Athletech Robotics is a student-led FIRST Tech Challenge team built by athletes — bringing discipline, teamwork, and grit out of the gym and into the lab to build robots and a stronger community.
Competition hardware and civic recognition — all of it earned since our rookie season in 2025.
Our robot competed on the winning alliance at our FTC regional championship.
First in our division for the reach of our outreach and community programs.
Mayor Kirk Watson signed a proclamation naming October 10th National Robotics Day in Austin. The day was founded by our students to celebrate robotics and inspire students of all ages to explore STEM, and the proclamation recognizes Athletech by name.
Mayor Craig Morgan issued a special recognition of our team for its STEM engagement in the community and its record of competition excellence.
Athletech was founded by our captain, Vishnu Nair, who took his FTC experience and built a team out of athletes — recruiting friends and teammates from football, soccer, dance, tennis, basketball, and lacrosse, and making a point of inviting girls to participate. Most of us had never tried robotics before joining. We were curious, so we joined.
Our mission is simple: break the stereotype, and show that robotics is for everyone.
Today we're a student-led team of around 25 members and mentors, registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and working out of a converted garage in Austin. We do everything ourselves: the CAD, the code, the 3D printing, the fundraising, and the paperwork.
The name reflects the approach: the competitive edge and teamwork of sports, paired with a passion for innovation and engineering. Everything we do — sports team demos, weekly mentoring at a local elementary school, camps in our own garage — is about bridging the gap between athletes and STEM.
Every part of this machine was designed, printed, and programmed by students in our garage. Here's how it works.
A four-stage system built to grab game pieces fast and clear jams at the source.
Stage one is a compliant Gecko-wheel bar that reaches past the frame to pull from corners. Stages two and three add boot-kickers and custom 3D-printed indexing guides — one curved, one straight — that isolate a single ball whenever a jam threatens. A ramp and custom roller then carry it to the transfer, where a printed blocker arm holds it off the flywheel until it's time to shoot.
A custom 3D-printed turret that aims itself fast and accurately, even while the robot drives.
The turret spins on eight bearing stacks so it can take force from any direction, and turns through 180 degrees. Two Axon servos drive it through a custom gearbox, a GT2 belt keeps the motion tight, and a REV encoder tracks exactly where it's pointing — so in code, the turret locks onto field targets on its own. Distance and yaw data automatically scale flywheel power and shooter angle for an optimal scoring arc.
Bare motors through a two-stage belt reduction: high torque, smooth power, easy to service.
The belt staging lets us tune the exact gear ratio for our balance of speed and pushing strength. For positioning, a custom algorithm cross-references odometry data against the drive-motor encoders, fusing both to reject wheel slip — so the robot's position estimate stays honest under load.
Sensor fusion keeps the robot sure of where it is from the first second of a match to the last.
Limelight AprilTag localization is fused with dead-wheel odometry through Kalman filters, correcting the tracked position even after contact or wheel slip. Our autonomous runs on Pedro Pathing, tuned over 40+ iterations against logged field data, and PID control holds the flywheel at a steady RPM even as the battery drains. Zone-based presets collapse it all into single-button commands for the driver.
This is the heart of the team. Every photo below is from a session where our members are teaching, mentoring, or demoing for the next group of builders.
We founded and mentor a robotics team at Guerrero Thompson, a local elementary school where 97% of students are economically disadvantaged. Our members show up every single week for a hands-on hour, teaching 15 to 20 students at a time. The program was approved by principal Brianna Garcia and runs with teacher sponsor Stephanie Meyer.
We bring the robot to athletes: live presentations for the Westwood wrestling team and the Pearson Ranch basketball team, letting players see the engineering up close. Pictured: the Rattlers meeting the robot for the first time.
We've run four summer camps plus hands-on workshops in our shop, where kids learn to design a part in CAD, watch it come off the printer, and take it home. Pictured: one of our members walking students through a design.
Athletech Day is our signature event: part competition, part celebration, bringing the whole community together. Across our children's and community events we've hosted 50+ attendees, with 100% positive feedback from families.
Our members also volunteer beyond our own programs — including assisting at the Ann Richards FIRST LEGO League event — for 500+ volunteer hours across the season.
We've connected with 10+ FTC teams, including six international teams across four countries: Greece, India, Kazakhstan, and the United Kingdom. On video calls we trade build techniques, strategy, and cultural perspectives on the same game.
We've also competed internationally ourselves — our robot took the 2nd Place Design Award at the Canada Cup's Niagara Premier Event.
Our programmers also built Javabyte, a free iOS app that teaches Java — the prerequisite for FIRST programming. It has 80+ downloads across the U.S., Thailand, and the Congo.
