UTRA RIFT

PAINTBALL FOR ROBOTS

Become a founding member for UTRA's newest team, competing at the ARC Championships.

KICKOFFBA1130, OCT 2, 7-8 PM

Join the team

ARC Championships

The game

ARC, formerly RoboMaster North America, is a university league for tactical arena matches. Robots drive, aim and fire projectiles at their opponent's armour panels to knock down its hit points.

RIFT competes in 1v1 Infantry: one robot, one pilot, two-minute rounds. It's our first season, so we're building one complete robot from scratch, and you can work on it from day one.

Format
1v1 Infantry
Rounds
2 minutes
First season
2026-2027
Target
Summer 2027
Robots with red LED armour facing off on the arena floor, spectators behind the barrier.A robot numbered 3, red light bar lit, on a floor scattered with projectiles.A red-lit robot in the foreground with a blue-lit robot behind it in the arena.
Robots from past RoboMaster North America events. Other teams in the league include Purdue, NYU, McMaster, Queen's, Ontario Tech and UBC.

No experience required

Pick a team

RIFT runs as four groups that build one robot together. Join any of them, with or without robotics experience. All four are open to every program, no engineering background needed.

Apply to join
01

Design & build

Design and fabricate the chassis, gimbal and feeder, then assemble and test the mechanisms.

You'll

  • Design the chassis and write the parts list
  • Build the rolling chassis and test the launcher
  • Fit the gimbal and feeder, and keep spares ready for repairs
CADFabricationMechanisms
02

Electronics

Build the power system and connect the motors, controllers and referee hardware.

You'll

  • Choose and order the motors and controllers
  • Bench-test the motors and power system
  • Wire in the referee system and the power cutoff
PowerWiringTesting
03

Software

Write the code that drives, aims and fires the robot, and connect the controller to its systems.

You'll

  • Develop and test manual control
  • Get the robot driving, aiming and firing
  • Evaluate camera capture and vision, and train the pilots
ControlsCommsVision
04

Administration

Keep the team funded, supplied and on the road to the championships.

You'll

  • Reach out to sponsors and fundraise
  • Purchase parts and track spending
  • Handle qualification, travel and transport
SponsorsFinanceLogistics

Already competed? FRC | FTC | VEX

Your next robot

If you did FRC, FTC or VEX in high school, you've already been through build season, drive team and the pit. RIFT runs on the same cycle, so that experience counts from the first meeting, and you can take on a whole subsystem instead of starter tasks.

Your leads came up the same way, through FRC 7520 and VEX 95500A.

Where your experience fits

  • Built the drivetrain or an intakeDesign & build
  • Wired the PDH, a Control Hub or a V5 BrainElectronics
  • Wrote autos in WPILib, the FTC SDK or PROSSoftware
  • Ran sponsors, outreach or the pitAdministration

Founding team

Meet the exec team

We started RIFT, and each of us runs one of the four groups. You'll meet all four of us at kickoff.

  • Portrait of Aaron Huang

    Design & build lead

    Aaron Huang

    Engineering Science 3T0 + PEY

    Mechanical design, fabrication and assembly.

    • Founding member, chief engineer and captain of FRC 7520. Took the 60-member, 8-subteam program to Worlds two years in a row.
    • Co-founded YM Robotics (VRC 95500A) and grew it to 30 members.
    • Designed a portable CoreXY 3D printer and a CNC controller with a hardware emergency stop.
  • Portrait of Max Ma

    Electronics lead

    Max Ma

    Electrical & Computer Engineering 3T0 + PEY

    Power systems, motor control electronics and electrical testing.

    • Co-founded YM Robotics and its VEX V5 team, 95500A.
    • President of the YM Technology Council. Ran its tech events and raised money for robotics fees and equipment.
    • Builds embedded and IoT projects on Arduino and XIAO boards. Second place at NSBEHacks.
  • Portrait of Evan Yu

    Software lead

    Evan Yu

    Mathematics '29 + ASIP

    Robot control software, vision assistance and software testing.

    • Co-founded YM Robotics, and built and drove its competition robot.
    • Founding product engineer at The Relationship Company.
    • First place in Education at Stanford TreeHacks. Works with Raspberry Pi, Arduino and custom PCBs.
  • Portrait of Aiden Kim

    Administration lead

    Aiden Kim

    Rotman Commerce '30

    Fundraising, budgeting, procurement and competition logistics.

    • Business analyst at Avail Risk Management, on partnerships covering over $1B in insurable value.
    • Early team at Crisis Connect, a seed-stage startup. Landed its University of Chicago partnership.
    • Co-founded the YM Case Competition and ran finance for YM Robotics.

2026-2027 season

The season

We want the robot driving, aiming and firing by March. April is for breaking it in testing and getting it qualified.

  1. SEP-OCTNow

    Design

    • Chassis design and parts list
    • Order motors and controllers
    • Fund the first build
  2. NOV-JAN

    Rolling chassis

    • Rolling chassis and launcher tests
    • Motor and power bench tests
    • Validate motor control
  3. FEB-MAR

    Working robot

    • Gimbal, feeder and mounts
    • Referee system and power cutoff
    • Drive, aim and fire on the robot
  4. APR

    Qualify

    • Fix faults and finalize the build
    • Compliance and qualification tests
    • Submit qualification evidence
  5. MAY-JUN

    Compete

    • Prepare spares and practise repairs
    • Train the pilots
    • Travel to the championships

First meeting

Kickoff

BA1130OCT 2, 7-8 PM

Come meet the leads and hear how the season will run. Bring a friend. No experience required.

Join the teamFollow @utra_rift