Masters Machine has presented Lincoln Academy’s VEX Robotics team, The Electric Eagles, with a sponsorship gift to support their 2025-26 season.
The Robotics program at LA has expanded since its inception in 2014 from 10 to 17 participants and from one competitive team to four. Mathematics and Robotics teacher Susan Levesque, who has run the program from the beginning, says that it “helps students gain skills in problem-solving and communication, as well as technical skills like design and coding. Each team needs designers, builders, programmers, and drivers, so students work together and figure out how to contribute in their own ways.”
Lincoln Academy’s Robotics teams have set high standards in recent years, winning the 2024 State Championship and twice in the last three years qualifying for the World Championships. Last year’s team succeeded in building a robot that could climb a ladder.
Masters Machine has played an important role in the team’s growth over the years, providing an outlet for students interested in engineering to gain experience outside the classroom. Lincoln Academy alum Owen Dyer ‘22 interned as a manufacturing engineer at Masters Machine in the summer of 2021, just before the LA VEX Robotics team achieved its first major success, placing second in the state competition and qualifying for the World Championships. Since then, LA graduates Grady Burns ‘23, Ryan Naylor ‘22, Connor Parson ‘24, and Zane Adams ‘26 have also interned at Masters Machine, with Naylor joining the company as a full-time employee.
Each year, VEX Robotics teams are issued a challenge to design robots that can complete a certain set of tasks. This year, robots must be able to pick up blocks and push them into plastic tubes at varying heights. However, there are also strategic considerations at play in the way competitions are set up, with each team randomly assigned a partner team and competing in an arena with time and space constraints.
“The support from Masters Machine allows us to think bigger, manage unexpected costs, grow the program, and send our teams to major competitions where LA competes against teams from around the country and the world, including Google-funded programs from California and the like. Having more resources means that we can push ourselves to build more complex robots and compete on that level,” says Levesque.
Jessica Little, HR Manager at Masters Machine, stopped by the LA Robotics classroom recently to deliver their sponsorship check to the program. “I was so energized and impressed by the students that showed me their robots and the challenges they do in competitions. The team work I saw between them and the excitement they have for Robotics was so inspiring! Masters Machine Company supports the LA Robotics program because programs like these are inspiring students in our community to build future careers in engineering, machining, and technology!”