Robot Rumble: NSWC Philadelphia-Mentored Team Wins Big at FIRST Robotics Championship

A high school team mentored by Naval Surface Warfare Center Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD) recently won a world title at the FIRST Robotics Championship in Houston, Texas.

That team from the City of Brotherly Love — the RoboLancers of Central High School — earned the championship as part of an alliance with squads from Arizona, Missouri and Israel.

The win is a testament to the value of NSWCPD’s efforts supporting robotics teams at local public schools — some of which are underserved, underrepresented and underfunded — as well as the crucial work performed by the Naval STEM Coordination Office located at the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

Naval STEM coordinates investments in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education, outreach and workforce initiatives across the Department of the Navy (DoN). STEM is a critical naval focus area outlined in the Naval S&T Strategy released in April by Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro.

One way in which Naval STEM carries out its mission is by supporting commands that mentor teams competing in FIRST Robotics events.

“One of our primary goals is to cultivate a naval STEM ecosystem that develops and sustains student interest in science and technology careers,” said Sandy Landsberg, who is both the Naval STEM Coordination Office executive and a division director in ONR’s Command, Control, Computing, Communications, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting (C5ISRT) Department.

“The FIRST Robotics Competition is an excellent avenue for this because it promotes familiarity with current and future technical career opportunities in both the civilian and naval workforces.”

FIRST is a global STEM education nonprofit that organizes robotics programs for students in grades pre-K-12. Its mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators, by engaging them in mentor-based programs that build STEM skills.

Each year, through various commands and warfare centers, Naval STEM supports hundreds of FIRST Robotics teams — beginning when a new competition theme is announced and the participants work with naval mentors to design and build their robots. Over the next few months, the teams compete in regional competitions in the hope of being selected for the final nationals contest.

Naval commands and warfare centers worldwide participate at varying levels, said Landsberg. Some, like Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, are so large they mentor multiple teams and even hold their own regional competitions.

Others have smaller yet vital footprints. For example, this year Fleet Readiness Center Southwest in San Diego mentored a rookie team from nearby Lincoln High School, an underserved and underrepresented school whose impressive team advanced to a regional FIRST Robotics Competition in its first year.

During the past year, the DoN supported 526 teams competing in First Robotics, 31 of which made it to the championship.

NSWCPD has mentored the RoboLancers since 2014. The partnership has spread to and benefitted hundreds of local public schools from K-12, thanks to the Philadelphia Robotics Coalition, a nonprofit the team started in 2016 with support from NSWCPD. For its efforts promoting STEM, the RoboLancers and Central High School received the Impact Award during the 2023 FIRST Robotics Championship.

The 2024 FIRST Robotics Championship featured a musical theme called Crescendo, in which teams’ robots competed in 2.5-minute matches requiring them to collect foam rings representing “notes,” carry them across a field to place them in goals called “speakers” and “amps,” and climb on a “stage” to earn points.

Each team competed in one of eight divisions. The division winners formed alliances to battle for the championship.

“It’s such a cool opportunity to see the RoboLancers win and to be a part of that,” said Tristan Wolfe, the STEM outreach coordinator for NSWCPD. “It’s been a decade in the making. The world championship is great, but I think the Impact Award from 2023 is just as special because it shows the value of community outreach and NSWC Philadelphia’s commitment to growing future generations of scientists and engineers.”

Warren Duffie Jr. is a contractor for ONR Corporate Strategic Communications.