RoboBlitz Team 3936 completes 2025 FIRST season.

Written by Julie Kreighbaum

RoboBlitz Team 3936 has completed its 2025 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) competition season. The theme this year, “Reefscape”, presented by Haas, is based on coral reefs in the ocean. (No, we did not compete underwater!)
 
Starting in January, Team 3936 had eight weeks to design, build, and program a robot. The main tasks were harvesting algae off the reef, placing it in the processor or a barge and seeding coral onto the reef. There were four levels to place the coral on, the highest level earning the most points. Algae was pulled off the reef and placed in the processor for points. Once the algae was processed, a human player could pick up the algae and place it into a barge for additional points. 

Three teams formed a blue alliance and competed against another three teams who formed the red alliance. The first fifteen seconds of the match were autonomous, meaning the robot operated solely on a program. In the last two minutes and fifteen seconds, the robot was operated by a drive team. At the end of the match, all six robots raced to their barge and ascended to the surface by climbing onto a metal cage for extra points. 

This year’s team competed in three competitions, the first at Penn High School in Mishawaka, IN. We were excited to be picked by an alliance that has competed in the playoffs in previous years. Unfortunately, we were eliminated. 

For the first time ever, we were able to compete in a Michigan FIRST robotics competition at Berrien Springs! We wanted extra driving practice and to see the robots created by Michigan teams. We were also picked to be on an alliance with the New Buffalo Bison team, which was fun! 

Our third competition was at the Tippecanoe Fairgrounds in Lafayette, IN, where we competed against some of the best teams in Indiana. Unfortunately, we did not do as well as we had hoped. 

FIRST Robotics is about more than building robots. Students learn technical skills that they can use in everyday life. Students also build their self-confidence, leadership, and teamwork skills. Gracious professionalism and cooperation are core values for FIRST. Even though teams compete fiercely against each other, they can still respect and offer help to other teams. 

Alumni from past teams have been awarded college scholarships and have worked as interns. Some alumni have applied and are now working for local companies. We are always looking for mentors and welcome anyone interested in mentoring or being a coach! 

For more information about FIRST please visit firstinspires.org.