Rural Mexican Youth Shine at Robotics Championship

Playa del Carmen, Mexico — The International Robotics and STEM Skills Championship 2025–2026 brought together teams from Mexico, the United States, China, Taiwan, Uganda, and Paraguay in Playa del Carmen, solidifying the municipality as a meeting point for youth advancing science from their communities. Among them, the club from Lagunillas, Michoacán, stood out, with its origin, effort, and trajectory reflecting the impact of technological education in rural areas.

The team was born thanks to the initiative of coordinator Eduardo Canales López and support from the General Directorate of CECyTE Michoacán, which donated the first pieces to start the project. With a small group of students, the club gradually began to integrate.

“The pieces were donated, and we started with few members, but then more classmates joined. This experience has marked us, and we want more young people in Michoacán to feel inspired and encouraged to enter robotics,” recounted one of the club members during the technology fair held at the Poliforum.

Young women from Michoacán explained the functioning of their robot and shared their experience in the STEM world. The testimony of the young women also highlighted the gender barriers they still face in small communities. They noted that many women feel science “is for men,” but emphasized that their team has broken stereotypes through joint work and discipline.

“It’s not just for men. All of us can do it. We invite more women from Michoacán and the State of Mexico to participate in these competitions,” they expressed.

Another member, Rafael Tobarabila, 16 years old, explained that his dream is to compete at a global level and bring honor to Lagunillas, a city that had 5,745 inhabitants in 2020.

Students from different countries interacted and exchanged ideas within the Poliforum. “I would like to have my own club and continue in robotics. We want the world to know where we come from,” he said.

The young man recalled that his community is small and that taking a scientific project to international stages is a motivation to demonstrate that talent can emerge from anywhere.

The club has participated in various regional and state competitions, which allowed them to earn their spot in the world championship in Dallas, Texas, where they represented Mexico.

“The most important was the one in Dallas. We were one of the few teams from Mexico to make it, and it was an incredible experience. There, we felt we were truly representing the country,” shared the students, recalling their journey from Morelia, Lagos de Moreno, Apachuca, and other municipalities before reaching the international competition.

The Lagunillas club has consolidated itself thanks to student effort and educational support from their community. In Playa del Carmen, hundreds of young people observed their designs, and the multi-gender composition of the teams drew attention as they listened to their stories and shared technical and academic experiences. The championship categories include design, programming, engineering tests, robot handling, and problem-solving, with international standards from the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (RECF).

Although municipal and state authorities participated in the inauguration, the focus of the event was on the students who, like the Lagunillas team, demonstrate how science and technological education can transform realities and open paths that once seemed inaccessible.