Three Pine-Richland students have secured a spot at the FIRST Robotics World Championship, which will take place in Houston, Texas from April 17-20. The team, named after a part of the human brain and dedicated to outreach, is known as the BrainSTEM Learning Giant Diencephalic BrainSTEM Robotics Team.
Their commitment to breaking systemic barriers and inspiring others through engineering and STEM has been recognized with awards at both regional events. At the Greater Pittsburgh Regional event in March, they won the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award, which came with a sponsorship from NASA. In April, they earned the Regional FIRST Impact Award at the Miami Valley Regional event in Cincinnati, further solidifying their spot at the World Championship.
At the World Championship, Ryan Scott, who serves as the business and outreach lead for the team, shared that his role has evolved over time to focus more on outreach and business than programming or engineering. The team’s success is a result of their dedication to outreach and their mission of Robots Without Borders.
The FIRST Robotics World Championship is an international youth organization called For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), which promotes STEM education and innovation among students through various competitions.