Reaching Beyond the Robot: Building a Stronger FRC Community Across Taiwan 

What can happen when robotics teams come together not to compete, but to learn from one another? 

On Sunday, September 6, Taipei American School welcomed 24 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) teams and more than 400 students and mentors from across Taiwan for the second annual Taiwan FRC Conference, a student-driven gathering centered on sharing knowledge, building connections, and strengthening Taiwan’s growing robotics community. 

Hosted by TAS alongside Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School and National Nanke International Experimental High School, this year’s conference centered on the theme “Reaching Beyond the Robot.” It invited students who usually meet across competition fields to come together for a different purpose: to teach, ask questions, exchange resources, and consider how robotics can create an impact far beyond competition. 

For TAS student leaders in Robotics, including Sandy Gou ’27, Erin Huang ’28, Josh S. ’27, Sina G. ’27, and Kayne Y. ’27, the conference is part of a larger effort to connect robotics programs across Taiwan and create more opportunities for students to learn from one another. 

“We might be opponents on the field, but we’re all in this together as partners working toward a greater impact in our community. We are still one huge family,” says Sandy G. ’27. 

“To me, the conference feels like one huge step forward for the future of robotics and technology in Taiwan.” 

The day began with a look toward the future. Mr. Ian Shih, President of Rockwell Automation Greater China, opened with a keynote on where the robotics industry is headed and what skills students should be building now, before they reach university and the workplace. Charley, a mentor from Team 7130 Future Shock, offered an early look at SystemCore, FIRST’s next-generation control system, and what teams can expect from it. 

 

That spirit of exchange could be seen throughout the day. Students and mentors led technical breakout sessions on topics including shooting on the move, modular robot design, and visual detection models. Participants toured the TAS Tech Cube, took part in team-building activities, and heard from professionals and student leaders about the development of the robotics industry and the skills students will need for the future. 

Rather than keeping technical knowledge within individual teams, the conference created space for students to share what they have learned through their own successes, experiments, and challenges. 

“It is so incredibly meaningful to watch competitive teams become collaborators through this conference, sharing and learning from each other for the past two years,” Sandy shared. 

“At the end of the day, we are all working towards the same goal: strengthening the Taiwan robotics community and making Taiwan proud. To me, that sense of belonging and shared purpose is the most beautiful part of this conference.” 

 

The conference also turned the conversation toward impact. A student panel, moderated by Team 8020 mentor Raymond and featuring panelists from Teams 4253, 6998, and 8020, explored the FRC Impact Award, FIRST’s highest honor, and the role robotics teams can play in creating meaningful change in their schools and communities. 

It is a conversation TAS’s FRC team, Raid Zero 4253, knows well. At the Las Vegas Regional, Raid Zero reached a major milestone by earning the FIRST Impact Award, the highest honor in FIRST. The award recognizes teams not only for what they accomplish on the competition field, but for creating meaningful and lasting impact through outreach, partnerships, and expanding access to STEM beyond the build season. 

In many ways, the conversation brought the conference theme to life. “Reaching Beyond the Robot” was not about stepping away from engineering, but thinking more broadly about what students can do with the knowledge, relationships, and resources they build through it. 

That idea has become an important part of TAS robotics. Over time, the program has worked to strengthen relationships with FRC teams beyond campus by sharing resources, welcoming teams into TAS spaces, and creating more opportunities for young people interested in robotics, engineering, and computer science to connect. 

For K-12 Tech Cube Director, Mr. Matt Fagen, opening TAS resources to the wider robotics community is also an opportunity for students to experience what collaboration can look like beyond their own school. 

“We are incredibly lucky to be here with this facility. The students and I feel that these are opportunities that should be available to everyone, not just a select few. Because of that, the students have made huge efforts to make this type of learning scalable, which means that the benefits of this learning are scalable as well,” Mr. Fagen reflects. 

“From experimentation to iteration, then failing and trying again. That type of learning is much more dramatic and authentic than just your regular pen to paper while sitting at a desk. And those are experiences that we feel strongly should be available to anyone who comes looking for those experiences.” 

Nearly 20 TAS Upper School students and 40 volunteers from across the teams helped bring the conference to life, welcoming visiting teams, leading and supporting sessions, guiding participants around campus, sharing technical knowledge, and handling the many behind-the-scenes details needed to host hundreds of guests. 

Our Upper School Computer Science and Robotics Teacher, Dr. Allen Bayntun, received the Woodie Flowers Award at the Finger Lakes Regional, an honor recognizing outstanding mentorship and a mentor’s impact on students and the STEM education community. 

To him, that ownership is part of what makes experiences like the Taiwan FRC Conference valuable. Robotics gives students a place to apply technical knowledge, but it also asks them to communicate, lead, solve problems, collaborate, and contribute to something larger than themselves. 

“Beyond engineering, students learn how to handle large pressures, systems management, and fast troubleshooting (just for the logistics of the event),” says Dr. Bayntun. “They’re also learning strong communication skills in a multilingual environment through public speaking. 

Our students are being empowered to continually make decisions to take these types of risks that take them outside of their comfort zone and push them to make something as successful as this.” 

In its second year, the Taiwan FRC Conference continues to grow. The conference’s growing impact is reaching far beyond the robotics community, with the event also receiving coverage from The Mirror. 

But its impact is not measured only by the number of teams or participants in the room. It can also be found in the smaller exchanges throughout the day: a student explaining a design to another team, a mentor sharing an idea, a new connection between schools, or a resource passed along that might help another team move forward. 

“This is a big deal,” says Dr. Bayntun. “The FRC community was only our team just over a decade ago (2015). It has grown to over 30 teams now, originally precipitated by a TAS student back in 2016. 

The goal for our FRC team (and many others in Taiwan) isn’t really improving robotics education. It is improving education in Taiwan itself as a whole.” 

That may be what “Reaching Beyond the Robot” looks like in practice. How does one lift the whole, not just a part? 

We look forward to seeing our Tigers continue to shine on the global stage. But just as important is what they are building along the way: a habit of sharing what they know, bringing others with them, and recognizing that some of the most meaningful work happens when teams work toward something greater than the competition results. 

After all, reaching beyond the robot is not about how far one team can go. It is about how much further we can go together.