FIRST Canopy Season Teaser, BIOBUZZ Game Piece Reveal & SO MANY Summer Opportunities!

 HOW EXCITED ARE WE FOR NEXT SEASON...?

FIRST Championship Results!

Congrats to all the Arizona and Four Corners FIRST teams that competed at the FIRST Championship in Houston last week!! Here are a couple of shoutouts...

• Hexadecimal Nibble - 4th seeded alliance captain in FTC Goodall Division
• Metal Masters - 2nd pick of alliance 4 in FTC Jackson Division
• Shiprock Chieftains - Judge's Award in FTC Lovelace Division
• Cobra Commanders - 1st pick of alliance 2 on FRC Johnson Division
• LAUNCH TEAM - FIRST Championship Impact Award!!!

Good luck to the Arizona and Four Corners Teams competing at the Western Edge Premier event in California at the end of May!!!

SUMMER MENTOR CONFERENCES & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

There are a number of mentor conferences for FRC and FTC coaches happening around the country, as well as FLL/FTC certified professional development. Please see the individual websites for registration information. Events are organized by date. 

• The Woodie Flowers Mentor Conference - Detroit, MI; June 20-21
• The Woodie Flowers Conference is an international mentorship conference that brings together passionate educators, volunteers, coaches, and mentors from the FIRST community. This unique event is organized by the Woodie Flowers Award recipients, with the support of Detroit-area Woodie Flowers Finalist Award recipients and FIRST Teams. The event is run as part of The Woodie Flowers Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. This event is not operated by FIRST HQ.
•  
• FIRST Certified Professional Development - Fresno, CA; June 15-16
• This professional development will help you acquire or strengthen your facilitation skills for project-based learning and build holistic skills 
  such as creativity, problem-solving and teamwork in an active learning environment. Each course is led by a FIRST Certified Trainer and provides the necessary tools to bring FIRST programs to your classroom or as a structured after-school program. Certificates for continuing education or professional development credit are provided following the completion of the session.
• 
• Viva los Mentors - Las Vegas, NV; July 31 - August 2
• Connect with mentors from across the country to exchange ideas, gain real-world insights, and strengthen your team. What happens in Vegas inspires innovation everywhere.
•  
• New England Mentor Conference - MIT, Cambridge, MA; August 8-9
• To encourage mentor growth, conversation and connection across New England and beyond.

• California FIRST Mentor Conference - Santa Clara, CA; August 22-23
• The FIRST Mentor Conference is a 2-day event aimed at creating and growing a one-stop conference for FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) community mentors to share their experiences, best practices, and further build community. This year, 2026, will be the fourth annual FMC. This is a volunteer created and run event, not operated by FIRST HQ.

SUMMER OFF-SEASON EVENTS

• Arizona Tech Challenge - Queen Creek, AZ; June 12 - 13
• Custom rules, custom awards, up to 30 teams! Only $50 per team to compete. 

• Meadowbot Mayhem - Las Vegas, NV; June 13 & 14
• MeadowBot Mayhem is MeadowBots' summer off-season FIRST Tech Challenge event. Join us for an exciting weekend of robotics competition, learning, and fun at The Meadows School. Whether you're a seasoned team or brand new to FTC, this is your chance to keep the season alive and sharpen your skills before the next competition year.

• RTI Off Season Event - West Hills, CA; August 1-2
• Last year, FTC national teams from Romania, Canada, China and Kazakhstan had already confirmed their participation. We strongly recommend your team to participate in this event. The more teams we have the more we can show the world what we do and the more fun we can have doing it.

Did everyone see the GAME PIECE REVEAL FOR 2026/2027?!?!

If you weren't able to make it to the FIRST Championship, we wanted to highlight some exciting news that was announced during the da Vinci finals!

Not only did we reveal the 2026-2027 scoring element, we also announced some new resources to help teams prepare for the BIOBUZZ season.

Check out our blog, which includes further details about the scoring element, StarterBot resources, and how to purchase scoring elements and pre-order game sets for next season!

In addition, this includes NEW! FIRST Tech Challenge Skill Builders: educational content and challenge specifically designed to guide teams as they explore the Game Preview content.

SAVE THE DATE FOR THE BIOBUZZ KICKOFF SEPTEMBER 12, 2026!!!!

