NFPA Announces Robotics Scholarship Winner

The National Fluid Power Association recently announced Matthew Morley of Sunnyvale, California, as the winner of the 2020 NFPA Robotics Challenge Scholarship.

Matthew will use the scholarship to pursue a mechanical engineering degree at Northeastern University in Boston. The program had received 87 applications from students who built their robots using pneumatics.

The scholarship program helps build awareness of fluid power benefits and careers among high school students. It awards $40,000 ($10,000 per year for four years) to a high school senior who participates in a FIRST Robotics or National Robotics League Competition Team and uses fluid power in the competition robot.

“Participating in my school’s FIRST Robotics team, 5940 BREAD, opened my eyes to the possibilities of engineering,” Matthew said. “I joined the team in my freshman year when it was in its second year and relished the open-ended real-world engineering problems that we had to solve. I rose to technical captain my junior year. My participation in the team gave me an outlet for my engineering passions as I developed my mechanical design, fabrication, programming, and leadership skills.”

Judging the contest were Bob Hammond of Deltrol Fluid Products, Frank Langro of Festo, Bill Haley of FORCE America, Tom Peterson of Husco, Olia Mladenova of HYDAC, Travis Schmidt of HydraForce, Jim Kaas of Iowa Fluid Power, Bradlee Dittmer and Charles Werdehoff of IMI Precision, Tom Blansett of the International Fluid Power Society, Jeff McCarthy of SunSource, and Andrew Kleitsch.

For more information or to be a judge for next year’s scholarship, email lbeyer@nfpa.com, call (414) 778-3364, or visit www.NFPA.com.