Alpha Hawks Robotics Team 7813 from Los Alamos Middle School. Photo by Brad Cooke

BY ANN COOKE

The Alpha Hawks Robotics Team 7813 from the Los Alamos Middle School placed second in New Mexico region’s first qualifying match on December 13, 2025. This FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) competition was held in Albuquerque at the La Academia de Esperanza Charter School. 

Seventeen teams from New Mexico and Arizona competed in this year’s challenge, ‘Decode’, where teams design, build, and program their robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams.  Teams, including coaches, mentors and volunteers, are required to develop strategy and build robots based on sound engineering principles with starting dimensions of 18 inches or less per side. The students of Team 7813 Alpha Hawks won three of five matches to be seeded seventh of the competing teams, while Enigma (Team 16265, Albuquerque) took the top seed by winning all five of their matches.

The Alpha Hawks were pleased and surprised to be asked by the number one team Enigma to be their alliance partner for the finals. Enigma’s coach later rhetorically asked, “What’s the fun of asking the second seed to pair up with the first seed?” The Alpha Hawks paired well with Enigma to score long range points, and the alliance won their first match overwhelmingly. The alliance lost the second match when the Alpha Hawk’s robot experienced technical difficulties.  In the third match, the Hawks redeemed themselves and the alliance won. However, the alliance lost the final match, and the Enigma-Alpha Hawks alliance placed second in the competition.

Enigma went on to receive the Inspire Award, recognizing the overall best robot and robot team of the qualifying meet. The Alpha Hawks received the Control Award, which recognizes the use of sensors and programing in the robot’s operations. The next qualifier competition will be in Alamogordo, NM in January 2026.