FTC BIOBUZZ Blog: Volume 8

Last Week’s Coaches Chat is posted 

If you missed last Tuesday’s coaches chat, it is posted here

Grant Opportunities for Teams

FIRST Washington Grant 

FIRST Washington Grant is open.  You can find past communications regarding funding and the link to the grant application here:  https://firstwa.org/firstwa-grant/   

Remember: 

• You will have to fill out a grant application to be considered for any funding that FIRST Washington manages 

• The grant form will need to be filled out for each team you would like to be considered for funding 

• Grants will no longer be deducted from your FIRST Washington registration, they will be issued separately based on the info you submit in the grant application as well as your school requirements (if you are a school based team) 

Online Metals 

Applications Open: September 1, 2026 

The wait is over! Applications for the 2026–2027 Online Metals Sponsorship Program are officially open!

Eligible high school and college/university and affiliated robotics teams competing in official competitions across the U.S. and Canada are invited to apply for sponsorship support. Tell them about your team, your competition goals, and how Online Metals can help you bring your robot to life.

Don’t miss your chance to be considered for the upcoming season! Submit your application during the open window.  We met with the local team from Online Metals last week and they are excited to expand their support in the PNW! 

Sponsorships | OnlineMetals.com® 

AIAA School Grants 

AIAA School Grants are open until Sept 30th- I don’t know much about these but it seems worth checking out! 

Classroom Grants | AIAA 

The AIAA Foundation believes that one of the most significant means to inspire and advance the future of Aerospace is to fund grants to meet the unmet and unfunded educational need of students. Each school year, AIAA awards grants of up to $500 to worthy projects that significantly influence student learning. 

Make sure you are registered with FIRST and FIRST Washington 

 We are a little over a week away from placing teams in leagues and as of this morning we have 71 teams registered with FIRST Washington and 84 teams registered with FIRST.  I want to remind everyone that You must be registered with FIRST and FIRST Washington by 9-25 to be placed into a league. Please don’t wait do both right now. 

To be considered registered with FIRST, you need to log into your dashboard to register and pay your registration fee. 

To be considered registered with FIRST Washington, you need to go to the registration page here and fill out the form:  https://firstwa.org/ftc-registration/   You will be sent an invoice to pay from in early October. 

Not sure if you have registered?  You can check here:  https://firstwa.org/ftc-registration/  This is updated manually once a day. 

League dates and venue info is posted on firstwa.org 

I know you are all anxiously awaiting your league assignments (make sure to get registered so you are included in those assignments) but since all of our league event dates and the majority of the locations are secured, we wanted to share that info with you now.  You can find that information here:  https://firstwa.org/ftc-competition-info/  

After home league assignments are posted, there will be a small window where you can choose to preference into a different league if the league you are in doesn’t work for you.  More information will come regarding the preferencing process when league assignments are posted.

Important Dates