{"id":6331,"date":"2026-05-05T11:02:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T16:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/?p=6331"},"modified":"2026-05-05T11:02:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T16:02:58","slug":"hands-on-learning-drives-ntcs-support-for-new-robotics-competition-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/2026\/05\/05\/hands-on-learning-drives-ntcs-support-for-new-robotics-competition-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Hands-On Learning Drives NTC’s Support for New Robotics Competition Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NTC<\/p>\n

Dozens of high school robotics teams from Northern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota will soon have a new home to design, build and test their robots, supported by work from the trades programs at NTC—Bemidji’s Technical College.<\/p>\n

Currently nearing completion at the Beltrami County Fairgrounds west of Bemidji, the North STAR (Science, Technology, Automation and Robotics) Center will create the first permanent home for hundreds of high school robotics team competitors in Northern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference and the Beltrami County Ag Association saw an opportunity to partner on a new facility that would create a needed practice and competition space for the conference’s members and create new opportunities for technology education across the region.<\/p>\n

As part of his effort to identify partners and supporters for the facility, conference president Matt Wendland saw an opportunity to approach the trade programs at NTC.<\/p>\n

“This whole process has been about education,” he said. “With their HVAC and electrical programs, we thought they would be a good fit. It’s a good, community-based project, and NTC jumped right on board.”<\/p>\n

As construction on the building approaches its finish line, students from all three of NTC’s trade programs — residential plumbing, heating, air & refrigeration technology and electrical construction & maintenance — have contributed work to various parts of the project.<\/p>\n

Grant Foss, construction electrical faculty, guided second-year students through the design and installation of the building’s electrical system as part of their capstone course.<\/p>\n

“Students were responsible for sizing circuits and selecting materials for the project,” he said.<\/p>\n

Julian Dreher, NTC plumbing & heating faculty, oversaw student installation of a boiler to power the building’s in-floor heating, among other projects.<\/p>\n

“We put all the manifolds on, hooked up all of the in-floor tubing and we pressurized the system,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said NTC students also worked to install connections and vents for two ceiling-mounted heaters that will serve as the building’s secondary heat source.<\/p>\n

“Gas piping and everything is done, and now they’ll have to do low-voltage (wiring) for the thermostats,” he said. “Then, the electricians will wire the power in.”<\/p>\n

Students appreciate the opportunity to break free from a classroom and lab environment and work on a real-world project. Landon Young, a second-year electrical construction student from Bemidji, has helped install lighting, conduit and a large garage door.<\/p>\n

“It’s been good,” he said of the experience. “It’s more hands-on, and you get to know what a job would look like versus being in a cubicle. You get to experience what it would be like in a job setting.”<\/p>\n

Emma Clarity, a second-year heating, air and refrigeration technology student from International Falls, Minnesota, also praised the real-world experience that the project offered.<\/p>\n

“I like working on other buildings outside of the school,” she said. “We practice over there, but having a real project to do has been good. We get that experience on real buildings.”<\/p>\n

About the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference<\/h2>\n

\"Grant<\/p>\n

Above: Grant Foss, NTC electrical faculty, explaining an electrical connector box to students from the Nevis High School robotics team, who toured the North STAR facility on April 16.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference was founded in 2017, in part to help out-state robotics teams pool resources. The conference’s footprint is vast — its 37 member schools encompass more than 35,000 square miles across Minnesota and North Dakota — and sharing equipment and expertise has helped member schools improve their ability to compete, even at the national level.<\/p>\n

“There is not the disparity there once was between the metro and the out-state teams,” Wendland said. “There will be roughly 34-35 teams out of our region that qualify (for the 2026 FIRST Championship in Houston), and we will be sending nine of them out of our conference.”<\/p>\n

There are 184 varsity FIRST Robotics Competition teams in Minnesota. Since the conference was founded in 2017, it has sent 61 teams to state championships and 60 to world championship events. That tradition will continue this month when Bemidji High School’s Robojacks team competes at the FIRST Championship in Houston.<\/p>\n

\"NTC \"An<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Construction on new regional home for high school robotics teams nearing completion at Beltrami County Fairgrounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-top-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6331"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6368,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6331\/revisions\/6368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}