Cyberquakes win Innovate Award First Place at Western Edge Premiere Event!
May 1, 2026
What an honor! After winning the Innovate Award at both ILT and Regionals, Cyberquakes unexpectedly won the Innovate Award at an even higher level in Long Beach for our levetating robot design! If you look at the photo above, the robot cleverly uses its ball-sorting platter ("spindexer", short for spinning indexer) to raise itself off the ground at the end of the match, thus squeezing into a small parking space. The judges were impressed by the originality! In their final match, the team finished off by levetating in the air then firing a shot. That and going 7W-3L at such a tough tournament were a super fun way to finish a great season!
Samotech does awesome at Worlds!
May 3, 2026
It took us a while to qualify for Worlds, and we made the most of it! We went 8W-2L in qualification matches against the best of the best (similar to group stage in FIFA), then were part of the #2 alliance going into eliminations. We held our own, did great, and showed that we were truly one of the best robotics teams in the world.
Cyberquakes going to Long Beach Premiere Event!
March 7, 2026
Cyberquakes, our middle school team, has already had an amazing sophomore season: qualifying for Regionals and winning the Innovate Award at ILT. Now they qualified for an even bigger tournament, the Western Edge Premiere Event in Long Beach, in late May! While the tournament happens to be nearby, it will be attended by teams from all over the world, many of them at the same competitive level as the teams that will be competing against Samotech at Worlds in April.
Samotech Wins SoCal Regionals, going to Worlds! Front Page News!
March 28, 2026
SaMoTech was featured in the Santa Monica Daily Press after winning the Southern California Regional Championship and qualifying for the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship. Read the full article HERE.
Winning Alliance at ILT
February 15, 2026
For the 4th consecutive season, we qualified for the SoCal Regional Championships after dominating our league all season. We were the Winning Alliance and also won the 1st-place Control Award. We are looking forward to competing in the SoCal Regionals!
Record Numbers at Franklin Elementary Science Club
February 10, 2026
We had the outstanding opportunity to host one of Franklin Elementary School’s Science Club meetings for the second time, where a record number of students and parents attended. We shared our FIRST experience and encouraged them to reach out to the district and our team to get involved.
3rd Season Success!
March 8, 2025
We were so grateful to make it to the Interleague meets and earn a spot at the Regional Championships! There, our season ended, just shy of Worlds. However, we had fun, learned lots, and we're looking forward to next season!
Our Coach Won the Regional Compass Award
March 8, 2025
Out of all the amazing coaches in our region of more than 200 teams, SaMoTech's Chris Rowe was awarded SoCal's Compass Award for Outstanding Coach or Mentor.
Franklin Elementary Science Club
February 27, 2025
Our team promoted FIRST and STEM at Franklin's Science Club. About 80 students and parents showed up to learn more. We encouraged them to reach out to get FIRST established in the district.
League Champions 3-Peat!
January 25, 2025
For the 3rd consecutive season, SaMoTech was named the champions of League W. Thanks to our mentors, family, alliance partners and all the volunteers who make the League possible.
#1 Auto in the World
December 14, 2024
Our robot's 5-specimen Autonomous program didn't just help us win League Meet 2 — it achieved the highest average score in the world!
Rockwell Automation Fair
November 22, 2024
Rockwell Automation invited us to represent FIRST at their annual Automation Fair. Our team shared FIRST with fair visitors and tech industry leaders, putting on a show with both our competition robot and our mascot, Weeble.
Santa Monica Innovation Hub
November 20, 2024
Santa Monica hosted the Innovation Hub for LA Tech Week with more than 2,000 tech industry leaders. We were invited as the only FTC team and enjoyed promoting FIRST while connecting with tech leaders in our community.
Robots on the Promenade!
October 17, 2024
We hosted a booth at Third Thursdays @ 3rd, a free event for locals to explore activities. Visitors drove our robots and we even met a former school superintendent, Tim Cuneo, who joined our mission to make FIRST part of SMMUSD.
Front Page News
May 30, 2024
SaMoTech made the front page of our local newspaper! This is an amazing opportunity to share our vision of bringing robotics teams and FTC competitions to Santa Monica's public schools. Check out the full article in the Santa Monica Daily Press HERE!
Robot Festival Hosts!
April 27, 2024
SaMoTech was thrilled to represent FIRST at the Santa Monica Arts & Literacy Festival, especially with this year's theme: ROBOTS! We kicked off the event with a mainstage presentation and hosted a booth where we connected with local kids, giving them hands-on experience driving our robots.
STEAM Expo Presenters
April 13, 2024
We had an amazing experience representing FIRST at the Grant Elementary STEAM Expo with our friends, The CyberDragons. We loved demonstrating STEAM applications while encouraging students to become more involved in robotics. Kids and parents had fun driving around our robots while learning about FIRST and FTC.
2nd Season Success!
March 9, 2024
Once again, we went undefeated through the regular season and Interleague meets to earn a spot at the Regional Championships! There, our season ended in a thrilling double semi-final tie-breaker, just shy of the World Championship. No regrets—an amazing year full of growth. We're ready to push even further next season!
School District Recognition
April 4, 2023
Thank you to our school district, SMMUSD for the article congratulating us on our amazing 2023 season. Please check out the article HERE!
Elementary School STEAM Expo
March 25, 2023
We were invited to the Grant Elementary STEAM Expo as presenters to represent the FTC community. Alongside Cyberdragons, we enjoyed showcasing STEAM innovations and inspiring young students to pursue robotics.
First Season Success!
March 24, 2023
After 27 consecutive wins throughout the entire regular and Interleague tournaments, our season finally came to an end at the Regional Championships. This year has been so incredible– our team learned so much and set so many high scores!
Featured in Local News Paper!
March 9, 2023
Thank you so much to the Santa Monica Daily Press for writing an article about our team. We are so grateful for the recognition. Please check out the article HERE!
Scrimmages with CyberDragons
January 11, 2023
Our team hosted a scrimmage with Beyond Robotics (21380) and the two CyberDragons teams (20799 and 9887) to exchange ideas and get more practice driving. We assisted Cyberdragons throughout the season and collaborated with them to use their room to practice and discuss our diving strategies.
SaMoTech Robotics #21936
Contact us at samotechrobotics@gmail.com