Diné robotics teams make their mark at world championship
Submitted
Members of the Navajo Nation RezBotics Program pose during the FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics World Championship earlier this month at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. Teams from Shiprock High School and Kayenta Monument Valley High School represented the Navajo Nation at the competition.
By Nathan J. Tohtsoni
Navajo Transitional Energy Company Inc.
HOUSTON
Lanai Rickteroff gathered her Shiprock High School teammates under a canopy at the FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics World Championship and read from a list on her phone.
The seven-member team had struggled during its first day at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, where thousands of students, coaches and supporters filled three levels of competition space. Rickteroff had walked through other booths, watched other teams and wrote down changes Shiprock could make before the next round.
By the second day, the team adjusted its coding and robot design.
Shiprock High’s Chieftains Team 23948 and Kayenta Monument Valley High School’s Rez Kids Team 23942 represented the Navajo Nation RezBotics Program at the FTC World Championship earlier this month. It was Shiprock’s first trip to the world championship and Kayenta’s second. The Kayenta team competed in 2025 as junior high students from Baker Middle School.
To read the full article, please see the May 28, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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