This story was edited at 9:45 a.m., Jan. 24 to address several typos and 11:54 a.m. to remove a quote that subjects affected by the story said was misstated.

KENDALL COUNTY, IL Konnichiwa, hajimemashite. In Japanese, this phrase means 'hello, nice to meet you,' and it's one the members of the 'Pheonix Cubitects' local youth robotics team may want to remember. They have all been invited to participate in an international youth robotics competition, the 2020 FIRST Lego League International Invite in Nagoya, Japan, this May. The invite is spread over three days from May 7 - 10 and involves both competitive and friendly events.

"It's a really great way for the kids to see the diversity, to see the different ways that other children are coming up with solutions in the robotics world," Laurel Coonradt, the mother of one of the older team members, 8th-grader Jensen Coonradt, said.

The team's invitation came as a result of their winning second place at the FIRST Illinois Robotics Lego League Illinois State Championship, and a Global Innovation Award to boot. That competition too place on Saturday, Jan. 18 at Elgin Community College and involved 54 teams from around the state. Their high score in all contest areas qualified them to participate in an international competition of the same type, Coonradt said.

"[They received the invite] yesterday," Coonradt said. "The second place finisher for students was offered an international invite, and Japan was what our team was offered."

Nagoya is one of Japan's primary industrial cities and a global center for robotics innovations, so it's fitting that a global youth robotics event would be held there. Coonradt said 50 countries would send representatives.

"There will be more than 120 teams from a total of 50 countries," she said. "Japan, China, Korea, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands... there's a two page list."

Some larger countries, like the U.S., were sending more than one team to the competition. The Pheonix Cubitects would be the only team there from Illinois.

Coonradt said these grade-school inventors were eager to represent their communities on the world stage.

But there's a catch.

Even though the team was invited to Japan, FIRST officials made it clear that the team would have to pay their own way to Japan. Coonradt said they'd need at least $6,000 to pay for the airfare, hotels, food sundries involved in with the three-day trip, never mind the actual contest registration fees. The team has a 401c non-profit set up for these kinds of situations, but are also asking team members' friends, families and community members to pitch in. To save costs, Coonradt said some parents could stay home from the trip if necessary.

"Right now, we have three parents who have signed on... and hopefully we'll be able to do more, but if not, one or two parents could feasibly take everybody," Coonradt said.

On previous occasions where members of the team have traveled internationally for robotics events in China and Qatar, Coonradt said they have received financial help from public officials in those team members' communities. She said she hoped more public officials would be willing to help out this time as well.

Coonradt also said that she and other parents are considering setting up a GoFundMe page to help pay for the trip. Until then, anyone wishing to donate to the team's travel fund can contact the team's adult leaders at Phoenixcubitects@gmail.com or by phone at 630-715-3011.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity... when I look at the kids today and how much they've grown through taking robotics, " Coonradt said, "all of this started as an after-school program at [Oswego School] District 308."

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Local Kids Robotics Team Invited To Competition In Japan - Oswego, IL Patch