Good morning, Teams and Volunteers,
As always, please liberally and broadly share this email with your parents, students, friends, co-workers and acquaintances in and outside of the FIRST robotics community. As always, if you missed any of our season Blasts, please go to our Communications page to reference Announcements and Archive Emails for this and all past seasons.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/communications
The FIRST Tech Challenge BIOBUZZ™ presented by RTX Season has begun and it is still early, but not too early to prepare ourselves to the best of our abilities by taking full advantage of the knowledge base necessary to achieve team and volunteer success and competencies. This email blast provides links to these significant, if not essential resources provided by FIRST and Pennsylvania FIRST Robotics. These links can provide answers to questions we fielded in our two Coaches Calls as well.
FTC Team Q&A opened on Sept 28th and is now active:
The Game Q&A is a forum/tool that provides teams an opportunity to receive clarifications from the Game Design Committee about the current season’s challenge. Rulings on the Q&A are final and binding and will be reflected in the Competition Manual. We highly encourage Teams to participate in this forum to gain answers to your questions and concerns.
Team Q&A Instructions – Register to participate:
https://ftc-resources.firstinspires.org/ftc/game/q-a-help
Login Link:
https://game-qa.firstinspires.org/
Coaches Call 2 – Held Thursday, Sep 24th
Link to the recording:
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2026-2027-season/coaches-call-2
Team Resources:
Content includes: StarterBot Resources, Team Webinars, Inspection Checklist, Robot Sign Templates, FTC Technical Documentation, Control System Troubleshooting (REV Robotics), Programming Resources
https://ftc-resources.firstinspires.org/ftc/team
Volunteer Resources:
If you intend on Volunteering with Pennsylvania FTC or another regional event, this link is for YOU (and thank you!). Resources include a schedule of Volunteer Webinars/Calls in pdf form that contains links to training session and meetings and YouTube Videos for key volunteer roles such as Judge, Judge Advisor, Referee/Head Referee, Robot & Team Technology Support, Team Judging, Gameplay and
General Support as well as Scorekeeper/Scoring System, FIRST Leadership Award (FLA) Volunteers, Show & Production (Emcees, Announcers,
AV Crew, Tech/AV Directors.
Also note the essential array of volunteer documents, manuals and tests for your planned roles this coming season.
https://ftc-resources.firstinspires.org/ftc/volunteer
Current Game and Season Materials:
Competition Manual, Manual Sections, Team Q&A, Game Animation, Game Animation.
https://ftc-resources.firstinspires.org/ftc/game
FTC Programming Resources:
The FIRST® Tech Challenge software requires that the minimal version used to run the program is 9.0. This includes apps and software development tools. This link leads to Programming Resources, Support & Troubleshooting and Additional Resources
https://www.firstinspires.org/resources/library/ftc/programming-resources
FIRST Tech Challenge Software Development Kit (SDK):
The Software Development Kit (SDK) is a collection of tools for developing software and executing it on a FIRST Tech Challenge robot. SDK Software includes:
https://ftc-docs.firstinspires.org/en/latest/ftc_sdk/overview/index.html
Robot Construction Rules and Resources:
Competition Manual, section 12
https://ftc-resources.firstinspires.org/ftc/game/manual-12
General FTC Resource Library:
Links to darn near every subject pertinent to teams and volunteers involved in the FTC program. Please visit and familiarize yourself, your students, coaches, mentors and parents with this vast array of available resources
https://www.firstinspires.org/resources/library#first_tech_challenge
FIRST Knowledge Base:
A nearly all-encompassing searchable Knowledge Base to assist with a wide variety of questions and answers for featured topics and Top Articles.
What can we help you with?
Please be sure to register your teams for the 2026-2027 season with FIRST as soon as practicable.
REMINDERS FROM PAST EMAIL BLASTS:
- Kickoff Results
- Bee in the Know
- Legislative Update – SB 1419 and Advocacy
- FTC Pennsylvania Live and Remote Kickoff Event results
- FTC PA Qualifier Events – REGISTRATION OPENS Sat. Oct 10th, 2026 at 8:00 AM
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events
Bee good and safe and best of luck until our next Blast.
Tom and the FTC PA Planning team,
Pennsylvania FIRST® Robotics
FIRST Tech Challenge® Program Delivery Partner
phone: (302) 383-9925
email: ftc@pennfirst.org
Website: www.FTCPenn.org