The Rising Phoenix 999A team captured the Design Award at the 12th annual VEX IQ Robotics World Championship in Louisville, competing against 418 middle school teams from 40 nations.

The team also made the finals for the Teamwork competition in the Science division. Team members are Samantha Li of Spring Hill Elementary; Daniel Wu of Churchill Road Elementary; Cynthia Wu, David Han and Sophia Lee of Cooper Middle and Pranav Anumandla of Longfellow Middle.

The Design Award is presented to the team that demonstrates the ability to implement the most effective and efficient robot design process. This is the second time the team has won the Design Award at Worlds.