FIRST Tech Challenge · Team 23542 · Frisco, Texas
TechnoBotz is a student-run nonprofit that brings robotics to schools and communities that do not have it, through free camps, donated STEM kits, and new teams we help start. We are also a competitive FIRST Tech Challenge team, building a new robot every season.
This season
The team
Recognition
Texas House
Passed in 2023 by Representative Mihaela Plesa, recognizing our advocacy for K-12 robotics curriculum in Texas schools.
UIL 5A
Second place at the UIL 5A state championship in 2024, during the CENTERSTAGE season and our rookie year in FIRST Tech Challenge.
North Texas
Finalists in the Ruby Division at the North Texas Championship in 2026, during the DECODE season, the year we built Porkchop.
If you have not heard of it
A robotics competition for students in grades 7 through 12, run by the nonprofit FIRST. Thousands of teams compete worldwide. Here is the shape of a season.
Every September
FIRST reveals a new challenge with a new field, new scoring, and new rules. Last year’s robot is useless. Everyone starts level.
Then a few months
Students do the CAD, machining, wiring, and Java programming. It has to drive itself for the first thirty seconds of every match, then a driver takes over.
Winter into spring
Qualifiers, league meets, then a regional championship. Teams that go far enough reach the FIRST World Championship. Matches are two and a half minutes, two teams a side.
Judges also award teams on their engineering portfolio, their outreach, and how they mentor others. It is not only about who scores the most points.
What we do
01 · Compete
Every season FIRST Tech Challenge sets a new game and we design a robot to play it, from CAD through machining, wiring, and Java. Then we take it to competitions against other teams.
02 · Mentor
Twelve FIRST Tech Challenge teams across North Texas so far. Parts, code, portfolio review, and calls the night before a competition.
03 · Expand access
Free camps and workshops, donated STEM kits, and new teams started in places with no robotics program at all.
Support
We are community based, with no school district or corporate backing behind us.
Newsletter
Once a month: which North Texas teams are recruiting, when their deadlines land, and where the next free workshop is. Nobody keeps that list in one place, so we do. Subscribing helps us more than it looks like it should. Every name on the list puts this work in front of one more family, and we would really appreciate yours.
Contact
Whatever you are here for, one of these goes straight to a student who will answer.
Meet the team
Members come from middle schools and high schools all over North Texas.
Senior at Frisco Centennial High School and in their fourth year with TechnoBotz. Captains the team and runs the outreach subteam, which covers the school visits, the sponsor conversations, and most of the email that comes through this site.
Eighth grader at Erekson Middle School and in their second year on 23542. Leads the design subteam, modelling the robot in CAD before anything gets machined or printed.
Senior at Carroll Senior High School and in their third year of FTC. Works mostly on hardware and CAD, turning the design into parts that actually fit together, and helps with outreach on the side.
Senior at Frisco Centennial High School and in their fourth year of FTC. Works on the design subteam, which spends about three months in CAD before the team commits to cutting metal.
Junior at Independence High School and in their fourth year with TechnoBotz. Leads the build subteam, the group that machines, prints, and wires everything the design subteam draws.
Senior at Frisco Centennial High School and in their third year of FTC. On the build subteam, assembling the robot and repairing it between matches.
Senior at Plano West Senior High School. On the programming subteam, writing the Java that drives the robot and the autonomous routine it runs on its own at the start of every match.
Senior at Frisco Centennial High School and in their third year of FTC. On the programming subteam, working on the code that controls the robot through a match.
Junior at Frisco Centennial High School and in their second year of FTC. Splits the season between programming and outreach, which means writing code some weeks and running workshops others.
Junior at Reedy High School and in their fourth year of FTC. On the outreach subteam, running the school visits and robot demos that bring new students into FIRST.
Senior at Plano West Senior High School and in their sixth year of FTC, the longest run of anyone on the team. Works on outreach, from planning events to running the free workshops for younger students.
Junior at Lebanon Trail High School and in their fourth year of FTC. On the outreach subteam, helping run the free camps and the community events where families drive the robot.
Eighth grader at Pearson Middle School and in their second year of FTC. On the outreach subteam, one of the students who demonstrates the robot at school events.
Seventh grader at Rushing Middle School in Prosper. New to FTC this season and the newest member of the team.
Join us
We answer everyone, whether you are in middle school or about to graduate.
Our robots
We compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge, which sets a brand new game every September. Everything from the last robot gets thrown out and every team starts level. Three robots so far, and a Think Award for the engineering portfolio behind them.
Our best and highest performing robot yet. A fixed 60 degree hood, inspired by Steph Curry, that can shoot from anywhere on the field with nothing rotating.
An 18 by 18 robot built around an intake pincher and two-way scoring, so it could put game pieces in either place instead of committing to one.