Congrats AZ Championship Teams, 2026/2027 SEASON TEASER & Opportunities for Teams & Students

 

CONGRATULATIONS to ALL the teams that competed in the Arizona Championship, and all teams that competed in Decode throughout the season! Special shoutouts to the teams moving on to FIRST Championship and Premier events from Arizona & Four Corners:

• FIRST Championship - FIRST Tech Challenge in Houston, TX, USA
  • 10984 - Beep Patrol
  • 18420 - Metal Masters
  • 23942 - RezKidz
  • 23948 - Chieftains
  • 25620 - Hexadecimal Nibble
  • 26100 - Warrior Bots
• Western Edge Premier Event  in Long Beach, CA, USA
  • 2844 - Valley X Robotics
  • 3666 - Hawks Robotics
  • 12841 - Plus +3 Robotics
  • 18625 - Trivium Knightmares
  • 11529 - Navajo Code Writers
  • 26009 - Coltz & Boltz
  • 31606 - Newcomb Skyhawks Techs
• Canadian Rockies Premier Event @ KDays in Edmonton, AB, Canada
• 10111 - Herberger Javelinas
• 13968 - Herberger Howlers

Arizona Advocacy Conference 2026

Share with your elected officials why FIRST and STEM are important to you at this year's Arizona Advocacy Conference. Training takes place remotely on Monday, March 30 from 4-5 pm. 

• There are three options for meeting with your legislators: 
• In-person day (April 22) - FRC and FTC teams can showcase robots at the AZ Capitol and meet with legislators. 
• Schedule in-person meetings on a day and time that works for your team (ex: after school) anytime between April 22 and May 21.
• Schedule remote meetings on a day that works for your team anytime between April 22 and May 21.

Come have your voice heard! Interested? Sign up HERE.

NAU Summer Engineering Camps

We are launching this year’s NAU Engineering summer camps (in Robotics, Video Game Design, Semiconductors and Microelectronics, & Civil/Environmental) as well as an overnight Game Jam event for high schoolers, a current student ambassador open house - take over event, and a hackathon event all in the Sanghi College of Engineering at NAU. 

If you have students that would be interested in these events, please encourage them to sign up! None of these events require any previous knowledge or experience. We really want to support students getting involved in STEM as soon as possible, and we will be posting upcoming opportunities to do so on our new website with details here: SCE Early Engagement Opportunities – Career Development | NAU College of Engineering

FIRST Volunteers Needed - Western Edge in California

FIRST® is excited to announce the extension of its Premier Events to now include Long Beach, California as a west coast location! The Long Beach event will be at the LB Convention Center this May, where eighty-eight teams (8th grade through 12 grade) from around the world will compete over three days to see whose teamwork and building skills achieve the top performance and judged awards. 

To support such a large-scale event, FTC Western Edge Premier Event needs volunteers! If you have volunteered in one of these roles this past season, we need you!

• Inspectors (need 8) Thursday 3:30pm-6pm (May 28) and Friday 7am-10am.
• Judges (need 28) Friday 3pm - 7pm, all day Saturday and some need to stay Sunday 8-12. We also need 6 remote judges to review engineering portfolios on-line (from your home) on Friday 
• Referees (need 16) Friday and Saturday all day, some refs for Sunday 8-1:30pm.

  

Check out the website   https://cafirst.org/westernedge/ and scroll to the bottom to register https://my.firstinspires.org/ExpressVolunteer/landing-page/cfee9eef-cfe8-11f0-91f4-00505699b848

Per California Assembly Bill and FIRST CA, volunteers need to be AB506 cleared - steps are here: https://cafirst.org/new-ca-volunteer-requirements/

AXON - Student Internship Opportunity

We’re excited to announce that applications are now open for the 2026 Axon High School Internship Program! 

This 8-week, hands-on summer experience is designed for high-performing high school juniors and seniors interested in engineering, technology, and innovation. Interns work alongside Axon professionals on real projects that contribute to advancing public safety technology.

New for 2026, we are introducing focused internship tracks to better align with each student’s interests and the type of work they’re most excited to explore. These tracks allow interns to tailor their experience across areas such as engineering, research, security, and technical innovation, while still collaborating as a cohort.

Application for students can be found on our careers page or LinkedIn. 

I’m also excited to announce that this program is now being led by Axon’s JEDI team. The JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) team is focused on delivering a structured, high-impact early talent experience for all interns at Axon. Moving forward, all official program communications will come directly from the JEDI team.

Thank you all for your continued support of not only this program, but the outstanding young adults across Arizona. We are beyond excited for another amazing summer of High School Internships at Axon!

If you have any questions, please reach out to jedi@axon.com. 

2026/2027 FIRST Season Teaser Trailer...get excited!!!!

Arizona Championship Live Stream Links and Open Invitational in California

Congrats to all the Four Corners Teams that advanced from the RezBotics Championship on to the FIRST Championship and Premier Events!

