Magnolia FIRST Robotics Competition 2026 Laurel MS

his video derived from a longer product that was use on the Stennis Space Center YouTube page and was edited to a shorter form for the NASA Videographer of the year contest. As students from around the world compete at the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Championship in Houston April 29 - May 2, 2026, we are recognizing the next generation of explorers! To achieve our ambitious goals for future Artemis missions as we return to the Moon to stay, NASA will need a steady pipeline of collaborative problem solvers. Before the Artemis II mission, NASA employees invested in this future by volunteering at the Magnolia Regional FIRST Robotics competition in Laurel, Mississippi. By serving as mentors and judges, NASA worked with students through the same types of challenges we face every day. Watch the video to see the Artemis Generation in action!

What is said in the film

Great day here in Laurel. at the Magnolia Regional Competition. Okay, Ready. at the Magnolia Regional Competition. Let's have some fun.

It's 90 days from kit to robot, and a million things happen along the way. So, I'm showing an encoder error on this one. Okay, there we go. You're talking to your friends one second, and then you hear the little sound go off. 3, 2,1, Go!

Right side. I'm trying to shoot. It's full of energy. Like, you are always going to be jumping around. You're always going to be happy, you know, and you're going to be celebrating not just for yourself, but just like for any team you see.

Yeah! There's a bunch in this corner. I've learned a lot from this team. I learned how to speak. I learned how a lot about the robot and just the environment.

Basically, we use just normal metatags one localization. The students are amazing. They are full of inspiration and excitement. They work together well. There's technical, non-technical students all working together as one.

What we do at NASA is very complex and it takes a lot of people to accomplish. And so one of the main things I think the students are learning here is that it takes a team to make it happen We're good. Okay. Perfect, perfect perfect. You have an objective.

You have limited time frame. You have limited resources and so that's that's called the real world where where I work You're at the wrong.... I know I'm trying to rotate. So the amazing thing about the FIRST program and the students that you see here is they are developing not only the technical skills that NASA can absolutely leverage going forward, everything from engineering design concepts, innovative solution strategies, even the mechanical and technical elements of electrical engineering. You name it, they're getting hands-on experience with it.

Sounds like a big aha moment where it's like, oh, we can literally reduce half of the bumper. These kids are going to inherit a much different world. Hopefully, a world where there's a permanent human presence on the Moon, and we prepare to take the next steps to Mars. The skills that they're going to need are necessary to solve big problems and make that a reality. First pass, they don't go.

Second pass, everything goes. My like personal goals, have always been to be a doctor and major in neuroscience. So, that obviously you have to work with technology built by engineers and stuff to become a doctor, perform your surgeries. It goes hand in hand with my goals and NASA. Alright.

Go over there. Over there. Over there. It'd be the chance of taking many of these skills we learned in FIRST robotics, taking the fabrication, the design, being able to test and prototype, and be able to apply it to something wholly new, something at the forefront of technology. The amazing thing about NASA is it doesn't have to be one specific degree that you need or one specific career that you want to have.

There's a place for you at NASA.

Where this page came from

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