Little Rock, AR — (JonesboroRightNow.com) — May 2, 2025 — A Jonesboro robotics team recently traveled to the state capitol to witness the signing of new legislation aimed at boosting student robotics programs across Arkansas.
The Northeast Arkansas Career and Technical Center’s (NEACTC) FIRST Robotics team, the Tech Titans, joined five other teams from across Arkansas at the state capitol for the signing of Act 472 on April 23.
“We got invited to go visit with them, and our kids went down, and we had a big meal and went and toured the capitol, looked around,” said Chase Smith, robotics instructor and lead mentor for the Tech Titans. “The governor spoke with us briefly and asked questions about what the kids have been doing. It’s a really good opportunity for our kids to be a part of that.”
“That was really cool to see and that we were invited, even if this is our second year doing this,” tenth grader Zach Herren said. “It’s always a little different seeing them [the other teams] in competition and kind of seeing them a little more professionally, and then, of course, talking to everyone there, networking there.”
Tech Titans was started in 2023 but began competing in 2024. Smith said NEACTC had a couple of VEX teams over the years, but the push started as it became clear that robotics was becoming a bigger field.
“I had one student and I said [to him], ‘Hey, look. I need 10 people. We’re gonna put a team together, and we’re gonna compete with FIRST Robotics this year. He brought me seven, and we competed and built a standard bot based off some instructions that they had presented to us instead of doing something completely original.”
Herren said he joined the team due to robotics being a “more involved field” and because he enjoyed the time crunch of getting ready for competition.
“For VEX, we get a whole year to do whatever we want, and we can mess up and trial-and-error, and do a whole bunch of stuff over a year, but for FIRST, we got six weeks, no time to goof around, and it’s pretty intense,” Herren said.
According to state documents, Act 472 will create a robotics competition grant program for eligible teams to encourage STEM studies. It will supply money to pay for various fees, coach stipends and more. Programs can apply twice a year.
A measure like Act 472, according to Smith, will open new opportunities for new teams across the state. He said while districts like Jonesboro Public Schools have “pretty good revenue” for programs like these, other districts like Trumann and Westside may not have the means to develop one.
“There are some parts that are given out every year for your robot, and then you get to compete in one regional event, that’s $6,000 or so, a hefty cost, and that’s whether or not you have five kids or 50 kids going to competition with,” Smith said.
Even with a higher budget like with Jonesboro Public Schools’, Smith said that the price tag can still be more than excepted, especially considering equipment and traveling to competitions.
“It’s under $200 to compete, it’s pretty expensive to build a team, but the cost adds up. Our robot, we are budgeting between $15,000 to $20,000 just on a road map,” Smith said.
Herren’s hope is that with Act 472 in place, not only will more students be interested in robotics, but robotics programs in Arkansas can be on the same level as other states in the country.
“It’s just us 12 [teams], but Michigan has a law like this they passed in 2000. They went from seven to 10 teams, and now, they have over 700 teams 20 years later,” Herren said. “I kind of want Arkansas to be like Michigan, where we got two 3A schools with championships under their belt. That’d be really cool.”
“Our kids love going to competitions. It’s the network, it’s the spending time with other teams we like to see. I’d like to see a big build in FIRST Robotics, FTC Robotics, or VEX, so we can have more events and more people at those competitions,” Smith said.