Our rookie year. We started with the starter bot, which had no endgame ability at all, and rebuilt it into a top 70 robot by endgame performance.
Before FTC
From 2021 to 2023 we ran FIRST LEGO League, programming LEGO robots on a four by eight foot board and presenting a research project to judges.
Outreach
Robotics is not evenly available. We spend the year closing that gap in three ways: teaching it, equipping schools to run it, and starting teams where there are none.
How we work
Phase 01
Free robotics camps and workshops for elementary and middle school students, taught by the students who compete. We also built a robotics curriculum for 1,700 students at a school for underprivileged and refugee children internationally.
Book a workshop
Phase 02
We donate STEM kits and equipment to schools with no robotics program, targeting under-resourced and Title I campuses across North Texas.
Request kits
Phase 03
We start new FIRST teams and mentor existing ones, and we have presented to more than 50 school administrators on how to build a robotics program from scratch.
Start a team
Mentoring
Twelve FIRST Tech Challenge teams so far across North Texas. Parts, code, portfolio review, and calls the night before a competition. It is free and it always has been.
One of our programs
A monthly email listing which North Texas teams are recruiting, when their deadlines hit, and where our next free workshop is. It costs nothing and you can leave whenever you like. A bigger list means more students hear about open spots before they close, so signing up is a real help to the team. We would appreciate you joining.
Finding the right fit
FIRST runs programs by age, and one of them will fit your student. Our Get Involved page walks through every program, how to find a team near you, and what to do if there is not one.
Any age · Any ability
A FIRST in Texas initiative for students with disabilities. Teams choose the format that fits their students, so a disability does not decide whether a kid gets to compete.
Grades 4 – 8
Program a LEGO robot to run missions, plus a research project. Where we started in 2021.
Grades 7 – 12
Metal robots, Java, a twelve foot field. Up to fifteen students. What we do now.
Not sure?
Tell us your kid’s grade and where you live and we will point you at the right program and the teams near you that are recruiting.
Sponsors
We are a community-based team with no school district or corporate backing. Our families have funded most of our first three seasons. Sponsorship is what changes that.
Thank you
Every one of these gave parts, machines, or money to a team of students they had never met. We would not have a robot without them.
Where it goes
01
For students in under-resourced schools and community centers, at no cost to the school.
02
Equipment for schools that have no robotics program of their own.
03
Mentoring new teams and expanding our robotics curriculum to students around the world.
Tiers
In-kind donations of materials, equipment, or services are welcome and receive the same recognition based on value.
| Tier 1$250 | Tier 2$1,000 | Tier 3$2,500 | Tier 4$5,000 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand promotion | ||||
| Logo feature on all social media and website platforms | ||||
| Logo feature on all team merch | ||||
| Logo feature on 2026-2027 competition robot | ||||
| Hand out company merch and brand materials at competitions | ||||
| Exclusive event booths at all our events for a year | ||||
| Tailored social media campaign for your products, including video content and digital models | ||||
| Product promotion and showcase at our competitions and events | ||||
| Host a tailored event to promote your products and services | ||||
| Community involvement | ||||
| Provide robotics volunteering opportunities for your team | ||||
| Host a STEM event with us | ||||
| Collaborate with us to establish a year-long STEM initiative | ||||
| Program involvement | ||||
| Robot demonstration at your office or event | ||||
| Become an official TechnoBotz season advisor | ||||
| Incorporate company products into our robot design | ||||
| Reminders of gratitude | ||||
| Receive a thank-you box | ||||
| Receive personalized and general monthly impact reports | ||||
Brand promotion
Community involvement
Program involvement
Reminders of gratitude
Brand promotion
Community involvement
Program involvement
Reminders of gratitude
Brand promotion
Community involvement
Program involvement
Reminders of gratitude
Brand promotion
Community involvement
Program involvement
Reminders of gratitude
All donations are tax deductible. TechnoBotz Nonprofit is fiscally sponsored by The Hack Foundation (d.b.a. Hack Club), a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Updates
More resources for you to be in touch and get involved.
Upcoming
The new game is revealed and the build clock starts.
Previously
Texas Discovery Gardens, Dallas. Hosted by 2 Inspire Peace.
August 2026
We mentor twelve FIRST Tech Challenge teams across North Texas, and we have never charged any of them.
Most teams do not fail because their students are not smart enough. They fail because nobody told them what a portfolio is until the week before judging, or because a motor burned out and there was no spare, or because the one adult who understood the code moved away.
It is rarely a lecture. Most of what we do is small and specific: a spare part driven across town on a Saturday, a second pair of eyes on an autonomous routine that keeps drifting, a portfolio read through before judging with honest notes in the margin. Sometimes it is a call at eleven at night the day before a competition because something snapped and nobody knows what to do next.
