DENSO, the world’s second largest mobility supplier, served as a lead sponsor of the 20th Robofest World Championship, held May 16-18 at Lawrence Technological University (LTU) in Southfield, Michigan. DENSO says it has always been committed to shaping the advanced mobility industry by getting young students – and future leaders in the automotive industry – interested in highly skilled careers in science, technology, engineering and advanced manufacturing. Because of this, DENSO has sponsored the event since 2005 and has been a lead platinum sponsor since 2015. 

As part of DENSO’s involvement, it worked closely with LTU to involve Southfield Public Schools for the first time in Robofest events throughout the year. This allowed public school students around DENSO’s North American headquarters to get hands-on, STEM-related experience and gain engineering and programming skills that could lead to future careers. 

Specifically, Southfield’s MacArthur K-8 University Academy hosted a Robofest competition on April 6, and one of its teams, The People, is competing in the qualifying competition at LTU this weekend.  

“Robofest takes a unique approach to introducing kids to STEM, encouraging them to solve important social issues through autonomous technology,” said Melissa Smith, community affairs lead at DENSO International America Inc. “At DENSO, we understand our involvement is critical in helping identify future talent – skilled trade workers, engineers and industry leaders – who are passionate about working with advanced technologies, improving society through mobility and building safer communities where they work and live.”

Robofest was created in 1999 and has had more than 25,000 domestic and international students compete in its events. This year, 600 students from 261 teams participated in the RoboParade, a parade of autonomous robotic floats, the Unknown Mission Challenge (UMC), where robots performed various tasks that were revealed the day of the event, and much more.