For the past 25 years, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics has grown into an international organization meant to inspire youth to explore science and technology. Founded by Dean Kamen, FIRST held their annual world championship in Detroit on April 25-28. Teams from around the world came to this competition including Fenton’s Robotics team, the Titanium Tigers.

“Competing makes me feel full of adrenaline,” senior Laura Albrant said. “It’s kind of a blur half the time when I drive; what do I do next, which cube I grab; I’m focused on the moment. Sometimes when I’m on the field and I look up at my team and wave, and everyone waves back. It’s nice knowing they have my back. Worlds is crazy, but in a good way. It is such a huge learning opportunity with all the different cultures.”

Last year, the robotics worlds competition brought more than $35 million to St. Louis and $52 million in total impact. Hosting this competition in Detroit for the next three years could mean a huge profit for the city.  

“There’s a bubble area in Detroit where it’s growing and blooming,” junior Jack Haynes said. “With the money from this competition businesses will be able to grow and expand and do more for the community and show people Detroit is not as bad as everyone says it is. Robotics has helped us meet new people. FIRST (the organization behind many youth STEM programs, including FIRST Robotics) is a whole new world; it’s enriching to learn about STEM and how it impacts our future. Everyone here at the competition is very happy because worlds is the farthest you can go in FIRST robotics. Everyone here made it.”

The competition, while originally estimated to have 30,000 people attend, ended up hosting more than 40,000 people who were able to experience what STEM has to offer in events like the Innovation Fair.

“My first robotics worlds competition has been exciting,” freshman Joe Henley said. “It’s so loud, there’s so many people. Worlds is much larger than other competitions, even though there’s a lot of Michigan teams, there are still teams from around the world and many cool activities. There was an innovation fair where companies gave you an outlook on their career and displayed new technology like self-driving cars, 3D printers and VR headsets. For this competition I hope we get in the top ten so we can get to Ford Field. Compared to middle school, I have more stuff to do, more responsibility. I feel like more of a part of the team that way. High school robotics fueled my interest in science and industry.”

Despite being eliminated in their third match of the quarter finals, the Titanium Tigers plan to learn from worlds for next year’s season.

“I hoped that we would have a fun time, work as a team, and learn for next year,” Haynes said. “We have new leaders this year, so we got to test them out to know what adjustments we’ll need to make for next year. This year we were finalists at the Kettering competition where we got the gracious professionalism award; at Gaylord we won the competition and received the creativity award.”

Michigan is home to more high school robotics teams than any other state in the United States, at about 508, according to the Detroit Free Press. This year, five of the six finalists were Michigan teams. Within the winning alliance, (teams 27, 2767 and 2708) two were from Michigan and the third from Ontario.   

“Our team is unique for what we do,” Albrant said. “We have overcome a lot. We only have 18 members, and yet we are often neck-and-neck with teams of 50. It was really cool to see our team work together and excel. Our safety captain [Lauryn Elsholz] nails every question they ask her, and, not to be biased, but our drivers are pretty cool. This is my first and last year; it makes me wish I’d joined sooner. I hate thinking about leaving. Robotics has cemented that I’m going into a career in science, like I’m going farther in life that I would have before. I want to let my team know that I love them, I will miss them, and they’ll do amazing next year.”

As their season wraps up, team 5114 is powering up for off season with events like the all girls competition and the next season, announced to be Destination: Deep Space.