• FIRST Championship:
• 23942 - Rez Kidz
• 23948 - Chieftains
• Western Edge Premier Event - CA
• 26006 - KC Broncos
• 26009 - Coltz & Boltz
• 31606 - Newcomb Skyhawks Techs
• Also advancing: 
• 26008 - Shiprock

Congrats to ALL the teams that played in the Four Corners Region this season!

Good Luck to the 50 Arizona Teams Competing this weekend at the Arizona Championship in Flagstaff!

Teams can find information on the Arizona Championship, including the schedule, pit map, information on tours of NAU Engineering, and food information HERE!

Links to the live stream are below. Congrats to ALL the Arizona teams that competed this season in 12 qualifiers!!!

GO TEAMS!

Advice from the AZ Head Referees

We are excited to see the action this weekend.  Teams have been improving at an amazing rate and we are anticipating some great Matches!  Here are a few points for Teams to think about as you head into the final preparations…

1. Safety Glasses – Remember our past Blog post re. wearing Safety Glasses.  We continue to be rigidly enforcing Safety Glass wear in the pits and competition field.  One (1) Team Warning which will escalate under G211 to a Yellow or Red Card for subsequent violation by any team member.  Coaches/mentors are included in this issue with Safety Glass Wear this season.  Please set the example for all!
2. Gameplay/Defense– We are seeing some really good shooting and with that comes a rise in defense!  This makes for an exciting match.  Remember to take a look at protecting your Power Switch AND expect heavy defense.  Keep in mind - There is a line between playing Defense and RAMMING a bot …  so hard RAMMING action can easily be seen as intentionally trying to damage a robot.  If you plan to play defense, keep defensive play tough, but be careful!
3. Human Player Actions –  We are seeing effective scoring and teams striving to get quick cycle times between loading and shooting.  HPs - Remember to place the Artifact in the robot effectively.  If the Artifact bounces out of the robot and leaves the Loading Zone when you are loading the robot, that is a violation of G432 D. and a Minor Foul per Artifact.  So, be careful when loading.
4. GATE Zone and Opposing Alliance Gate Activation- A number of matches have been decided by penalties resulting from Gate Contact/release of artifacts from the Ramp.  Be careful and maintain your situational awareness when operating near the opposing alliance Gate area. 

We look forward to seeing you all soon and…

Have a safe week and come ready to enjoy the weekend in the Snowy North Country!!!!

Enjoy,

Your Head Ref Team -

Rich, Robert, Samuel and Demian

RTI FTC Off-season events are in West Hills, CA for all teams worldwide on Aug. 1-2  2026

We are excited to work once again with the U.S. STEM EDUCATION FOUNDATION at West Hills CA after a successful Robo Tourney International competition last 7 years. The event will offer FTC off-season, Sumobots and Ball Blitz (9-16 aged) , Soccerbots and Ball Blitz (6-10 aged) and Speed(4-6 aged) Competitions.

Last year, FTC national teams from Romania, Canada, China and Kazakhstan had already confirmed their participation. We strongly recommend your team to participate in this event. The more teams we have the more we can show the world what we do and the more fun we can have doing it.

Other competitions will include contestants from the United States, Canada, Egypt, China, Jordan, South Korea, Dubai, Libya and other parts of the world.

Our competition will be held on August 1-2.
The location is Chaminade College Preparatory - High School, 7500 Chaminade Ave, West Hills, CA 91304.

You can register on the website (https://usefstem.org/robo-tourney-signup) or email us(usefstem@gmail.com) your team number and name, and we will register for you.

Discord Server(Scan QR): Announcements, Q&A, resources

LIVE STREAM LINKS - ARIZONA CHAMPIONSHIP 

            

                    Saguaro Division Live Stream                    Grand Canyon Division Live Stream

Free SolidWorks Class and Live Stream Links for Copper and Four Corners

FREE SolidWorks & 3D Printing Class

ERAU Prescott, in cooperation with the Yavapai County Education Service Agency (YCESA), has offered a free SolidWorks + 3D printing class that started on 1/23/26 as a part of a larger STEM Bridge program. The class will be held on Fridays between 10 to 12 each week until 4/17/26 in room 106 of the STEM building (building 76) except for the week of Spring break. This is for the teachers at high schools and middle schools so they can pass the knowledge to their students and start CAD/3D Printing clubs or offer elective courses in their schools.

Although the main focus of manufacturing is on 3D printing, demos for laser wood cutting, CNC machining, and 3D scanning will be provided. 

Certificates of completion will be given to the attendees so they can use it toward their personal development credits. 

As a bonus, a free Certified SolidWorks Associate (CSWA) exam voucher worth $100 will be given to the attendees at the end.  

 

The class currently has 10 open seats. For more information, please contact Dr. Mehran Andalibi (andalibm@erau.edu).