About the 'taters

We're a third year robotics team from St. George, Utah of seven avid potato enthusiasts who share a passion for learning, serving our community, and building robots! We compete through a program called the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), and spend the school year building, programming, and driving our robot, Spudnik.
During this journey we have often reflected back to what inspired our interest in STEM in the beginning, and realized it was all the community and mentor support we had growing up. Consequently we have made it a team priority to give back to the community that has given us so many opportunities and to inspire the youth in our community to begin their own journey in FIRST and STEM and not be afraid to take that first step.
3
seasons
7
team members
800+
outreach hours
potatoes
0
hours of sleep

About FIRST

With 34 cumulative years of FIRST between the 7 members of the PrestidigiTaters, we have each grown to love FIRST and have greatly benefited from it's programs and influence. FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Sciece and Technology, was founded by Dean Kamen in 1989 to give youth opportunities to discover the excitement and rewards of computer technology. With this goal in mind, four different programs directed at different age groups were born, creating an unlimited expanse of accessible programs to further the STEM pipeline initiative.

"FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is an amazing competition for students ready to take on high-school-level robotics. Students experience the power, excitement, and fun of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) with hands-on, minds-on activities – all with robots! Teams of middle and high-school students design, build, and program robots with both autonomous and driver-controlled modes. They take these robots to local and regional tournaments, competing as Alliances against other teams. The tournaments feature the same excitement and pressure experienced in more traditional high-school athletics. Teams that win at the Championship level advance to the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship."
Wondering how you could get involved? Well it's easy! There are several ways you can get involved with FIRST and with our team! First things first... FIRST! There are multiple levels of FIRST robotics, including Jr FLL (ages 6-10), FLL (ages 10-14), and FTC & FRC (both are for high school students). It is easy to start your own team (Visit FIRST's Website for more information)! FIRST also other opportunities for people of any age or skill level; such as, judging, volunteering, etc.. If you would like more information on getting involved in FIRST please visit their website: Firstinspires.org. If you are interested in helping out our team, we've got you covered. Fans are always needed! Check out our calendar for upcoming competitions to cheer us on! Or become one of our greatly appreciated sponsors by checking out our sponsorship page! Go ahead and get involved!
po·ta·to | noun
/pəˈtādō/ 1. A starchy plant tuber that is one of the most important food crops, cooked and eaten as a vegetable
pres·ti·dig·i·ta·tion | noun
/ˌprestəˌdijəˈtāSHən/ 1. hand magic perfomed as entertainment; slight of hand

The name PrestidigiTaters combines prestidigitation and potatoes. We perform hand magic as we build and program our robot, Spudnik. At each of our meetings, we eat a potato-related-food, including everthing from mashed potato hummus to hashbrown pizza to spudnuts.

Not to mention, we are from St. George, Utah, home of the potato Saint, George Albert Smith, who was known as such because he told the early pioneers to eat potatoes to prevent getting scurvy.

Food for thought. Potato related, of course.

Meet the team

After many of us competed against each other in FLL for several years, we decided that we'd rather compete with each other instead. Our decision to come together as a team as friends first, then teammates, has made all the difference as we pool our individual strengths and work together to make our ideas come to life and make a difference in our community.

Photo Gallery

Thanks to our awesome mom-team, our adventures over the last few seasons have been well documented. Our photo gallery showcases many highlights from the past three seasons you definetly don't want to miss, featuring many intense games of slapjack, a pull-up competition on a moving train, and a rare glimpse of McCade wearing pants.

Sponsorship Levels

Showcase Sponsor

$5,000 +

Large Logo on T-Shirt, Robot, website and Banner, Industry Exclusivity, Personal Team T-Shirt(s), Robot Demonstration, Thank you Letter

Platinum Sponsor

$3,000 - $4,999

Large Logo on Website and T-Shirt, Medium Logo on Robot and Banner, Personal Team T-shirt(s), Robot Demonstration, Thank you Letter

Gold Sponsor

$1000 - $2,999

Medium Logo on Website, T-Shirt, and Robot, Small Logo on Banner, Personal Team T-shirt(s), Robot Demonstration, Thank you Letter

Silver Sponsor

$500 - $999

Medium Logo on website, Small Logo on T-shirt and Robot, Robot Demonstration, Personal Team T-shirt(s), Thank you letter

Bronze Sponsor

$250 - $499

Small Logo on Website and T-Shirt, Robot demonstration, Thank you letter

Supporter

$100 - $249

Small logo on website and t-shirt and thank you letter

Friend

Up to $99

Name on website and thank you tetter

Community Outreach

During the closing ceremonies of the Houston World Championships in April 2017, Dean Kamen, founder of FTC, encouraged teams to "Make FIRST Loud!" We have made it a team priority to pay it forward in our community and make the experiences we've had possible for the next generation of engineers, much of which takes place at the same events that inspired us when we were younger! If you'd like to request a robot demontration, we'd love to hear from you at hello@prestidigitaters.com.

4-H JR. FLL | FLL Events

As a 4-H sponsored team, we have made it a big priority to give back to the clubs and events that have taught us where we want to go and provided the resources needed to get there.

Open Calendar

Go to Top Wondering how you could get involved? Well it's easy! There are several ways you can get involved with FIRST and with our team! First things first... FIRST! There are multiple levels of FIRST robotics, including Jr FLL (ages 6-10), FLL (ages 10-14), and FTC & FRC (both are for high school students). It is easy to start your own team (Visit FIRST's Website for more information)! FIRST also other opportunities for people of any age or skill level; such as, judging, volunteering, etc.. If you would like more information on getting involved in FIRST please visit their website: Firstinspires.org. If you are interested in helping out our team, we've got you covered. Fans are always needed! Check out our calendar for upcoming competitions to cheer us on! Or become one of our greatly appreciated sponsors by checking out our sponsorship page! Go ahead and get involved!