Mentor Casey Calouette, an engineer and general manager at Cal Grinding, presented alongside fellow mentors Gabe Kluka, maintenance manager at EMP; and John Denholm, a field service specialist at ABB.

Calouette noted that none of the mentors are professional educators, but they are passionate about helping students learn through the program.

“It is an exceptional program,” Calouette said. “We are challenged in ways as adults on how we take a very complex topic and communicate that to the students.”

The RoboMos’ (Team 3602) latest season included competitions at two district events before advancing to the state championship.

The Escanaba RoboMos recapped their 2025-26 season at the Escanaba Area Public Schools Board of Education meeting Monday. (Sophie Vogelmann | Daily Press)

The team’s kickoff event was the FIRST in Michigan District competition in Traverse City. The RoboMos finished ninth out of 38 teams with a 10-5-0 record.

“When we went to Traverse City, a lot of people didn’t know who we were,” Calouette said. “But by the end of the match, we did well. We proved ourselves as being a top-tier team.”

The team’s next competition was the FIRST in Michigan District Event in Escanaba, where they placed eighth out of 40 teams with a 10-6-0 record and earned the Industrial Design Award.

“The highlight, though, is we beat Gladstone,” Calouette playfully added.

Calouette said the team measures itself against the Gladstone BraveBots, who are widely regarded as one of the top robotics teams in the world.

The Escanaba Eskymo cheered on the Escanaba RoboMos during a competition this spring. (Photo courtesy of Dawn Hammond)

The RoboMos’ season concluded at the FIRST in Michigan State Championship in lower Michigan. The team finished 25th out of 40 teams with a 5-10-0 record.

Despite the challenging competition, Calouette noted the RoboMos are among the top 16% of teams statewide.

The program also includes FIRST Tech Challenge teams made up of seventh- and eighth-grade students, who competed this year in Houghton and Marquette.

For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) is designed to inspire students through hands-on science, technology, engineering and mathematics experiences.

“It’s not an education program. Education is the byproduct,” Calouette said. “We inspire them to learn and to want to do better.”

The team also practices what FIRST calls “gracious professionalism,” which encourages teams to support one another, even when assisting a current match partner who may later become an opponent.

“You have every incentive as a group to go out and help a poor team become better,” Calouette said.

He shared an example of gracious professionalism involving another robotics team from the region.

“We had the Tahomenon phenomenon from Newberry show up with a box of parts,” Calouette said. “And by the end of the day, when they left, they at least had a driving robot.”

While helping another team offered no immediate competitive advantage, Calouette said it could benefit everybody in the long run.

“Did that help us competitively? No, but if we were paired with them in an event, those couple of points they might have scored may have been enough to get us the rank points,” he said.

The robotics program at the Escanaba Junior/Senior High School currently serves about 30 students. Eighteen girls participate in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) program, and according to team statistics, 81% of female FIRST alumni declare a STEM major after graduation.

The team also highlighted the success of former participants, many of whom have gone on to careers in engineering and other professional fields. Alumni include several engineers, a teacher and a graduate with a master’s degree in library science.

Operating on an annual budget of approximately $20,000, the program raises nearly all of its funding independently. Outside support also comes from a Michigan Department of Education grant and community sponsors.

In addition to competitions, the RoboMos are active in the community. Team members host a weekly STEAM — science, technology, engineering, art and math — reading hour at the Escanaba Public Library. The RoboMos gather year-round, typically meeting once each week throughout the summer.

The Escanaba RoboMos program has been active since 2011 and continues to provide students with opportunities to develop technical skills, leadership experience and a passion for STEM careers.

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Sophie Vogelmann can be reached at 906-786-2021 or svogelmann@dailypress.net.