspire Award Winner at the 2022 FIRST World Championship, becoming a Hall of Fame team and Team USA. In the past season, the team had the honor represented Team USA in Geneva, Switzerland. Additionally, the team also won the Inspire Award at their North Texas Regional Championship and at the FIRST in Texas State Championship, qualifying the team for the FIRST World Championship in Houston, Texas. At the FIRST World Championship, the team won the Franklin Division Connect Award 1st place.Team 8565 not only excels in Robot building/programming/competition, but also is dedicated to community outreach to promote STEM in communities. They host FTC Crash Course camp to middle school students, started an EV3 summer camp for elementary school kids and transitioned the teaching to ACP FTC team 18227, led FTC joint projects and host FTC workshops for local teams, teach Robotics at IBM GIGAWOT camp, and Boys and Girls Club, and mentor many different FIRST teams, even started multiple FTC teams at BGC Clubs.
The FIRST Global Challenge is an Olympics-style, international robotics competition that takes place in a different country each year. FIRST Global invites each nation to send a team to build and program a robot to compete, in an effort to foster understanding and cooperation among the youth of the world as they use their abilities to solve the world’s problems. The Technicbots team was selected as Team USA and competed in the 2021 FIRST Global Challenges, virtual (due to pandemic), and completed Solution Challenge with their alliance team (Team Zimbabwe) on the environmental issue of plastic waste. They team endured 4 build tasks in Robotics challenge and CubeSat Prototype Challenge with a weather balloon in the course of 12 weeks. They endured lots of hard work and had a lot of fun throughout their journey.
In the past season of 2020-2021, three of the FLL-C teams have advanced to the North Texas Regional Championship, and further advanced to the Texas State Championship, where they won multiple awards from Robot Performance, Robot Design, and Core Value awards. And the rookie FTC team 18227 advanced into the North Texas Regional Championship where they won various awards and overall ranked 3rd place in North Texas to advance to the Texas State Championship. In the State Championship, they were also highly ranked to enter the playoffs, where unfortunately they lost to the final grand state champion teams. In the seasons 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, multiple FLL-C teams have advanced to the Texas State Championship and one even went to the FIRST World Championship. Additionally, both FTC teams, 18227, and 19567, advanced to the FIRST in Texas State Championship where they were ranked highly in both robots and judging awards.