Our social media carries the story even further: over 2 million views across our accounts, with our most-viewed video passing 1.1 million on its own. The month-by-month numbers are in the deep dive below.
Engineers and industry professionals who volunteer their time to review our designs, challenge our code, and keep us pointed in the right direction.
Everything here comes straight off the posters we bring to competition. Open a topic for the short version, or view the original posters below for every last detail.
The tagline, the scoreboard, and our signature event.
A team built by athletes, bringing discipline, teamwork, and grit out of the gym and into the lab to build robots and a stronger community. Our motto: bridging the gap between athletes and STEM.
Ranked top 1% in the world. 10+ teams connected with, 20+ mentoring sessions, $15K raised, 500+ volunteer hours, 4 summer camps, 9 countries reached, and over 2 million views across our social media.
Our signature event brings the whole community together — part competition, part celebration — to power our season and fuel every outreach program we run.
Our proudest program: founding and mentoring a robotics team at a local underprivileged elementary school, meeting every single week for a hands-on hour.
Intake, turret, and drivetrain — built to cycle fast.
A compliant Gecko-wheel bar favors one game piece over another and reaches past the frame to pull from corners. Boot-kickers and two 3D-printed indexing guides — one curved, one straight — isolate a single ball whenever a jam threatens.
A ramp with Gecko wheels and a custom roller carry each ball to the transfer, where a 3D-printed blocker arm holds it off the flywheel until it's time to shoot.
Spins on eight bearing stacks so it can take force from any direction, turning through 180 degrees. Two Axon servos drive it through a custom gearbox, a GT2 belt keeps the motion tight, and a REV encoder tracks exactly where it's pointing.
Eight bare motors through a two-stage belt reduction — the staging lets us tune the exact gear ratio for our balance of speed and pushing strength, in a compact and serviceable package.
How the robot always knows where it is — and where to shoot.
A Limelight camera detects field-mounted AprilTags for precise, real-time 3D positioning on the field.
Unpowered tracking wheels measure the robot's position independent of drive-wheel slip, keeping it consistent and accurate through the whole match.
Odometry and Limelight data work in tandem during autonomous — blended through Kalman filters — so the shooter stays perfectly aligned to the goal even after contact or slip.
Distance and yaw data automatically scale flywheel power and shooter angle for an optimal scoring arc, wherever the robot is standing.
Pre-planned paths, PID everywhere, and one-button driving.
Autonomous follows a precise pre-planned path with continuous positional feedback, guiding the robot smoothly to its shooting position. We tuned it over 40+ iterations against logged field data instead of relying on default tuning.
Drive and mechanism motors use PID to hit target positions and velocities without overshoot. A dedicated flywheel PID holds the exact RPM needed for consistent shots, regardless of battery voltage drop or load changes.
Flywheel speed profiles and shooter angles are pre-calibrated to specific field zones, so the robot applies the correct power level instantly, without manual adjustment during a match.
Complex mechanisms are abstracted into single-button commands so drivers can focus on strategy. And if a sensor ever fails, drivers keep full manual control over every system.
The full numbers behind every program we run.
15–20 students taught weekly, 80+ introduced to robotics at a school where 97% of students are economically disadvantaged. Approved by principal Brianna Garcia, with teacher sponsor Stephanie Meyer.
Live robot demos for the Westwood wrestling team and the Pearson Ranch basketball team — bridging the barrier between athletics and STEM.
50+ total attendees across our children's and community events, with 100% positive feedback from families.
Members assist at FIRST LEGO League events, including the Ann Richards FLL tournament — one of many volunteering efforts adding up to 500+ hours.
Six international teams, one app, and over 2 million views.
Connected with 6 international teams from 4 countries — Greece, India, Kazakhstan, and the United Kingdom — for a global exchange of ideas and cultural perspectives.
From October 11 to November 9: 909.1K profile views, 42.5K interactions, and 321 new followers.
Our most-viewed video reached 1,110,473 views on its own, and our accounts have passed 50,000 accumulated likes.
A free iOS app built by our programmers that teaches Java — the prerequisite for FIRST programming — with 80+ downloads across the U.S., Thailand, and the Congo.
Athletech is a student-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and sponsors are how the season happens: robot parts, competition fees, and the camps and mentoring programs we run at no cost to families. Your support puts your name behind an award-winning outreach program, a top-1% robot, and a story that has reached millions of people online.
Donations go through our page on HCB and are tax-deductible.
And it's not just about funding — if you're looking for mentorship, curious about the process of joining the team, or want us to bring robotics to your school or program, send us an email.