Global STEM Outreach: Bringing Robotics Workshops to Hyderabad, India

FIRST Robotics Competition asks teams to demonstrate community impact — but most outreach happens close to home. Team 10989’s outreach traveled significantly further than most: to two rural girls’ middle schools in Hyderabad, India.

Why go international as a rookie team

It’s an unusual move for a team still in its first year. But Blast Robotics’ mission was never just “build a robot and win matches” — it’s advancing STEM access broadly, which is also the mission of our parent nonprofit, Keystone STEM Alliance. Team members with ties to the region saw a direct opportunity to extend that mission well beyond Berwyn, PA.

What the workshops covered

Sessions were designed for students with little to no prior exposure to robotics, covering:

• Basic robotics concepts — what a robot actually is, and how sensing, actuation, and control fit together
• Electronics fundamentals — circuits, components, and hands-on assembly
• Introductory STEM problem-solving — small hands-on challenges adapted from our own camp curriculum

The audience — girls at rural middle schools — reflects a deliberate choice. Access to STEM education and robotics specifically remains uneven globally along both geographic and gender lines, and this outreach targeted that gap directly.

The throughline to our local programs

The workshops weren’t a one-off detour from our core programming — they used the same building blocks as Blast Camp here in Berwyn, PA, just adapted for a different setting and starting point. It’s the same underlying belief driving both: that hands-on robotics instruction, delivered by people who are themselves actively doing the work, translates across contexts.

Supporting outreach like this

Community and global outreach initiatives like this are funded the same way as our local programs — through sponsorships and donations routed through Keystone STEM Alliance, our 501(c)(3) nonprofit parent organization. If your company wants to support this kind of work directly, see our partners page or get in touch.