Spotlight

The 2026 FIRST World Championship delivered an unforgettable celebration of innovation, collaboration, and engineering excellence. This year’s event brought together 607 teams from across the globe, all competing at the highest level of youth robotics. With more than 50,000 attendees, the championship once again proved to be a powerful event where the next generation of problem-solvers, engineers, and innovators takes center stage.

As an Alliance Partner, PMMI,The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, played a vital role in supporting the championship and its participants.

Through its PMMI U Skills Fund, the PMMI Foundation directly sponsored 16 diverse teams, helping expand access to STEM opportunities and fostering the development of future industry talent.

At the heart of the competition was not just technical skill, but teamwork, creativity, and innovation—qualities that closely mirror the demands of today’s advanced manufacturing and packaging industries. The FIRST Championship is more than a robotics competition—it’s a glimpse into the future workforce, especially as the packaging and processing industry faces a growing need for skilled professionals in automation, robotics, and advanced manufacturing.

As Kate Torrence, Director of Workforce Development at PMMI, emphasized, “Supporting events like the FIRST Championship is critical to connecting our industry with the next generation of talent. These students are developing the exact skills—technical, collaborative, and innovative—that the packaging and processing workforce needs. By investing in them today, we’re helping build the future of our industry.”

Events like this create a direct pipeline between education and industry by inspiring students to pursue STEM careers, building hands-on engineering and problem-solving skills, and exposing participants to real-world applications of automation and technology—competencies that are driving innovation across packaging operations today, from smart manufacturing systems to integrated automation solutions.

PMMI-sponsored teams included:

• 1323 – MadTown Robotics
• 6045 – Sabre Robotics
• 4766 – Team Scream Jr. 4522 – Team Scream27 –Team RUSH
• 2783 – Engineering of Tomorrow
• 3990 – Tech for Kids
• 4967 – The ONE Team – Our NextEngineer
• 6829 – Ignite Robotics
• 7426 – Pair of Dice Robotics
• 346 – RoboHawks
• 2338 – Gear It Forward
• 1501 – Team THRUST
• 4607 – C.I.S Robotics - BeckerHigh School
• 7183 – W.A.R.
• 2713 – Red Hawk Robotics

The competition culminated in an exciting finale, with top teams demonstrating exceptional engineering design, strategy, and collaboration. The 2026 FIRST Championship Winners included:

• Team4414 – HighTide
• Team1323 – MadTown Robotics (PMMI / ADCO Sponsored)
• Team4065 – Nerds of Prey
• Team1538 – The Holy Cows