FAMU Hosted Global High School Stem Athletes Who Competed To Qualify For First® International Robotics Championship
Students learned problem-solving and teamwork in addition to designing and building robots by working with professional mentors at the Tallahassee Regional, April 17–18
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ― Florida A&M University and FAMU-FSU College of Engineering hosted high school students from four countries, five states, and dozens of Florida-based teams descended upon the Alfred Lawson, Jr. Multipurpose Center at FAMU to showcase 15 weeks of intense robotic design and engineering. Forty-six teams of students and professional engineers competed in the FIRST® Robotics Competition at the Tallahassee Regional.
This year’s theme, REBUILT™ presented by Haas, part of the 2025–2026 FIRST® AGE℠ season, challenged students to reimagine the past through modern engineering. Two competing alliances were invited to score fuel, cross obstacles, and climb towers before time ran out. Beyond the hardware, the competition emphasized “Gracious Professionalism,” a core value in which teams competed fiercely while treating one another with respect.
(Photo via FIRST® website)
Tisha Keller, assistant dean for media, marketing & communications at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, noted that the international draw reflected a reputation built on more than just logistics.
“When teams traveled from Australia, Pakistan, and Suriname to compete here at the Al Lawson Center on the campus of Florida A&M University, that wasn’t an accident,” Keller said. “It was the result of intentional community-building."
She explained that what made the regional distinctive was the combination of competitive excellence and belonging.
"As FIRST Regional Director Wendy Austin has noted, our students of color and community groups had the opportunity to compete at a place where they felt at home. Whether it was ‘Pymble Pride’ from Sydney or ‘STEAMSUR’ from Suriname, these teams didn’t just travel thousands of miles to compete; they found a community here,” Keller said.
The event helped high school students prepare for college by providing a direct and tangible bridge to the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. Alan Hanstein, executive director of the Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee, highlighted the long-term impact of the collegiate setting.
“This event was more than a competition; it was a glimpse into the future of our workforce,” Hanstein said. “When students walked onto a college campus, built something with their own hands, and solved real problems as a team, they began to see themselves not just as students, but as engineers. That’s where the pipeline truly begins.”
The competition also helped students build professional skills that could not be learned from books alone. Keller noted that students became better leaders and more confident in their technical abilities each year.
(Photo via FIRST® website)
“Students were essentially practicing the full lifecycle of professional engineering in a high-stakes environment,” Keller added. “That sense of ownership—that the solution is yours, and the failure is yours to learn from—built an agency that no grade can replicate. By the time they arrived on our campus, many were already fluent in the language of engineering teamwork. We weren’t just building robots; we were building the engineers who will build the future.”
Teams vied for a prestigious spot at the international FIRST® Championship in Houston, Texas, scheduled for April 29 to May 2. For more information about FIRST in North Florida, please contact Wendy Austin at waustin@firstinspires.org or visit firstinspires.org.
Media Contact
Rachel James-Terry
Senior Director of Strategic Communications
rachel.jamesterry@famu.edu
Tisha Keller
Assistant Dean of Media, Marketing and Communications
FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
tckeller@eng.famu.fsu.edu
