Spotlight

Last week, Houston buzzed with energy as over 50,000attendees gathered for the 2025 FIRST® Championship, the world's largest celebration of youth robotics and STEM innovation. More than 19,000 students from 66 countries came together to compete, connect, and showcase their creativity in their competition challenges.

The PMMI Foundation proudly participated in this international gathering to represent the packaging and processing industry and highlight its exciting, high-tech career opportunities. With the support of the PMMIU Skills Fund, we helped eight outstanding teams attend and compete—teams that continue to make us proud with their ingenuity, teamwork, and drive.

·      Team 27: Teah Rush | Clarkston, Mi.

·      Team 1792: Round Table Robotics | Oak Creek, Wi.

·      Team 2783: Engineers of Tomorrow | LaGrange, Ky.

·      Team 3313: Mechatronics | Alexandira, Mn.

·      Team 4607: Becker Robotics | Becker, Mn.

·      Team 4967: That ONE Team | Grand Rapids, Mi.

·      Team 5817: Uni-Rex | Fresno, Ca.

·      Team 6045: Sabre Robotics (Dean’s List) | Sartell, Mn.

·      Team 12682: Golden Ration Robotics | Cary, Il.

“It was inspiring to see the level of innovation from the teams—from the robots they built to the thoughtful questions they asked about the collaborative robot we showcased in our booth,” said Kate, Director of Workforce Development. “With these students, the future is bright.”

Why Early Engagement Matters

Engaging students at a young age is not just valuable—it's vital. FIRST® empowers students to explore science, technology, engineering,and math through hands-on learning, competition, and mentorship.  This is an opportunity to introduce young innovators to careers in packaging and processing, an often-overlooked field full of cutting-edge technology and meaningful work.

A Call to Action for Industry Professionals

Our experience at the 2025 FIRST® Championship reminded us just how powerful early engagement can be. But we can’t do it alone. We encourage industry professionals to get involved by mentoring a team,sponsoring events, offering tours, or simply sharing their career journey.Every interaction helps shape tomorrow’s workforce.

Let’s work together to build a strong, skilled pipeline of talent ready to take our industry to new heights.