Artemis—a washing machine-sized robot designed by the student-led Bainbridge High School Spartronics Team 4915—recently made a splash in Houston, placing in the top two dozen in the world at the 2026 FIRST World Championships.
The FIRST Robotics Competition is a global program in which high school students design and build robots which face off in a themed game. Participating students also raise funds and work to advance STEM awareness in their communities.
“Worlds is the Super Bowl of robotics,” said coach and BHS Biology teacher Austin Smith. “Forty nations competed, with 600 top teams going to Worlds.”
Smith explained that every January there is an online FIRST global kickoff event announcing that year’s competition theme. Thousands of teams from all over the world tune in. “They show a game animation and release a 150-page PDF of the rules,” Smith said. “From there, we start building a mockup.” There are always multiple elements of the game, including dexterity tasks, such as shooting, sorting, climbing and balancing.
In a seemingly good omen, the debut of Artemis—short for Articulating Rotating Turret with Ejection Mechanisms with Intake on Swerve—at the competition in April 2026 was perfectly timed with the splashdown of NASA’s Artemis spaceship, which was displayed on the tournament’s jumbotron in real time.
Spartronics is comprised of 35 students with 40 percent female participation. It encompasses five sub teams in mechanics, electronics, design, business and marketing, and programming. “Nobody does just one thing,” Smith said. The team meets regularly after school with Smith and professional mentors and engineers.
The costs to sustain the team are weighty, including a $14,000 team registration fee. “We have big generous sponsors, like Boeing and Microsoft, but a majority of our sponsors are small, local community sources,” Smith said.
A $250 donation is required to join the team, but “I’m very mindful of exclusion,” Smith said. “Scholarships are available, distributed discreetly.”
Smith’s hopes for the future of Spartronics? “More female mentors.”
