Update, 29 June 2026 — The competition has ended. Both teams from Ungheni district finished in the lower half of their divisions and did not reach the playoffs. «Brain Power» (Măcărești) ended qualifications 30th of 37 in the Valens Division, with two wins and six losses; «Techno Storm» (CRAPE Ungheni) — 29th of 37 in the Rumeli Division, with three wins and five losses. Neither was picked for a playoff alliance. For «Brain Power», on its first international outing, the trip itself remains the main gain. (Source: the official FIRST Tech Challenge database.)
Two robotics teams from Ungheni district are competing this weekend in Istanbul, at the «Istanbul Premier Event» — an international FIRST Tech Challenge robotics competition held from 26 to 28 June with 74 teams entered. Of the four Republic of Moldova teams at the event, two come from Ungheni district: «Brain Power», from the «Elada» theoretical high school in the village of Măcărești, and «Techno Storm», from the District Centre for Educational Support and Performance (CRAPE) in Ungheni.
For «Brain Power» this is a first international outing. The team, founded in 2024, reached Istanbul after a strong domestic season: at the FIRST Tech Challenge Moldova national championship in February, in Chișinău, it went undefeated in qualifications, captained the second-placed alliance and won the Design Award — the prize for the best-engineered robot, according to the competition’s official database. The school itself announced the trip to Istanbul on its Facebook page.
The team from Măcărești on arrival at the Athletics Hall in Ataköy, the competition venue. Photo: «Elada» Theoretical High School, Măcărești.
What exactly is the «Istanbul Premier Event»
FIRST Tech Challenge is one of the world’s most widespread school robotics competitions: teams of high-schoolers design, build and program a robot that carries out the tasks of an annual challenge on a standardised field. The «Istanbul Premier Event» is one of the international stops on this circuit — a «Premier Event», meaning a top-level competition open to teams from outside the host country, with English as the official language. It is not to be confused with the FIRST World Championship, which takes place in the United States.
This year’s edition was held at the Turkish Athletics Federation Athletics Hall in Ataköy, a district of Istanbul, and drew 74 teams, split into two divisions. Taking part is not free: the organiser lists a registration fee of 1,500 dollars per team, on top of travel and accommodation — a detail that explains why a trip like this relies on several sponsors.
Unlike the teams that represent Moldova at international competitions by direct qualification from the national ranking, taking part in a «Premier Event» is done by registration. The distinction matters: «Brain Power» did not qualify for Istanbul through the national ranking, but got there by registering — which means, above all, secured funding and logistics seen through to the end.
Who paid for the trip to Istanbul
The trip was backed, as the school itself presented it, by an unusually broad coalition. Among those the team lists as sponsors and partners are local authorities — Ungheni District Council, the Ungheni Education Directorate and Măcărești City Hall — but also the national robotics programmes Innovate Moldova and «Clasa Viitorului», the Development Foundation, three embassies (Greece, the United Kingdom and Sweden), the Greek Orthodox Community «Stavrodromi» and private donors from the community. The sums put up by each were not made public.
The list also says something about the school’s identity. «Elada» is the name of Greece in Greek, and the support of the Embassy of Greece and of a Greek Orthodox community reflects a connection the school carries in its very name.
Not one team, but two from the district
At the «Istanbul Premier Event», of the four Republic of Moldova teams, two are from Ungheni district. Besides «Brain Power», «Techno Storm» — the CRAPE team from Ungheni — also made it there. «Techno Storm» is no stranger to travelling abroad: in the summer of 2025 it took part in a European robotics championship in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands.
With two teams at a single international competition, Ungheni district is emerging as one of the places where school robotics in Moldova is taking root — with teams both in the district seat and in Măcărești.
Robotics, a competitive subject in Moldova’s schools
The presence of teams from Ungheni in Istanbul is the visible tip of a programme that has grown fast. FIRST Tech Challenge competitions in Moldova are organised by the «Clasa Viitorului» National Centre for Digital Innovation in Education together with the Innovate Moldova programme, under the Ministry of Education and Research, with support from Sweden and the United Kingdom through the Development Foundation, the UMAEF fund and the company Premier Energy.
At national level, the trend shows in the numbers: while the first FIRST Tech Challenge Moldova national championship, in 2025, gathered 24 teams, the 2026 edition reached 31 teams and over 250 students.
At the time this article was published, the competition in Istanbul was still under way, and the final results were not known. Beyond the standings, though, the fact that Ungheni district sent two teams to an international robotics competition already says enough about how far the phenomenon has grown here.
The details about the «Istanbul Premier Event» — the date, venue, number of teams and divisions — come from the official FIRST Tech Challenge database (ftc-events) and the organiser’s page. The identity of the «Brain Power» team (team 28675, from Măcărești), its status as a rookie team since 2024 and its results at the Moldova 2026 national championship (undefeated qualifications, second-placed alliance, Design Award) come from the competition’s official database. The list of sponsors and partners for the trip was provided by the «Elada» Theoretical High School in Măcărești on its official page. The name of the team’s mentor and the individual line-up were not made public. The context of the FIRST Tech Challenge programme in Moldova comes from the «Clasa Viitorului» Centre’s communications. At the time of publication, the final results from Istanbul were not available; the division rankings were added in the update of 29 June 2026, from the official FIRST Tech Challenge database (ftc-events / FTCScout).