ABC’s BattleBots pits a horde of 250-pound robots against each other in gear-grinding, fire-spewing combat, but Lisa Winter brings her ladybug doppelganger, Mega Tento, to the match. Created with the help of a Tormach PCNC 1100, Winter’s cutesy robot of doom is more than meets the eye, but this fierce competitor’s story started more than a decade ago.

Here at Tormach, we love getting involved in education and giving students a chance to get hands-on experience with real tools. That’s why we spent last weekend at the FIRST Robotics Regional Competition, in Milwaukee, WI, cheering on kids who built robots to compete for a place at the national event. Also during the event, the State of Wisconsin signed a new law that commits $250k in general purpose revenue to grants to help high-school teams participate in robotics events, like FIRST.

In case you missed it, the old TV show that pitted highly-engineered machines against one another in a ring of metal-mangling death has returned – BattleBots. Robotics are one of the first elements of science and technology that comes to mind when discussing STEM and its benefits – and what better way to discuss robotics than to have the machines fight to destruction?

FIRST Robotics is a quickly-growing STEM initiative, founded by Dean Kamen, that pits kids against each other in robotic contests while promoting a fine combination of cooperation and competition. Teenagers stew over various engineering issues, component failures, and efficiency quotas all while coordinating their teams like a start-up engineering business – in essence, this is one of the truest forms of STEM education out there.

If you remember BattleBots from television a few years back, you'll love the work that Chris Yost, Technology and Engineering Instructor at Cochranton HS, in Cochranton, PA, is doing.