Northern Star Robotics — FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Team 30441 from Kanata, Ottawa, Ontario. Reaching for the stars, powered by teamwork & community support.
Northern Star Robotics is a student-led FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) team — FTC Team #30441 — based in Kanata, Ottawa, Ontario. We are a not-for-profit organization registered with the Province of Ontario. We enjoy turning ideas into competition-ready robots, designing, building, programming, testing, failing, learning, and coming back stronger together.
A youth-led robotics club from Kanata
Northern Star Robotics is a community FTC team founded in 2025 by Neil R. Our members take ownership of the entire engineering process, from design to building, programming, testing, and getting ready for competition. Rather than relying on pre-designed robot kits, we design our own robot and mechanisms, learning engineering by actually doing it: trying ideas, solving problems, learning from what doesn't work, and continually improving.
We are competitive and ambitious, but success for us is about more than match results. We want every member to develop technical skills, confidence, leadership, and teamwork. We challenge one another, support one another, and take pride in building a robot that reflects our own ideas and effort.
Northern Star Robotics at the Ottawa Qualifier
Growth
We learn by doing. Successes and failures both teach us something, and every challenge is a chance to improve.
Inclusion
Everyone brings different skills and ideas to the team. We make sure every member has the opportunity to contribute, learn, and be heard.
Commitment
Building a competitive robot takes commitment. We show up, put in the work, take responsibility for our roles, and support our teammates.
Innovation
We like creating our own solutions. We brainstorm, prototype, test, redesign, and keep improving until we find something that works.
The people behind the robot.
A student-led team of builders, coders, and problem-solvers.
Neil R.
Kyle
Ali A.
Aanya K.
Jagan A.
Moksh G.
Manit G.
Bhuvan G.
Our FTC Journey
Every FTC season brings a new challenge and a new opportunity to engineer, compete, and grow.
Season Highlights
Our first FTC season was a year of building, competing, learning, and redesigning. Across three qualifiers, we earned two judged awards, achieved a 3rd-place qualifier finish, and set an event high score at the Ottawa Qualifier.
Every competition challenged us to improve and gave us a stronger foundation for our second season.
3rd Place Qualifier Finish In Ottawa
Our best competitive finish of the season and an exciting milestone in our first year of FTC.
Ottawa Event High Score
Our alliance set the event high score at the Ottawa Qualifier, demonstrating the scoring potential of our robot.
2 Judged Awards
Control Award — Ottawa Qualifier: recognized for our programming and use of sensors and control systems to improve robot performance. Reach Award — Sudbury Qualifier: recognized for our efforts to grow FIRST participation and engage with our STEM community.
Moments from the season
From late-night builds and testing to competition-day highs and challenges, here are some of our favourite moments from our first FTC season.
First mecanum drivetrain laid out at home
Our robots
From our DECODE rookie season to the next BioBuzz challenge — meet the machines we build and the one still in the workshop.
DECODE Bot 1
Our first 2025–26 DECODE season robot.
DECODE Bot 2
The second 2025–26 DECODE season robot.
Growing the Robotics Community
Helping New FTC Teams Get Started
After navigating the process ourselves, we created a step-by-step guide to starting a community FTC team in Ontario. It covers everything from choosing a team name and incorporating as a not-for-profit to opening a bank account, finding sponsors, and getting ready to build.
Contact us for a copyHelping Families Discover FTC
We meet with students and parents who are curious about FTC to share what the program is really like and the opportunities it creates. We discuss how FTC has helped our members grow in confidence, leadership, teamwork, problem-solving, communication, and technical skills, while giving them a meaningful way to explore STEM and discover new interests.
Mentoring the Next Generation
Our members also look for opportunities to mentor younger students. At the IEEE LEGO Robotics Competition in Ottawa, we supported young competitors as they worked through their own engineering and robotics challenges.
Powered by our sponsors
Our sponsors make it possible for our students to design, build, compete, and keep pushing what our team can achieve.
Sponsorship package
Download our full sponsorship package for tier details, benefits, and how to partner with us.
Download PDF
Let's build something together
Sponsor, mentor, or student — we'd love to hear from you.