“It’s inspiring to see these high school students come together and build these robots and compete,” said Jennifer Boykin, Newport News’ vice president of engineering and design, who served as the competition’s keynote speaker. “This competition helps spark a passion for STEM and offers students invaluable experience working together on hard problems as a team. We need these skills at the shipyard and nationwide. I’m proud to see our employee volunteers and mentors preparing this next generation of STEM innovators.”

In FIRST’s 2016 castle-themed challenge, teams operated their robots to breach their opponents’ defenses and capture their towers, gaining points as their robots progressed through the challenge field.

Of the 34 robotics teams involved, 14 local high school teams from throughout southeastern Virginia participated. Newport News was represented by two judges, one a current employee and another who recently retired, along with 16 team mentors and more than 20 volunteers.

“Newport News employees stepped up to mentor high school teams and volunteered to make this a successful event at Churchland,” said Chris Brown, a Newport News employee who has mentored Phoebus High School’s team for five years. “These students are our future shipbuilders.”