We awarded our first scholarship. Meet Katariina.

When we launched our first scholarship earlier this year, we said we were looking for students with a clear motivation to develop in their field. And we found an exceptional student who was already well on her way.

Katariina Kukk is a third-year Product Development and Robotics student at Tallinn Technical University (TalTech), and this spring she became the first recipient of the Tech Group scholarship, handed out at TalTech’s Development Fund recognition ceremony. Her award was part of a record 180,000 euros in scholarships distributed to 92 students across 48 partner companies and individuals.

For Katariina, the recognition came in the middle of an already full schedule. She currently leads battery pack development for FS Team Tallinn, the TalTech Formula Student team that won the world championship in 2024. She also coaches the FGC robotics team that took Estonia’s best ever result at the First Global Challenge in Athens that same year, and she mentors the robotics club at Tallinn Secondary School of Science (Tallinna Reaalkool), where she herself once studied. She has received the Ministry of Education and Research’s Tähelend recognition both in 2024 and 2025.

We sat down with her to learn more about the path that got her here.

Katariina Kukk (middle) and Marko Paavel, Head of Engineering and Factory Automation (right). Photo: Raimond Vink

You have been involved in robotics for a long time. Where did it start?

My little brother had been in our school’s robotics class for a few years until it started to pique my interest as well. I started with robotics around the 5.-6. grade and quickly got into FIRST LEGO League competitions where I was so hooked that I competed for 5 years. I also competed for several years at Robotex, FIRST Tech Challenge and other local robotics competitions.

You joined FS Team Tallinn as a wiring engineer and later took over the battery pack. That’s a big responsibility. What did that teach you?

The battery pack was quite a challenge, I had no particular previous knowledge on the topic so I had to learn a lot and very quickly. The battery pack for us is a mix of several very different fields including composite materials, PCB design, battery cells, cooling systems and so on which is simultaneously really interesting but also very challenging to figure it all out and find optimal solutions. I have learnt a lot about lots of different fields but also a lot about project management and teamwork.

You are also coaching the FGC Estonia team and mentoring younger students. Why put so much into that alongside your own studies?

For me this has been a natural and logical step. As I grew out of the competitions I was still not ready to say goodbye to the competitions so I continued as a coach and mentor to help give the same opportunities, learning experiences and fun on to the next people. This has also benefited me by improving my knowledge and communication skill by explaining different topics to students with a wide variety of ages and prior knowledge.

What does receiving this scholarship mean to you?

It means a lot, I am very grateful to Tech Group for this. I am glad that my work so far has been recognized and noticed. This scholarship makes it possible for me to take part in the FGC competition in Korea this October as a coach and to try to build a few cool robots for local competitions in Estonia.

What are you working on right now?

I am continuing in FS Team Tallinn, I am working on some projects for this year’s and future battery packs. I am also still coaching the robotics class and the FGC Team Estonia. There is also a new project, we are trying to bring the FTC competition to Estonia to add a competition with technical level beyond LEGOs and aimed for the high school age group.

Katariina on a tour of Tech Group’s production and development centre

We are proud to support Katariina’s journey and grateful to TalTech’s Development Fund for bringing students and industry together in this way. If you are a Bachelor’s or Master’s student at TalTech’s School of Engineering and want to learn more about the Tech Group scholarship, internship opportunities, or job shadowing, we encourage you to reach out.

The next application round will be announced in spring 2027.