Robotics instruction in Virginia schools is expanding rapidly, focusing on STEM, AI and coding through hands programs from elementary through high school.
Schools actively participate in region, state and national competitions. This is true for a Montgomery County team, which has participants from every high school. They are called Team 401, Copperhead Robotics.
Initially, Team 401 was founded in 1999 by a group of students and teachers in Montgomery County schools and strives to foster a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning community through a multifaceted, target outreach approach with over 2,400 hours of volunteer hours in the last three years.
Karen Stoll is a teacher at Blacksburg High School and the coach of Team 401.
“Our mission is to instill efficacy in today’s youth to solve tomorrow’s problem in an increasingly technical world,” she said.
The group recently took a national award amongst 100 teams in a Texas competition, receiving the Excellence in Engineering Award trophy.
Brennen Dovie is the team’s Student Outreach and Awards Director. Recently, she pointed to all the work, which enabled the group to take the national award.
“We went through several trial robots before choosing the final one that we took to Texas,” she said.
Students must learn everything from planning the computer codes, to designing and operating the robot.
The group typically meets after school and on this tour, at least 30 students were working in the different areas of the lab at Blacksburg High School. This includes computers and plenty of industrial shop items to put together and take apart their robots.
Dovie said the team took the design from eight weeks to the competition. They nicknamed their robot as “Typhoon.” The name shows proudly on the front of the device that turned into a “Kobe Bryant” of the robotics competition.
Blacksburg High Senior Aiden Mathai was the final operator during the national competition. He described the robot’s process as basketball player who had to shoot as many as possible balls into a basket on the competition floor.
This included shooting as many as 100 balls from 20 feet away.
“During the competition, the robot starts out without an operator and then we take control and try to score as many baskets as possible,” he said.
Mathai admitted he was jumping up and down when Typhoon scored the most in the competition.
Later the team was announced as the FIRST Championship Hopper Division 2026 – Excellence in Engineering Award. The description for the award said the “Excellence in Engineering Award celebrates the team whose machine incorporates an engineering solution designed to have components work together seamlessly.”
The local robotics mission is to overcome limited resources and the availability, or in this case the lack of, high-level STEM opportunities.
According to Dovie, the group creates other partnerships with local organizations like scouting where members can earn a Robotics Merit Badge.
“By engaging students in community spaces, youth organizations and hands-on environments, we make STEM welcoming for everyone, ensuring that curiosity can inspire the next generation,” she said.
The Montgomery County team has sponsored several local competitions,16 over the past two years.
In addition, Team 401 is the only robotics team to earn the Virginia High School League trophy class recognition for five consecutive years. They were also selected as virtual mentors for the first Global Team Eswatini in 2024 and connected with students in Egypt to introduce to the program.
In order to fund many of these activities, there are sponsors on the robot itself, parking for local football games and a project called “Pet Power Robot Batteries” where sponsor can cover the costly amount for batteries to power its robot.
For more information on Team 401 or to follow their adventures, checkout https://team401.github.io/, or on Facebook at Copperheads Robotics.
Dovie and Mathai are like many of the students under the Copperhead Robotics umbrella as they hope to use this experience in the future college aspirations.
“The key is what we are leaving behind for the underclassman to follow,” Dovie said.
In addition, the group plans to hold a Robotics summer camp this summer for middle school students with the possibility of introduction of the curriculum to even younger in elementary school.
