OSCEOLA — The wheels are in motion as Granger Exploration and Robotics Studio (GEARS) prepares to host the second annual FIRST Tech Challenge Michiana Premier Event — the largest premier robotics event in North America — June 18-21 at Century Center in South Bend.
Scott Chase, director of GEARS, said the international robotics competition is the first time many participants, grades 8-12, and their families will visit the United States and thereby be immersed in American culture, which he finds “encouraging,” because it teaches students early on that like-minded people exist worldwide.
This year, 96 teams are expected to participate in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), including teams from 31 U.S. states and five other countries — Brazil, Romania, Israel, Thailand and Dubai — with 4-10 members per team, according to GEARS’ website.
Accelerating to victory
Among the teams participating is XLR8 (pronounced “accelerate”). The Osceola-based robotics team advanced to the FIRST World Championship in Houston in April, as The Tribune previously reported.
XLR8 team member Noah Stutzman said he is excited to partake in the annual local event following the team’s success in the April championship where they won the First Place Connect Award in the Goodall Division.
The Connect Award is given to a team that exhibits goals for the development of team member skills and demonstrates steps the team has taken or will take to reach those goals. For teams to be considered for the Connect Award, they are also encouraged to actively engage with the engineering community, according to FTC’s competition manual for 2025-2026.
While some may find the events — less than two months apart — tiring, Noah carries the adrenaline from one event as momentum to exceed in the next.
“One of our big [team] goals for this season was to make it to the world championship, and we did through a bunch of hard work,” he said. “In addition, we’re going to the Premier Event, so we’re really excited to see all of the teams who are there, especially internationally.”
For Noah, 15, and his older brother, Zach, 17, robotics have long-since been a family affair.
XLR8 first established itself as a robotics team eight years ago, with Noah now a sophomore in high school. Through the years, he said, the team appreciates the “high-level of competition” and relishes successes, but no part of each competition is more enjoyable than the camaraderie built between his teammates and even competitors.
Chase said that kind of social interaction and teamwork by way of problem-solving is really the cornerstone of FTC.
“While [the students] are using robots and that is what they’re competing with,” he said, “what they’re actually learning is brainstorming, communication, and time and financial management … They’re learning how to think a lot, too, because the answers aren’t to be found. You have to do the work and create the answers.”
While on the quest to find answers, team members of XLR8 sought to improve the design process for their robot, Velocitas, which, Noah said, is the Latin spelling for “velocity.”
“We’ve been working a lot more on developing more prototypes [and] being able to analyze things [more] deep[ly],” he said. “That has definitely allowed us to build a better robot that completes the game objectives of taking the artifacts off the ground and being able to shoot them into the goal with precise accuracy.”
The four-day competition is split into two categories: a robot-related portion and a judging portion. During the robot-related portion, teams compete in a series of games in which the robots are challenged to pick up a series of lightweight objects.
The robot games will begin Friday afternoon and extend into Sunday morning. They are open to the public, with free admission, and are “very exciting to watch,” Chase said.
Promptly following the robot games is the judging portion, in which Chase said students give a — often memorized — five-minute presentation detailing the blueprint, or conceptualization, of their robot: how they raised money, managed their time, practiced sustainability, etc., to bring the robot to fruition.
“Basically, a team is like a small business,” Chase said. The presentation is a required element of the competition that encourages students to “make something that will grow beyond their years with the team.”
He added that the multiple facets of the competition allow students opportunities to find their specific “knack,” or skillset. Noah said he has discovered his skillset lies heavily within team management.
A community coming together
Chase has been teaching robotics for nearly 20 years. While guiding students to victory, he has picked up a lesson or two from them along the way.
“In the beginning, I coached with lesson plans. I coached by standing in front of a dry erase board and handing [students the] answers or telling them next steps of things to do,” he said. “I watched different students over the years talk to each other and grow, and in that, I saw the real magic in the program.”
As a result, Chase swiftly adapted his coaching method.
“I encouraged students to use their voices and communicate with and challenge each other and collaborate to come up with what they thought was the best answer — and I got quiet about what I thought the best answer might be — because I’m definitely not right,” he said.
Yet, the scope of FTC goes far beyond its close-knit, cross-continental, qualifying teams.
“I think [FTC] is a really good thing for the community,” Chase said.
He highlighted that four hotels in downtown South Bend are sold out during competition weekend and a plethora of discounts will be offered by the Downtown Dining Association and both The History Museum and Studebaker National Museum to those with the appropriate credentials for the competition.
Noah echoed Chase’s sentiments and said he is glad to see support and interest for robotics expand over the past year when GEARS first hosted FTC.
“The community has definitely seen the potential in the Michiana Premier event,” Noah said, “and it’s been a large talk among the thousands of teams in the FTC community.”
Second Annual FIRST Tech Challenge Michiana Premier Event
● When: June 18-21 (Robot games will begin in the afternoon on Friday, June 19, and extend through Sunday morning, June 21. Judging to follow suit.) Schedules and match results will be updated online throughout the weekend: https://ftc-events.firstinspires.org/2025/FPEMI/playoffs
● Where: Century Center, 120 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., South Bend
● Cost: free
● For more information: Visit https://gears.org.in/michiana_event/
Email South Bend Tribune summer 2026 intern Katherine Hill at KTHill@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: International robotics competition brings 96 teams to South Bend
Reporting by Katherine Hill, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Katherine Hill, South Bend Tribune | USA TODAY Network
