In Flint, Michigan, the Algonac High School’s  FIRST Robotics Competition team is right smack in the middle of Kettering University’s recreational center, with a taped black line on the carpet. About five students are working feverishly to fabricate a bracket that will prevent their robot’s arm from retracting too far when it competes in the Michigan State Regional robotics competition against 39 other schools. With only a few tense minutes remaining before the next match, the sense of urgency is palpable as a drill whirs and a hammers knock a fastener into place.

The Full Metal Muskrats, the name of the Algonac High School team, must get it right. Mechanical issues can cost points and derail their goal of making it to the state finals next month. Sebastien Cournoyer, a plant manager at Cargill Corp. and one of the team’s mentors, stands behind the black line and watches as students secure the bracket. In a low voice, he says that he knows it will not work but fights the urge to intervene. Cournoyer believes that they can learn from failure as well as success.

The competitions taking place around the globe are a huge affair; in the United States, around 615,000 high school students work on robotic teams. The program, founded in the 1970s by inventor Dean Kamen, serves as an incubator for talent for just about every industry that needs engineers, software developers, fabricators, code writers and technicians.

FIRST teams in Michigan are heavily supported by the auto industry, with General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Stellantis and Bosch among the major donors of money, equipment, mentors and tools. However, the industry’s strong support does not mean it has dibs on these kids.

The author conducted an informal survey of a couple dozen students and found that only about a third wanted to work in the automotive industry or for a supplier. Aviation, medicine, data and agriculture careers were cited by students not interested in creating future automobiles. Several planned to forego college and instead seek jobs after high school that would train them as technicians. Some wanted to fix cars — good news for dealers struggling to recruit technicians.

As part of this year’s competition, the robots must operate autonomously for 15 seconds while performing several tasks. They are driven by small but powerful electric motors and can perform maneuvers such as the tank turn and a version of the crabwalk, which are features of electric vehicles from Rivian and GMC Hummer.

Birgit Sorgenfrei, a project lead on advanced driver assistance systems at Ford, said that some of the strategies the students are designing to control how the robot moves or operates its appendages to move game pieces and score points are similar to the skill set needed to control vehicles. Students who plan on a career in the auto industry after working on a FIRST team often have an advantage over those who do not participate.

Sorgenfrei, a FIRST judge for more than 20 years, said that when Ford looks at students for internships or full-time positions, they check if they have FIRST experience.

As for the Algonac team, it turned out that the bracket was not needed. The Full Metal Muskrats did not advance to the next round. However, Sebastien Cournoyer said that winning is not the most important part. The most important lessons in FIRST Robotics competition are teamwork and being able to work with others, working under pressure, identifying when someone else may be better at a task than they are, and learning from them.

Whether they won this round or not, the next cool gizmo on a future e-bike or EV might be authored by a young person with skills honed at FIRST.

Photography – Automotive News.