Building and Growing Robotics Teams
AutomationDirect started supporting student robotics efforts in 2005 by sponsoring a single high school robotics team, as part of the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) organization. FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Team 1746, also known as Team OTTO, which began as a community team of students from several county high schools. During their second year of operation the team realized that they needed to build a “farm league” similar to the minor leagues supporting professional sports teams. With additional sponsorship from AutomationDirect, they started to seed and mentor robotics teams in the elementary and middle schools here in Forsyth County, GA. Their goal was to develop at least one robotics team in every school in the county. This plan was successful and began to supply a steady stream of incoming freshmen to the high school program who had experience building and programming robots.
Fast forward 20 years and this county-wide program continues to grow, exceeding even their wildest expectations. At last count there are 223 teams, in 40 public schools, with participation by over 1,350 students county-wide. In 2025, there were over 100 elementary school teams, 87 teams in the middle schools, and 34 high school teams, including 7 FRC teams which field the big 120-pound ‘bots. And this doesn’t count the scores of private teams that have sprung up throughout the county as demand has outstripped the public school’s ability to support the overall level of interest.
AutomationDirect is awed by the enthusiastic students, and the small army of teachers, mentors, coaches and parents who have made this all possible. The program has graduated thousands of students who are pursuing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers, filling critical roles, and earning top salaries in technical jobs here in Forsyth County and far beyond.
If you are a technically minded professional who would like to give back to their community while helping students find a passion for STEM, we would urge you to find (or start) a robotics team in your area and volunteer to help.
Digital Animation Award
Back in 2005, there was a student that convinced his father and some fellow students to start that first team in Forsyth County. Chris Folea had heard about FIRST and persuaded his father Rick that they should attend the FIRST World Championships (held in nearby Atlanta that year). The following year Rick and Chris had gotten Team OTTO off to a great start. But instead of helping to build the physical robot, Chris dove head-first into the world of CAD and 3D rendering. At that time Autodesk was sponsoring an animation contest within the FIRST community to publicize their 3D rendering product: 3D Studio (now called 3ds Max).
Chris was hooked, becoming an expert in this technical artform. He was offered internships here at AutomationDirect every summer from high school through his college years. He even attended college on a scholarship earned via his knowledge and passion for rendering and animation. Chris is now the lead animation and rendering expert here and uses those skills every day to help us explain and promote the industrial automation products that we sell. After see what an accomplished engineer Rick was, we hired him too! While working for AutomationDirect, Chris and Rick also collaborated with FIRST to create the official Game Animations that FIRST used for all the FRC games from 2016 to 2022. These game animations are critical for announcing the game each year, and explaining the objectives, rules and scoring opportunities.
Around 2017, Chris also realized that the Autodesk was no longer holding that animation competition. With animation being so near and dear to his heart, Chris approached FIRST and proposed that AutomationDirect sponsor a new FRC contest, and thus the Digital Animation Award (DAA) was born. This is an official FIRST award, now open to all FIRST Robotics Challenge (FRC) and FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams, with winners awarded at both levels.
Teams have from mid-November to mid-January to complete a 30-second animation based on a given theme (this year’s theme was Dive!). Different styles of animation are accepted and encouraged: 2D, 3D, stop-motion, you name it! And no specific software is required—teams are free to produce the animation any way they wish. Today Chris leads an independent team of professional animators from Theory Studios (www.theorystudios.com) who volunteer their time to judge and critique the entries each year. In 2025, there were over 100 entries from FIRST teams all over the world. The awards and corresponding trophy are given to the winning teams at their regional or district robotics events—and a “reel” of the top entries is played at all FIRST events to inspire and encourage teams to compete. Chris’s story has truly come full circle as he works to pass along his love for his creative career choice.
Check out this year’s winners and all the entries here!
Automated Trophies
GeorgiaFIRST Robotics is the state organizing body for FIRST events in Georgia, and in addition to all the official activities they also sponsor an off-season event affectionately known as GRITS (The Georgia Robotics Invitational Tournament and Showcase). This relaxed, fall event is one last chance for the FRC teams in Georgia to compete with their previous years’ robot, before the new game is announced in January. Starting in 2013, AutomationDirect began to supply the trophies for this event. And these are not just any trophies; these highly coveted constructions combine visual elements from the current year’s game with some form of automation. From the pneumatic raising-and-lowering of a Frisbee, to a guitar amp that plays the sounds of the FRC game, these trophies spin, whirl, shuttle, and oscillate under the control of various pushbuttons, sensors, or even touchscreens. For 12 years, summer interns working at AutomationDirect have crafted enough trophies to reward the finalist and winning alliances (groups of three teams), as well as several judged awards at the GRITS event. It’s all in the spirit of promoting, inspiring and recognizing science and technology for the young people who will lead the way for a better future.
