Red Arrow Robotics hold first summer camp

Coach Neil Shaffer shows an interested elementary school student what the smaller 18-inch by 18-inch middle school competition robots look like. Photo by Justin Tiemeyer

By Justin Tiemeyer - Contributing writer

This summer, Lowell’s robotics team is holding its first annual Summer Boot Camp. Bryan Forney is the head coach for Red Arrow Robotics. “We wanted to do something over the summer to recruit kids and get them in the program,” Forney said.

Rising sixth graders, or students transitioning from fifth grade to sixth grade at the conclusion of summer vacation, are welcome to attend the Summer Boot Camp, where they will learn how to design, build, program, and drive robots.

The high school robotics team (Team 3234), who just concluded their season on Sunday, March 30, 2025 following the FIRST Robotics Kentwood event at East Kentwood High School, creates huge, industrial-lawnmower-sized robotic beasts.

The summer camp, on the other hand, will focus on smaller, 18-inch by 18-inch machines, the kind that the middle school teams (Teams 21353, 23597, and 21599) will compete with in the fall. The upcoming season is titled First Age, and it has an archaeology theme.

“We know the names of the games,” Forney said, “but we won’ t know the actual rules for the game until the first Saturday in September.”

In other words, Summer Boot Camp is not an opportunity to get a head start on the competition, not directly at least. That said, students participating in the event will certainly learn the fundamentals of robotics needed to compete.

Summer Boot Camp is a week-long camp, and students can sign up for one of two sessions, either Monday, July 14 through Friday, July 18, 2025 or Monday, July 21 through Friday, July 25, 2025, running from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Each session has a 24-participant capacity, and attendees will meet at the Red Arrow Robotics Build Space, at Lowell Light & Power’s facility at 127 North Broadway, every day save for Friday afternoon when the robots compete at the Runciman building.

Forney will be there all day, every day for the entirety of the two-week summer camp season, and he will be joined by a number of other mentors, who will drop in when they have time off from work. Many of the high school team members will work as camp counselors, and a couple of the middle schoolers may be there as well.

The class is using a curriculum from Red Robotics designed as a semester-long middle school or high school class, which comes with a guide to shorten the program and introduce the basics over a shorter timeline.

All of this is possible thanks to a $15,000 grant from the Lowell Cable Television (LCTV) Endowment Fund, which will cover the building materials, equipment, storage, and funds to set up a need-based scholarship. The cost of attendance is $75, which includes five lunches and a camp t-shirt, but Forney does not want people to miss out on this opportunity just because they do not have the funds.

When The Ledger asked Forney his plan for the future of Red Arrow Robotics, Forney said, “We’re growing down.”

The program began with the high school team, and about three years ago they added middle school teams. The summer camp extends the school’s offerings to an even younger group as well, and Forney hopes to join the FIRST LEGO elementary school league soon. “We’re not quite there yet,” he explained.

Most students, who participate with Red Arrow Robotics, are just doing it because it is fun, but many have used the opportunity as the first steps toward a career. Forney’s son, William, for example, just graduated from Michigan Tech with a bachelor’s degree in robotics. One student earned a $20,000 scholarship to Grand Valley State University, and another completed an aerospace engineering degree from the University of Michigan.

“The team is about evenly split between kids who like to engineer and build and kids who like to run programs and code,” Forney said. “I would just encourage kids that are at all interested to give it a shot.”

When The Ledger spoke with Forney, a quarter of the 48 spots for the Red Arrow Robotics Summer Boot Camp had already been filled, and participants are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Those interested can fill out a registration form on the Red Arrow Robotics Summer Boot Camp home page at https://www.lowellrobotics.org/2025-summer-camp. Anyone interested in a scholarship can contact Forney at bforney@lowellrobotics.org.