We have been the team on the other end of that call. Our first Tech Challenge season was 2023, and we were making the jump from LEGO robots on a four by eight foot board to a metal machine on a twelve by twelve foot field. Java instead of blocks. Machining instead of clicking bricks together. Having made that jump recently is most of why we are useful to teams making it now.
Twelve FIRST Tech Challenge teams across North Texas have worked with us so far. Some needed one conversation. Some we have worked with across a whole season. We do not track it as a program with tiers and deliverables, because the moment it becomes that, it stops being the thing teams actually need.
It is free, and it always has been. We are a nonprofit, and mentoring costs us time rather than money.
The harder and more permanent version of this is helping a family start a team where none exists. We have done it: FLL Techno Raiders exists because we started it.
The bar is much lower than most people think. A team needs four students and two adults, and the adults need no technical background at all. That surprises nearly everyone we tell. We have also presented to more than fifty school administrators on how to stand up a robotics program from scratch, because a school that runs its own team reaches far more students than we ever could visiting once a year.
Ask. We would rather answer a question in October than watch a team scratch a season in February. There is no form and no minimum, and you do not have to be near Frisco.
Get involved
FIRST Tech Challenge runs on students, mentors, and volunteers, and every one of those is in short supply. Find yourself below.
First up
There is a FIRST program for every grade from kindergarten through twelfth. Your kid does not need any experience, and you do not need a technical background to help them start.
Option one
We take middle and high school students from anywhere in North Texas. Applications are open year round and we answer everyone, and no experience is needed. Ask us about dues and what sponsorship covers before you decide.
Option two
If we are not the right fit, we know most of the teams in North Texas and which ones are recruiting. Tell us your kid’s grade and your city and we will point you at the right program and the teams close by.
Option three
If there is nothing near you, start one. A team needs four students and two adults, and the adults need no technical background at all. We have done it from nothing and we will walk you through every step.
The programs
FIRST runs several programs by age. Most families do not know the younger ones exist.
PreK – Grade 1
DUPLO bricks and play-based STEM, usually run inside a classroom rather than as a standalone team.
Grades 2 – 4
Motorized LEGO models and the basics of coding. No competition pressure.
Grades 4 – 8
Program a LEGO robot to run missions, plus a research project. Where we started in 2021.
Grades 7 – 12
Metal robots, Java, a twelve foot field. Up to fifteen students. What we compete in now.
Grades 9 – 12
Larger robots, larger teams, larger budgets. The next step after FTC for some students.
Any age · Any ability
A FIRST in Texas initiative for students with disabilities. Teams pick the format that fits their students, so a disability does not decide whether a kid competes.
Next
You do not need a robotics background for either of these. Teams are short on engineers, and events are short on hands.
Ongoing, a few hours a month
Mentoring is not a full-time commitment. Most mentors give a couple of hours a month: a design review over a call, a second pair of eyes on some code, or an hour at a build session answering questions.
Machining, CAD, programming, project management, public speaking, and fundraising all matter to a team, and most teams are short on all of them. If you have done any of that professionally, you already know more than enough.
One Saturday a season
FIRST events run entirely on volunteers, and they are chronically short. A single qualifier needs judges, referees, field resetters, queuers, scorekeepers, and robot inspectors, often forty or more people for one day.
Most roles need no robotics knowledge and come with training that morning. If you can give one Saturday a season, that is enough to keep an event running.
And finally
We are looking for volunteers and for companies willing to help. If your company runs volunteer days, a FIRST event is one of the easiest places to put a group to work.
One qualifier can absorb a large group for a single Saturday. The roles are varied enough to suit anyone in your team, from judging and refereeing to running the field and the scoring table, and none of them need a robotics background.
Your employees spend the day in front of a few hundred students doing real engineering, which is a better story than most volunteer days produce. Tell us roughly how many people and when, and we will tell you which North Texas events need them and put you in touch with the organizers.
If you would rather support a team directly, sponsorship covers parts, travel, and the free workshops we run for schools with no robotics program.
The competition
FIRST Tech Challenge is a robotics competition for students in grades 7 through 12, run by the nonprofit FIRST. Every September a brand new game is released. Teams have a few months to design, build, and program a robot that competes in qualifiers, league play, a regional championship, and for some teams the World Championship.
A match lasts two and a half minutes, two teams to a side. The robot drives itself for the first thirty seconds, then a student driver takes over. Robots are built from metal, programmed in Java, and play on a twelve by twelve foot field.
Beyond the robot, teams document their engineering process in a portfolio, present to judges, mentor other teams, and run community outreach. Awards are decided as much on that as on match results.
Stay connected
Recruiting teams across North Texas, the deadlines that matter, and where the free workshops are. One email a month, and it is the easiest way to stay in this without joining anything. Subscribers make a bigger difference to us than most people expect, and we would really appreciate you being one.