A team of teenage engineers from New Iberia has earned international recognition for a robot they designed and built largely from scratch, winning a first-place innovation award at a championship that drew hundreds of teams from around the world.
The Circuit Breakers, part of the Iberia Parish Robotics program, earned the first-place Innovate Award in the Franklin Division at the 2026 FIRST Championship in Houston. The competition featured 336 teams, with the award recognizing original robot design.
"It was amazing," said 17-year-old Ayden O'Connor, the team's lead programmer. "We were not expecting to win an award, or at least not a first-place award."
The team's accomplishment was particularly notable because students designed and fabricated nearly every component of their robot rather than relying primarily on standard parts.
For O'Connor, a high school senior who began competing in robotics at age 7, the experience has helped turn a childhood interest into plans for a career in engineering.
"I've fallen in love with being able to make your own thing, whether it's writing a program or designing a part," he said. "All the different aspects of building a robot come together in that you're making something as a team is unique."
Building robots and careers
Iberia Parish Robotics is a student-driven program for ages 12 to 18 that teaches participants to design, manufacture, program and test robots for competition.
Each September, teams receive a new challenge and spend months developing robots capable of completing specific tasks.
During the 2025-26 season, the challenge was DECODE, a FIRST Tech Challenge game that required robots to collect and sort colored objects and arrange them in designated patterns.
As lead programmer, O'Connor helps write the computer code that controls how the team's robot responds to commands and information, translating those inputs into movements and actions during competition.
The work requires students to combine mechanical design, manufacturing and programming while solving problems together.
"Robotics gives you that thrill of sports because of the cheering but also teaches them to use their mind and not just their bodies," said Kevin O'Connor, Ayden's father and the program's coach. "It gives them practical skills that they can use in the real world."
The program fields two teams: the Circuit Breakers, its varsity team, and the Spark Plugs, its junior varsity team.
While the Circuit Breakers competed at the international championship in Houston, the Spark Plugs earned an opportunity to compete at the Cowtown FIRST Tech Challenge Premier Event in Texas, gaining experience against teams from other regions.
A program built from the ground up
Kevin O'Connor established Iberia Parish Robotics in 2023 through Louisiana 4-H, the ĢĒŠÄ“«Ć½ AgCenter's statewide youth development program.
His involvement in robotics began years earlier, when Ayden competed in FIRST LEGO League as a young child.
After the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted in-person activities and the family moved from Lafayette to New Iberia, O'Connor began looking for opportunities for students to continue participating in more advanced robotics competitions.
An opportunity emerged through his daughter's involvement in 4-H.
"My daughter was in 4-H because she rides horses, and I started talking with them. They didn't have a program, so I volunteered to go get one going for them, and we've been growing ever since," he said.
Since then, the program has expanded to two competitive teams, with students taking responsibility for much of the work involved in running them.
In addition to building and programming robots, participants present their projects to competition judges, contact businesses for sponsorships and help mentor younger students.
The teams also conduct school demonstrations and host a summer camp to introduce children to robotics and other science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.
"I have a passion for teaching, and I believe that if we want to improve our community, it has to originate from the kids," Kevin O'Connor said.
Looking toward the future
For Ayden O'Connor, robotics has also provided opportunities to explore what a career in engineering might look like.
Through business tours and projects with local companies, students gain exposure to different engineering specialties and the work professionals do.
"There's a lot of different ways to be an engineer," he said. "Getting to go in and see the reality of what that looks like helps you pick what you want to be so much better."
O'Connor, who has accumulated more than 50 college credits while still in high school, plans to attend the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to study engineering. He hopes to eventually earn a master's degree and start an engineering-related business.
"I've always had a passion for engineering as well as working with people," he said. "That's why the team dynamic's been so amazing to me."
Meanwhile, Iberia Parish Robotics is preparing to bring students, businesses and technical professionals together at its upcoming Innovation on the Bayou robotics tournament and innovation fair.
The event is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 20, 2027, at Westgate High School in New Iberia. Organizers hope it will help connect young people interested in robotics with local businesses, community organizations and potential mentors.
As Ayden prepares to graduate, he plans to remain involved in the program as a mentor, helping younger students develop the same skills and confidence he has gained through years of competition.
"We like to call this the one sport where everyone can go pro," he said. "There really is no limit to how much you can do or where that end stop is."