Thousands of students gathered in Houston, Texas for the FIRST 2026 Robotics Championship, including Granada Hills Charter’s own Team 599, Robodox.
The FIRST Robotics Championship is a worldwide competition in which students build, design, and program robots to complete and finish complex tasks in a game-based challenge. Months go into preparation for the event, where they eventually face off in qualification matches to earn a spot in playoffs.
Hundreds of teams competed from April 29 to May 2 in a fast-paced and highly competitive environment. Each robot had to complete both autonomous actions, using pre-programmed code, and driver-controlled tasks during matches.
The Robodox team had a strong showing at the championship, competing in the Newton Division. Throughout the qualification matches, the team earned a ranking of 11th place, demonstrating their consistency and skill against some of the strongest robotics teams in the world.
“Above seeing all the fun things at the competition, it was a great honor to represent our school at such a high-caliber event, and scoring well at it as well,” senior and President of the Robotics team Orielle Garcia said. “It is one thing to see such talented teams, but to compete against them made me realize how far we had come since I joined the team.”
Their performance continued when they became part of an alliance in the playoff rounds, where teams worked together to advance through elimination matches.
Although their run ended in the early playoff rounds, Robodox still stood out for their teamwork, strategy, and ability to compete at a high level under pressure.
For students on Team 599, this experience was about more than just the competition, it was about months of preparation, problem solving, and collaboration, eventually leading up to one of the biggest moments of their robotics seasons. They spend long hours working in the shop building their robot, coding autonomous routines, and practicing strategies for their matches.
In Houston, the atmosphere was intense and exciting, filled with loud crowds, bright lights, and constant activity within the pits.
Despite the intense pressure that they were underneath, the team had to stay focused, troubleshoot issues quickly and communicate effectively during matches.
“We were working on our last iteration of our shooting mechanism (one of the main things the robot does is shoot balls), and we were really fighting for the time to finish the mechanism, and get it on the robot in time, before shipping the robot to Texas,” senior Yasmine Vo said.
If you are interested in competing with Robodox for the 26-27 school year, check out their Instagram page, @robodox599.