Coming in FIRST
Championship robotics team honored for accomplishments, awards, community service
A group of Plymouth-Canton students who started building robots together in middle school is rolling into a new competitive season with a state championship berth, two engineering awards and a long list of community service projects behind them.
FIRST Tech Challenge Team 21482, known as the Robo Challengers, will begin the 2026-27 season after a 2025-26 campaign that took the students from the Michigan State Championship to the halls of the state Capitol.
The team was founded in 2022 by students from East Middle School in Plymouth-Canton Community Schools. Last season, the team earned a spot at the state championship, won two Think Awards for its detailed engineering documentation, and ranked among the top 10 percent of youth robotics teams worldwide.
FIRST Tech Challenge is an international program in which middle and high school students design, build, program and operate robots to solve game challenges under real-world engineering constraints.
The students’ work reached well beyond the competition floor. The team traveled to the Michigan State Capitol and the Cora Anderson House Office Building in Lansing, where members met with state lawmakers, including state Sen. Rosemary Bayer, to advocate for more public-school STEM funding.
Closer to home, the team demonstrated robots for the Plymouth City Commission and received a commendation from Mayor Linda Filipczak. The Canton Township Board of Trustees, led by Supervisor Anne Marie Graham-Hudak, also issued an official proclamation honoring the group.
Summer brought the team to Plymouth Kellogg Park, where members hosted interactive exhibits at Art in the Park and Robots in the Park. They introduced hundreds of local families, along with U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, to youth robotics and raised more than $1,100 for local STEM programming.
The students also led weekend workshops at the Plymouth District Library, guiding more than 50 elementary and middle school students through hands-on coding and mechanical assembly.
Team members volunteered 25 hours with Open Door Ministry, packaging more than 1,200 pounds of emergency groceries that helped more than 150 local families.
“Our mission has never been limited to building a robot for a tournament, because we want to help develop thoughtful technical leaders who actively give back to our hometown,” the student leadership team said in a joint statement. “Whether we are addressing municipal leaders at township hall, teaching elementary schoolers how to write code, or packaging emergency food for our neighbors, everything we do is grounded in our commitment to Plymouth and Canton.”
The Robo Challengers are now building new mechanical systems for the coming season. As a community-supported student organization, the team relies on sponsorships, grants and tax-deductible donations to cover tournament registration fees, machining tools, raw materials and travel costs.
Local businesses, civic groups and engineering mentors can support the team through financial sponsorships, machining mentorship or by inviting the students to present at community events. For more information, email robo.challengers12@gmail.com.
