Basketball-playing robot built by sixth-formers wins tech competition

Meet the UK's very own LeBron James... but not as you know it3 days agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleRobbie MeredithEducation and arts correspondent, BBC News NIBBCThe robot won Friends' School first prize in a UK-wide competitionLook out LeBron James and Michael Jordan, there's a new basketball champ around.But it was made in Lisburn rather than Los Angeles or Chicago.The name 25416 may not appear on many replica vests, but it can shoot hoops like no-one else.And the basketball-playing robot won a school in Lisburn first prize at the UK-wide First Tech Challenge robotics competition.18-year-old Aaron Portis was part of the winning teamThe team of sixth-formers from Friends' School came top of 48 schools from across the UK at the competition held in London's Copper Box Arena.18-year-old Aaron Portis was part of the team and said he "loved working on it"."Going down and working on it with my friends is honestly one of the highlights of my last year in school," he said.Aaron said the theme of the competition in 2026 was "pretty much robot basketball"."The challenge wasn't how are we going to shoot the balls but how is everything going to knit together so we can do it the quickest," he said.'Teamwork is the main focus'The team from the school spent "hundreds of hours" designing, building and programming the robot, according to Aaron."There's no one person on this team who knows how to do everything," he said."Really teamwork is the main focus.""It's not that easy to have a blow-away robot that can score hundreds of points every game."It meant that the 'drivers' controlling the robot had to be "quick on your wheels," according to Aaron."It is exciting, it's not ten nerds in a room! It's a full arena, it's a pretty big thing," he said.Jonathan said each member brought something different to the...